The Iranian Football Federation protested on Sunday that its American counterpart removed the word “Allah” from the Islamic Republic’s flag on social media ahead of the next match between the two countries, the two arch-rivals.
In a politically charged fixture, the Iranian national team will face their American counterparts in their final Group Two match next Tuesday, and their victory will lead to their bid for the final price tag of the FIFA World Cup Finals in Qatar.
Iran has seen more than two months of demonstrations that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict women’s dress code.
“In an unprofessional act, the American Football Association’s Instagram page removed the symbol of God from the Iranian flag,” the official IRNA news agency said. “The Iranian Football Federation has sent an email to FIFA asking to issue a serious warning to the US FA,” she added.
The flag of the Islamic Republic consists of three horizontal bands of red, white and green, with the word “Allah” in stylized lettering in the centre. The word was removed from the flag in two posts on the American Federation’s Instagram and Twitter pages.
“It was a one-off photo to show solidarity with women in Iran,” a US Federation media official said, adding that the flag has not been changed on the Federation’s website.
An NFL spokesperson later told reporters the post had been removed and replaced with one displaying the correct flag, but added, “We still support Iranian women.”
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said on Twitter that the US team “has violated FIFA statutes and its appropriate punishment is a 10-match ban.” She added that the US national team “should be eliminated” from the World Cup.
The United States and Iran severed diplomatic ties in 1980 months after dozens of American students were taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran.
For his part, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that negotiations with the United States would not put an end to the “turmoil” that has rocked the Islamic Republic for the past two months.
When Iran and the United States met in the 1998 World Cup, Iranian players handed their American counterparts white roses, to symbolize peace.
