Iran’s national soccer team surprised many overnight Sunday by holding Belgium to a 0-0 draw, earning its second point at the World Cup and keeping alive its chances of advancing to the next round. Hours later, the team offered another surprise, this time in the form of a written message left in the locker room.
Media outlets affiliated with the regime in Tehran published the contents of the note the players left before departing. According to those reports, the note contained “a special message from the locker room of the Iranian national team, to Iranians and to people around the world.”
Iran fans protest during the match against Belgium
4 View gallery
The message left by Iran’s national team players in the locker room
(From social media)
“From the ancient Persia of thousands of years to the civilized Iran of today, the spirit of Iran remains alive and steadfast,” the note read. “We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor and leave with dignity. Thank you, Los Angeles, for your hospitality, and thank you to every Iranian who gave their heart, voice and soul for Iran throughout these 180 minutes. May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations.”
Iran played its first two matches of the tournament in Los Angeles. Its next game, against Egypt, will be held in Washington.
4 View gallery
‘Thank you for your hospitality’. Iran players celebrate a goal against New Zealand
(Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)
The note also included two hashtags written in red ink: “Minab” and “168.” Iran is competing in the World Cup under the name “Minab 168,” in memory of the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in the city of Minab in southern Iran on the first day of Operation Roaring Lion. According to Iranian reports, 168 people were killed in that strike.
The attack has become a symbol in Iranian regime events and is cited in speeches and statements by senior officials. Iran’s negotiating delegation is also using the same name, and Iranian media on Sunday published photos of matching pins worn by delegation members bearing the word “Minab.” Iranian outlets also circulated a video of parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf holding a video call with the parents of one of the students killed in the strike.
4 View gallery
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the pin during the negotiations
(Photo: Used under Section 27A of the Copyright Law)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote early Monday on X: "From the football pitch to the negotiating table to the battlefield, every step we take as Iranians is part of a larger struggle: defending the honor and dignity of our dear people." Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei shared Araghchi’s post on his own account.
Ghalibaf also posted on X overnight, sharing a dramatic photo from the match against Belgium showing goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand and other Iranian players preventing the ball from entering the goal. “This is how we protect our land,” he wrote. His remarks came as talks with the Americans were underway in Switzerland, several hours before the end of the negotiations was announced.
But despite efforts by regime-linked Iranian media to present support for the national soccer team and support for the regime as the same, opposition outlet Iran International reported a different scene. It published a video on Sunday showing a group of fans booing the anthem of the Islamic Republic before the match and said a group of Iranians entered the Los Angeles stadium with lion-and-sun flags, which served as Iran’s official flag before the 1979 revolution.
The opposition channel also reported that opponents of the Islamic Republic held a protest rally outside the stadium entrance.
One Iranian who attended the match was filmed holding a sign opposing the arrest of former Iranian goalkeeper Rashid Mazaheri, who had published criticism of the regime, and denouncing the killing of Iranian protesters in January.
Iranian state media reported in May that Mazaheri had been arrested in West Azerbaijan province and was being held in Urmia Prison. Authorities claimed he had tried to leave Iran illegally through the country’s western border and bribe border guards.