Iranian Soccer Fans Wave Pre-Revolutionary Flag During World Cup Match, Ignoring FIFA Ban

Shiryn Ghermezian

Soccer Football – FIFA World Cup 2026 – Group G – Iran v New Zealand – Los Angeles Stadium, Inglewood, California, US – June 15, 2026, Iran fans celebrate after the match. Photo: REUTERS/Matthew Childs

Fans of the Iranian national soccer team disregarded a FIFA ban by displaying Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, during the country’s World Cup opener against New Zealand on Monday night.

Iran’s official flag before 1979 is red, white, and green, and at the center is the Lion and Sun emblem, which shows a lion holding a sword while standing in front of a sun. The Iranian pre-revolutionary flag was seen throughout the crowd at Monday’s World Cup match, and the Lion and Sun emblem was also displayed on various T-shirts worn by fans in the stands.

FIFA previously said the pre-revolutionary flags would be banned from matches for the 2026 World Cup because they violate the organization’s “stadium code of conduct” rules, which state that “banners, flags, fliers, apparel and, other paraphernalia, that are of a political, offensive and/or discriminatory nature, containing wording, symbols or any other attributes aimed at discrimination of any kind against a country” will not be allowed at World Cup venues. A lawsuit was filed to challenge the prohibition, but at an emergency hearing held in Los Angeles hours before Iran’s match on Monday, a judge upheld FIFA’s ban on the flag, according to The Athletic.

Some Iranian fans turned their backs to the field and booed when Iran’s national anthem was played before kickoff on Monday, while hundreds of Iranian-Americans rallied outside SoFi Stadium to protest the current Iranian regime, an authoritarian, Islamist theocracy which seized power in 1979. Monday’s game between Iran and New Zealand ended with a 2-2 draw.

The Los Angeles area is home to the largest Iranian population in the United States and is nicknamed “Tehrangeles” after the capital of Iran.

The Iranian team landed in the US on Sunday, the day before the match, because of visa complications. Amir Ghalenoei, the coach of Iran’s World Cup team, said they were ordered to leave the US and return to their training base in Tijuana, Mexico, only a few hours after the game ended. He did not specify who ordered the team to leave the country, but they had expected to spend the night in California to recover from their World Cup opening game.

“They didn’t even give us time to recover,” Ghalenoei said through an interpreter, as reported by the Associated Press. “After the game today, they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately.’ It’s very important for us to have time for recovery, [but] we are asked to get on a plane and return to our camp in Tijuana, and we are really troubled by that.”

The coach claimed several players developed cramps during Monday’s match because they did not have time to properly prepare beforehand due to their travel issues.

“The fact they delayed our arrivals and they are forcing us to go back early without time for recovery, they are making the situation more difficult,” he said.

“We don’t know why they are returning us, to be honest,” Ghalenoei added. “I think it’s very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us. The decision-making for us is being made elsewhere. We were supposed to come two nights before the game, and we were supposed to stay tonight to recover and return tomorrow at lunchtime. We have no idea why. I think our team is perhaps the most oppressed in the World Cup.”

Iran still has two World Cup group-stage matches. They will play against Belgium in Inglewood on Sunday, before heading to Seattle to face Egypt next week. After the US and Israel launched its war against Iran on Feb. 28, Iran requested to move its three World Cup matches outside of the US, but FIFA denied their request.