The soccer World Cup in Qatar begins on Sunday. Iran is also among the 32 participating nations. Fifa has extended an invitation to soccer legend Ali Daei, but the 53-year-old declines. He prefers to stay with his compatriots who are protesting against his own regime.
Iranian ex-Bundesliga professional Ali Daei says he has declined an invitation from FIFA to the World Cup in Qatar. "In these days when most of us are not doing well, I have declined the official invitation from FIFA and the Qatar Football Association to take my wife and daughters to the World Cup," the 53-year-old wrote on Monday Instagram. "I want to be with you in my country and offer my condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones these days," Daei said. "Hoping for good times for Iran and Iranians."
Tehran-born journalist Golineh Atai tweeted a picture of Daei at night in front of a hospital on Monday afternoon. She wrote: "As if to say: I'm here. My eyes do not miss any injustice." Atai wrote that the political prisoner Hossein Ronaghi was taken to the hospital. "Demonstrators who gathered there were shot at," she said in her tweet.
Daei is a football folk hero in Iran. From 1999 to 2002 he played for Hertha BSC, before that he was also active in Germany with Arminia Bielefeld and FC Bayern Munich. After the nationwide protests broke out in Iran in mid-September, Daei, along with other former soccer professionals such as Ali Karimi and Mehdi Mahdavikia, showed solidarity with the demonstrators. It was initially unclear whether Daei should have been allowed to leave the country at all because of his declarations of solidarity, as was recently reported. Iran will play their first Group B World Cup game next Monday against England.
The violent crackdown by Iranian security forces against the system-critical protests had recently triggered discussions about excluding the Iranian national team from the World Cup. However, many Iranians hope that the football professionals will use the World Cup in the Gulf Emirate of Qatar for solidarity actions. The protests were triggered by the death of the young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16. The Morality Police had arrested her for violating the Islamic dress code.
