In a hostile and provocative move, the Instagram page of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) removed the “Allah” emblem from the Iranian flag, a move that could have consequences for the US national football team.
Iran’s Football Federation announced on Sunday it had lodged a complaint with the FIFA over the vicious and immoral act by its US counterpart to use a distorted flag of Iran in its social media posts.
The move came just ahead of a decisive World Cup match between Iran and the US on Tuesday (Nov 29, 2022) and was apparently aimed at undermining the social atmosphere and to serve the interests of the Americans, especially once one considers the fact that the move could have political consequences in addition to its impact on the game.
In a statement, the USSF said on Sunday that it had intentionally tampered with the official Iranian flag on its social media account for a period of 24 hours to show solidarity with the social unrest in Iran. Iran has accused the US and certain foreign countries of fanning the flames of unrest in the country.
The Americans have insulted the flag of an independent country. The Twitter account of the US football team also posted a banner of its matches in the group stage of the World Cup with the Iranian flag only bearing its green, white and red colors. The same was seen in a post on the federation’s Facebook account.
The Twitter account of the US men's national football team finally replaced Iran's distorted flag with a correct one after Tehran's strong reaction. However, the Iranian Football Federation sent an email to the FIFA to condemn the move by the Americans while announcing its official protest and demanding the watchdog to issue a serious warning to the US federation and issue possible penalties over the action.
Analysts say the move was clearly a hostile one although it can be claimed that it was politically motivated and can have some political impacts. US President Joe Biden has recently asked the US soccer federation to act freely against so-called hostile countries and in this very case against Iran. Such actions are not solely aimed at Iran because the same has been done in the past in other international sporting events against Japan or Cuba to launch psychological war against those countries.
The Americans took measures in 2022 World Cup in Qatar that proved the level of their hostility toward the Iranian football team and the Iranian people in general. That comes as there was no immediate response from world’s football governing body to the complaint lodged by Iran.
According to the FIFA charter, the US team can be kicked out of the World Cup or face at least a 10-game suspension for the move.
“Any party who offends the dignity and integrity of a country through words or action, shall be sanctioned with a suspension of the membership at least for ten months or for ten matches,” reads part FIFA’s constitution.
It is to be seen whether FIFA would follow up the case via its Moral Committee and respond to the unprofessional move by the USSF, or it will simply ignore it. But as some analysts anticipate, the global football watchdog would unjustly consider the move as an unintentional mistake and would ignore the real intentions behind the move to tamper with the Iranian flag.
No one should await any public condemnation from FIFA, since the USSF will be one of the hosts in the next World Cup edition along with Canada and Mexico. However, we shall never forget such a malicious and politically-motivated move in a sporting event. Such an uncivilized behavior will not go unnoticed in the global public opinion.
“US soccer team members have admitted that they have previously consulted the case with the diplomatic authorities and finally committed the action,” the US-based Time magazine revealed in an article.
That is enough to suggest that the move was a hostile provocation orchestrated by top officials in the US or in FIFA.
Now, it is up to Iran to file a complaint against the US at any international court to sue those involved in the case or to generously ignore the move.
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