Moorpark, California —
The crest is red, white and green – the colors of the Iranian flag. Nader Adeli, the 65-year-old captain of Arya Football Club, holds up the jersey and laughs: “We are Iranian! We are Aryan, alright?”
All 11 Arya FC players on the field are Iranian or Iranian American.
It is a Wednesday evening in Moorpark, in the San Fernando Valley, and a friendly game against another local recreational league team is about to kick off.
Less than 50 miles away at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, renamed Los Angeles stadium for the duration of the World Cup, Iran’s national team on Monday will play their first match under unprecedented circumstances.
For the first time in World Cup history, a host nation is at war with one of its participants, though an agreement to halt the conflict suddenly looks promising. Visa delays, immigration restrictions, and travel bans have made the logistics and the optics of Team Iran’s participation confusing, to say the least.
As the first match day approaches for Iran, Arya FC players find themselves at the crossroads of cultural identity, sports and politics.
Take the jersey.
“You’ve probably heard of the dilemma between the Allah in the middle and the sun and lion,” Adeli said. He wanted the design to acknowledge the team’s all-Iranian heritage, but without getting into the controversy of which flag to use.
Iran’s official flag features the Islamic emblem in its middle white stripe and the phrase “ Allahu’ Akbar”, Arabic for “God is great” written across multiple times in white.
“This is not my flag. To me, that’s a terrorist organization, period,” said Ramin Ghashghaei, 61, an Arya FC defender and immigration attorney.
His opinion is shared by many Iranians in the United States. They prefer a historic flag used for centuries, until the 1979 revolution, that is now associated with groups opposing Iran’s Islamic government: the Sun and Lion flag, in which a golden lion holding up a curved sword takes the place of the Islamic emblem in the center.
But football’s governing body FIFA has a stadium code of conduct prohibits “banners, flags, apparel and other paraphernalia that are of a political, offensive and/or discriminatory nature” from World Cup venues. It has pointed to that policy when asked whether fans would be permitted to bring the Lion and Sun flag into stadiums, upsetting Iranian fans and the wider diaspora – so much so that a protest is planned to take place outside the stadium during Iran’s first game.
But the flag controversy is just one of the issues that divide the community of Iranians abroad.
Following the airstrikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February 2026, crowds took to the streets in the Persian neighborhood of Westwood, also known as “Tehrangeles”, to celebrate his demise. They chanted “Thank you, President Trump” and “Thank you, Bibi Netanyahu” while flying Sun and Lion flags.
But others cautioned that US strikes did not guarantee regime change, expressed skepticism that the human cost of a war would be worth it and questioned Trump’s motivations.
After more than 100 days of war, the World Cup has re-ignited these debates, even after the US and Iran said they have reached an agreement that will take effect on Friday. Trump said the US is lifting its naval blockade on Iranian ports, and that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen after the agreement is signed. The full text has not yet been released.
To some, the Islamic Republic’s political grip on the sport runs too deep to ignore. Ghashghaei, the Arya FC player, plans to boycott the tournament – which only takes place once every four years – entirely.
“I love soccer — soccer is inherently in the Persian culture,” he said. “We talk about it in family gatherings, elders, youngsters, women and men in the stadium cheering, going at each other. That’s beautiful.”
But he won’t be watching Team Melli .
“That is not an Iranian national team in my opinion. In Iran, everything is about who you know, who you buy, political ideology. Do you support the Islamic Republic or you don’t? If you do, then maybe you get a priority to be in the team. That’s just a political move.”
Arya FC captain Adeli echoes his teammate’s sentiments on Iran’s team selection but his heart remains with the national squad nonetheless.
Omeed Askary, a 26-year-old Iranian American attorney in New York, drew a parallel with the US team, who he will also be cheering on.
“I’m an American. I want American athletes to do really well. Does that mean I support President Trump, his administration, ICE, even the American military’s operations? Of course not. I still want my team to do well,” he said.
“Iran is a theocratic dictatorship,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not really good football players, that they don’t speak my language, eat my food, share my culture. And a win for Iran far precedes the foundation of the Islamic Republic and will far outlast its rule over the country.”
Askary had a…
Read the full article at Egypt Independent →
EG