Abbas Kiarostami, the late Iranian director, made a film called Life, and Nothing More …, set during the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The film tells the story of a father and son who, during the tournament, travel to an earthquake-stricken village that had served as the location for Kiarostami’s earlier films. The son, eager to watch Argentina play Brazil, finds a villager who, despite having lost several family members, is busy adjusting a television antenna to watch the game between the two South American football giants.
Kiarostami later wrote about this scene: “This sequence is directly drawn from a similar experience during my trip to the earthquake‑stricken region in the early days after the disaster. [The man] had his left arm in a cast, was shirtless, and with his right hand was striking one stone against another at the base of the antenna to secure it. I saw that after that event, what mattered there was life – and then football.”
At one time football and the World Cup held such importance for Iranians that they symbolised hope for continuing life.
Qualifying for the 1998 World Cup – after defeating Australia over two legs – was celebrated for years like a national occasion, with special programmes, interviews and repeated broadcasts of match highlights on national television.
Four decades later, football – and specifically the national team – has become one of the most controversial aspects of Iranian life at a critical historical moment; a controversy with roots in politics and Iran’s collective memory.
Iran have missed two World Cups since 1998 and each qualification has been accompanied by street celebrations – except the most recent one. While videos of past qualification celebrations are easily found online, there are virtually no videos on social media of festivities marking qualification for this World up.
A segment of Iranian society began distancing itself from the national team after September 2022, when the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered one of the most intense waves of protests since the Islamic Revolution. These protests became known as the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.
At the time, just before the Qatar World Cup, protesters believed national-team players had not taken a clear stance against the suppression of the demonstrations. Even the players’ act of solidarity before the first match, against England, standing in silence during the national anthem in memory of those killed in the unrest, did not bring protesters closer to the team. From that point, for some Iranians, the national team became “the regime’s team”, and this divide has widened.
Nima, 42, who has lived outside Iran for years, says: “Iran’s national team has gone from being a team that represented the people during the war with Iraq or the 1998 World Cup, to a team that now promotes the regime. That’s why I no longer care what results they get.”
Economic pressure, declining purchasing power and the shadow of war (which had not yet happened) contributed to football’s importance for Iranians falling to its lowest level in decades. There is a stark contrast to the atmosphere around the 2014 World Cup, when even a 1–0 loss to Argentina in the second group game led to hopeful street celebrations. During the 2018 World Cup the team’s matches were shown on the big screens at Azadi Stadium and received a great response.
Arya, 38, says: “I’ve never seen the World Cup feel this unimportant and lacking in excitement for me. Part of it is due to war-related issues, economic conditions and all the hardships of the past year. On top of that, there’s been a growing gap between the national team and the people in recent years.
“I don’t necessarily blame the players; maybe society expects too much from footballers. But one thing is clear: this current generation of the Iranian national team has never been able to build a proper, direct connection with the people.”
Before the Qatar World Cup, parts of the opposition tried to put pressure on Fifa through letters aimed at preventing Iran from participating – efforts unlikely to succeed given Fifa’s policies. This time, after the United States – one of the three 2026 World Cup hosts – carried out attacks on Iran, especially a second wave that began on 28 February and lasted 40 days, Iran’s prospects of participating became more uncertain and public attention on football and the national team declined significantly.
Even before that, the Iranian domestic league had been operating under unusual conditions that affected public interest. After January protests that led to thousands of deaths (according to government figures, more than 3,000, while opposition sources estimate up to 40,000), the Iranian Premier League was held behind closed doors, and most players refrained from celebrating after scoring.
Ali Moghani, a sports journalist and Iran national TV presenter, believes signs of declining interest in football were visible from the start of this season in August. “Even though it was the season before the World Cup, this year’s league felt less exciting,” he says. “It seemed like everyone was just going through the motions. There’s also hardly any debate about the World Cup squad. The bigger reason is that football is no longer a priority in Iranian society.”
The status of the national team is being discussed outside Iran too by opposition media outlets in a way that is having an impact inside the country.
Iran International, regarded as supportive of Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former Shah and broadcasting from London, has repeatedly portrayed the players over the past four years as regime-aligned.
Pejman Rahbar, editor-in-chief of Varzesh3, the most visited sports website in Iran, believes part of the public’s disengagement stems from foreign-based media. “It seems there has been a lot of negative framing against the national team,” he says, “especially by Persian-language media outside the country and particularly Iran International, aimed at undermining national team players. They are deserving athletes but it has to some extent succeeded in turning public opinion against them.”
Rahbar believes that once international internet access – cut off for nearly three months owing to the war – is restored in Iran, interest in the World Cup will increase, though he is uncertain about attitudes toward the team. “If we look at data, such as website traffic, it seems that with the return of internet access and social media, the World Cup atmosphere in Iran will become lively again,” he says. “There is no doubt about that. But whether that sense of attachment to the national team will be like before, I’m not sure.”
What is clear is that this national team face a much harder task in bringing people into the streets than previous teams did. Perhaps only a breakthrough – such as advancing from the group stage for the first time or reaching the last 16 – could make football, as Kiarostami once saw it, once again a symbol of hope for Iranians.
