"Nobody likes to see their country under bombing. It's very complicated for our people." That's Ehsan Shafi, 46-year-old Iranian-American businessman — and he still has his tickets for Iran's World Cup opener in Los Angeles.
When Team Melli kick off against New Zealand on June 15 at the very city that houses the world's largest Iranian diaspora, the stands will tell two very different stories. Some fans will be cheering. Others, who would have been there in any other year, will be staying home on principle.
A community split down the middle
Shafi's Arya FC teammate Shawn Rezaei has been to World Cups in Germany, Brazil, Russia and Qatar. This summer, the 59-year-old restaurant executive is boycotting for the first time. "This team is not representing the nation," he said. "They are basically a propaganda proxy for the regime."
That's a sharp line. And it reflects a fracture running through Los Angeles's "Tehrangeles" community — tens of thousands of Iranian-Americans who fled after the 1979 revolution and have used Team Melli as a complicated but persistent thread back to the country they left.
The US-Israeli war with Iran has added a new layer of anguish on top of already raw tensions over Tehran's crackdown on protesters. Some fans who spoke to Reuters did so anonymously — afraid that public criticism of the Iranian government could endanger relatives back home, or that speaking on US foreign policy could have repercussions closer to their own front doors. Safety at the matches themselves is also a concern, with Iran games potentially becoming flashpoints for anti-war protests or immigration enforcement activity.
The Qatar blueprint — and its limits
The players themselves are caught in the same bind. At the 2022 World Cup, Iran's squad refused to sing the national anthem before their opening match — a moment of quiet, globally-watched defiance. Later celebrations were muted. It was widely read as solidarity with anti-government protesters back home, though reports emerged that players and their families faced pressure as a result.
Whether this squad repeats that stance, escalates it, or stays silent entirely will define how the wider diaspora responds to them. Iran also face Belgium on June 21 in LA before travelling to Seattle for a June 26 group game against Egypt — three matches, three opportunities for the story off the pitch to overtake the one on it.
One anonymous fan planning to attend put it plainly: "Who am I to judge the actions of the team when I myself don't want to speak out publicly in case it endangers my family."
That quote says more about this World Cup's stakes than any group-stage preview could.
