Iran-US World Cup fans unimpressed by flag dispute

• Iranian and American football fans in Doha have criticized a US Soccer social media post.
• It displayed a modified Iranian flag.
• The USSF uploaded an image of the Iran flag minus the word “Allah” on Saturday.

Iranian and American football fans in Doha have criticized a US Soccer social media post that displayed a modified Iranian flag.

The USSF uploaded an image of the Iran flag minus the word “Allah” on Saturday.

The Iranian Football Federation protested and demanded sanctions on the U.S. team.

By Sunday afternoon, US Soccer’s Twitter banner featured the usual flag with the symbol, and the edited Facebook and Instagram posts had been removed.

US Soccer said the post showed sympathy with “women in Iran fighting for basic human rights” after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody.

The federation sought to show support for Iranian women for 24 hours.

US team coach Gregg Berhalter apologized Monday and said his staff was unaware of the posts.

“On behalf of the players and staff, we can only apologize, but we weren’t involved,” he said.

Doha fans argued the original posts were in poor taste and added unnecessary heat to the politically charged game. Iran and the US have been geopolitical enemies for four decades.

Gholam, an Iranian fan in Doha who will attend Tuesday’s match, blasted the action and accused the US of “stoking a fire.”

“They [the US] deceive people about Iran. Hypocritical.

Before criticizing others, they should examine their own country. They have daily mass shootings and disregard racism, but these are major issues.

Vicky, a US national in Qatar, said the World Cup has brought people together and raised concerns about the US Soccer postings.

Politics should be kept out of the game, she told Al Jazeera.

Many countries strive to take a viewpoint on problems, but not always correctly. The US shouldn’t tamper with other countries flags.

They’ve met three times. Iran won the 1998 World Cup 2-1.

Gholam said he expected the same result in Tuesday’s march, which is for a spot in the last 16.

“Americans adopted the same techniques before the 1998 game. Success! We’ll repeat tomorrow.”

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