Iran’s national football team awaits retaliation in the Islamic Republic after coming up short in Tuesday’s showdown with the United States, experts told The Post.
Mike Baker, a former CIA covert operations agent, said the Iranian players are stuck in an “unsustainable position” after their much-hyped match against the United States, who beat Iran 1-0 to advance to the knockout round from 16.
“Given what we have seen from the Iranian regime … they have shown themselves to be brutal and there is no reason to believe that they will suddenly become rational,” Baker said.
In their opening game against England last week, Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem in an apparent protest over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was reportedly beaten into police custody for not wearing a hijab in September.
And while Iran’s players sang their national anthem on Tuesday, a win against the US would have eased their earlier offense, Baker said.
“The regime would have used them for its own purposes,” Baker told The Post. “They would have put all their focus on victory, defeating ‘The Great Satan’ or whatever clever phrases they come up with.”
On Monday, CNN reported that families of the Iranian team were threatened with prison and torture if the players did not “behave” before their game against the US. Iranian players were forced to face Iranian Revolutionary Guards after they demonstrated before the game against England, the report said.
Elnaz Rekavi, an Iranian mountain climber, is reportedly under house arrest in her home country for competing abroad in October without a mandatory hijab – seen by many as a gesture of support for Amini. Rekabi, 33, was threatened with the seizure of her family’s property unless she made a “forced apology”, according to reports.
Now the Iranian team could be fined or even arrested in the wake of Tuesday’s defeat as soon as they get home — in retaliation for their disloyalty and their failure to defeat the enemy, Baker said.
“Neither is good if you are an Iranian player when you return home,” he added.
According to Baker, who now serves as CEO at Portman Square Group, a global intelligence firm.
Iran has been rocked by furious anti-government protests since Amini’s death. On Monday, 451 protesters were killed in clashes with authorities, including 64 children. according to the non-profit organization Human Rights Activists in Iran. Iran’s ruling clerics are particularly focused on ending the rampant unrest that has erupted in 157 cities across the country since mid-September.
The Iranian players could potentially defect to other countries, though that’s unlikely because it would be particularly difficult to leave relatives behind, Baker said.
“It’s hard to put ourselves in that position,” he continued. “You put your family and friends at risk if you do that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some players think about it.”
Kenneth R. Timmerman, an author and Iran expert, said the fate of the Iranian players had already been decided ahead of Tuesday’s game, “because they have already committed that sin” of not singing the national anthem.
“I would be afraid of arrest,” Timmerman said. “Even if they had won, they would have been arrested, severely beaten and warned, ‘Never do this again.'”
Fatemeh Aman, a fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said she did not believe the Iranian team faces any sort of retaliation after Tuesday’s loss. That might have been different if one or two players had refused to sing the national anthem ahead of the game in the US, but she believes the team’s unity, all singing together, will protect them.
“You can’t arrest the whole national team at the same time, you can’t do that,” Aman said.
However, if a single player is deemed to be supporting the demonstrations in Iran, his passport could be confiscated or fined, Aman said.
“I think the Iranians feel sorry for them,” Aman said of the national team. “They’re in a very, very difficult position, a very bad position.”
