DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Iran’s national football team on Wednesday seemed to have joined the nation-wide protests against the recent presidential election in their World Cup qualifying match against South Korea in Seoul.
Six players, including team captain Ali Karimi, took to the field wearing green armbands or wristbands, a color that is associated with support for defeated reformist candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi, who lost to incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But after halftime the bands were conspicuously absent, allegedly because the head of the Iranian Football Federation Ali Abadi telephoned the delegation in Seoul and demanded the players remove them.
Iranian football supporters wave their national flag against the disputed election result Iranian football fans in the South Korean capital also showed their discontent in the latest protest by Iranians abroad against the results of Friday’s highly contested election.
Before the match, dozens of Iranian staged a protest outside the stadium, unfurling a banner reading “death to the dictator” and chanting “Compatriots, we will be with you to the end with the same heart."
The match on Wednesday ended in a 1-1 draw, putting Iran's qualification for the World Cup next summer in serious doubt. |
