After the January 2026 massacres, the Iranian diaspora is turning international stadiums into a tribunal against the regime’s propaganda.
In some of the world’s most oppressive political systems throughout history, football has occasionally managed to preserve the boundary between the nation and the state. In those instances, citizens could fiercely oppose their rulers while still rallying behind their football team as a sacred symbol of collective national identity.
However, the situation in Iran today is fundamentally different from those historical precedents. To understand why a vast segment of Iranian society has turned its back on the current team, one must look beyond standard political failure and examine the true nature of the ruling regime and its absolute weaponization of sports.
Beyond a dysfunctional state: Understanding the occupying force
The Islamic Republic is not merely a dysfunctional or deeply flawed political system. The regime’s actions over the past decades have led a massive portion of the population to view it not as a legitimate government, but as an occupying force: an entity inherently hostile to the national identity, history, and cultural survival of the Iranian nation.
When a state actively wages war against the core pillars of a country’s heritage, any institution operating under its direct banner loses its national legitimacy.
This cultural warfare is most visibly manifested in national symbols. The Lion and Sun banner is Iran’s historical flag, deeply rooted in the country’s ancient heritage and predating the Pahlavi monarchy.
The Islamic Republic systematically eradicated this ancient emblem, replacing the historic flag with its own ideological symbol; an emblem that is deeply despised by the vast majority of the nation today as a reminder of ruthless state oppression. In such a deeply polarized environment, a team stepping onto the pitch under this ideological flag can no longer claim to represent the soul of the nation.
Sports in totalitarian regimes: Power and propaganda
In totalitarian systems, such as Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran, sports are never just about recreation, fair play, or athletic competition. In these structures, athletes and teams do not represent the diverse will of the people; instead, they serve as vital cogs in the state’s propaganda machine, designed strictly to project government power.
Athletic achievements, whether at the Olympics or the World Cup, are never celebrated by the state as individual triumphs or structural developments. Instead, they are aggressively hijacked as proof of the regime’s efficiency and ideological legitimacy. Totalitarian regimes weaponize sports to achieve three primary objectives:
● Strengthening domestic legitimacy: Athletic victories are directly credited to the supreme leadership and loyalty to the state ideology, manufacturing a false sense of domestic stability and national unity.
● Projecting international power: Major global sporting events are used as a stage to showcase the regime’s order, organization, and resilience to the international community.
● Controlling the narrative and masking atrocities: The regime exploits the raw emotional high of sports as a massive distraction tool, using it to censor domestic crises, ongoing state crackdowns, and the genuine demands of the populace.
<br><strong>The “river of blood” and the January 2026 massacres</strong>
The final blow to the team’s national legitimacy was struck not in the stadiums, but on the streets of Iran. Following a catastrophic wave of state violence, a literal and figurative “river of blood” now flows between the Iranian people and the regime, along with any symbol associated with it. The devastating toll of the January 2026 massacres, which left thousands of protesters dead, executed, or severely injured, deeply traumatized a society mourning its slain youth.
Cheering for a team that represents the oppressor is no longer a matter of sports preference; it is seen as a betrayal of the victims. The state’s attempts to use football pitches to wash away the stains of its atrocities have fundamentally failed. The deep emotional and historical chasm created by this mass violence means that any entity refusing to stand with the people automatically positions itself on the other side of this bloody divide.
The football team: An extension of the state’s apparatus
For the Islamic Republic, the football team and its presence on global stages like the World Cup serve the exact same function as the notorious state-run television (IRIB). It operates as a loud propaganda megaphone designed to normalize an abnormal situation, projecting a false image of joy and normalcy from a society that is actually suffocating under extreme security and economic oppression.
When a sports team fails or refuses to draw a clear line between itself and the atrocities committed by the ruling regime, its identity inevitably shifts from the “National Team of Iran” to the “Team of the Islamic Republic.”
Millions of Iranians no longer see these players as representatives of the real, historical Iran. Instead, they see them as an extension of the very system that threatens their national existence.
The diaspora strikes back: Feb 14 and the reclaiming of stadiums
The Iranian nation’s refusal to allow sports to be weaponized as a “blood-washing” tool was put on grand display during the historic Global Day of Action on February 14, 2026. In a staggering show of solidarity, over one million Iranians rallied worldwide, anchored by a massive 350,000-strong march through the streets of Los Angeles.
Waving a sea of historical Lion and Sun flags and echoing national chants, the diaspora sent an unmistakable message to the international community: the regime does not speak for the people.
This reclamation of national identity extends directly into sporting arenas. By flooding international stadiums with the historical Lion and Sun flag, national symbols, and anti-regime slogans, Iranian fans will actively disrupt the Islamic Republic’s propaganda machinery.
They are turning the regime’s intended stage for legitimacy into a loud, visual tribunal for its crimes, ensuring that the blood of those killed in January 2026 cannot be hidden behind a football match.
The writer is an Iranian journalist and the former editor-in-chief of ManotoTV.