The Iran national football team refused to sing their national anthem before their FIFA World Cup 2022 opener against England at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
The team did not sing the anthem in support of the Anti-Government protests taking place back in Iran. Iran's captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh spoke about the same ahead of their match and said that the team would collectively decide whether or not to sing the anthem before the game against England.
"Every single player has a different celebration and you ask about the national anthem and that's something that also has to be decided in the team, which we already talked about," Jahanbakhsh said.
"But we never made a big deal out of it, to be honest, because everybody is only thinking about football." he further added.
The protests in Iran have been going on for 2 months now since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody on September 16. The 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died three days after her arrest in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's dress code for women, which includes the mandatory hijab headscarf.
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