#iranian-football

#iranian-football

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held the draw on Wednesday to determine the quarterfinal pairings, a day after announcing that the western zone playoffs that were postponed because of the war in the Middle East have been rescheduled for April 13-14 in Jeddah.

When times were tense, games were played behind closed doors. The heroes of Melbourne, who came from behind to win a playoff in Australia to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, were told not to come straight home to Tehran as the city celebrated. At that tournament there was more public joy after the famous 2-1 win against USA but Khamenei's statement was not the most sporting.

Manchester City's Mary Fowler made her first start since tearing her ACL almost a year ago, poking the ball into the net in the 26th minute after a deep Caitlin Foord cross was spilled by Iran goalkeeper Maryam Yektaei.

In the face of thousands of killings, leading figures in Iranian sport have been vocal about the need for help and action. Former Iran and Bayern Munich star Ali Karimi signed an open letter to FIFA's President Gianni Infantino, calling on him to "publicly condemn the mass killing of civilians in Iran, including members of the football community." Karimi, along with 20 other signatories that include other former internationals, a coach, a referee and sports journalists, also asks FIFA to act in the face of human rights being violated.

The most serious confirmed damage to date has been to Tehran's Golestan palace, dating back to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon palace in Isfahan. Judging from videos and public statements, neither historic building was hit by a missile directly but the shock wave from nearby blasts and possibly some missile debris, shattered glass and brought down tiles and masonry.

Carrying banners showing the face of the country's slain leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, people on Monday held a new portrait that of his son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei. Other similar scenes on state media showed pledges of loyalty from several cities across the country, with people chanting, Death to America and Death to Israel, as security forces looked on.

The US-Israeli war on Iran is exposing deep divisions among Iranians in the diaspora and in Iran. From inside Iran to the diaspora, Iranians are deeply divided about their country's future. With Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gone and Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah, waiting in the wings, what do conversations about regime change reveal about the spectrum of what Iranians really think?

The Iranian announcer was grieving the loss of a "father," as he put it, while for Alinejad and so many other Iranians in exile and at home, the vaporized ma[n represented something entirely different]. Such torrential downpours, from loyalists and dissenters alike, often follow the deaths of notorious and long-ruling dictators-Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein.