FIFA is on the wrong side of history

The FIFA statement has nothing to do with American national security. This declaration is a sign of FIFA’s historical illiteracy and proof that FIFA is not neutral, but has instead embraced the official narrative of the Islamic Republic regime.

FIFA appeared indifferent to the clear message of the Iranian people. It refuses to see that the bond between the nation and the ruling establishment in Iran has been profoundly shattered and torn apart, and that an ocean of blood stands between the Iranian people and the murderous regime ruling Iran. The people of Iran have been massacred and subjected to genocide again and again under this regime, beneath this irrelevant symbol placed upon the Islamic flag. A wounded nation now stands at a moment of rupture.

A patriotic nation will not bow before the symbols and emblems of Shiite clerical rule. The religion and ideology of this theocratic dictatorship may be 1,400 years old, but the history and civilization of Iran stretches back 7,000 years. In 1979, the Iranian nation became homeless in its own land and lost its national identity and pride. Faces and symbols came to dominate Iran that bore no trace of Iranian culture, civilization, or history. A feeling of exile, estrangement, homelessness, and dispossession penetrated the hearts and souls of Iranians. They were deprived not only of freedom, but also of their national dignity.

In 1979, a terrorist, repressive, occupying, and plundering cult shamelessly seized the title deed of Iran in its own name through a destructive ideology — Khomeinism. They were never the choice of the Iranian nation. They regarded the Iranian people as subjects and slaves, and to humiliate them, they replaced the term “Iranian nation” with “the Islamic Ummah of Iran” — meaning merely a component of Islam. These dark-hearted preachers are enemies of national thought and patriotism. They are thirsty for tormenting the people, intoxicated by power and authoritarian rule, merchants of suffering, and traders of ignorance.

And since 1979, the struggle between tyranny and freedom, barbarism and civilization, has continued. The Iranian nation remains determined to preserve the continuity and endurance of its national identity. This is a sign of the intellectual and social transformation of the Iranian people, who demand democracy.

The Lion and Sun is the national symbol of Iran and part of Iran’s ancient mythology. Long before the Arab and Islamic invasion of Iran, the sun symbolized Mithra, while lions appeared on the monuments of the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian empires. Altogether, the Lion and Sun represent the culture and ancient traditions of Iran.

Many writers have written about this. Even the Mongols and Tatars did not assault Iranian traditions — but the Shiite clerics did. Historical documents show that the Lion and Sun appeared on Iranian coins eight centuries ago, and for more than five centuries it has existed on the Iranian flag. Like the Kaveh Banner, it is a historic emblem and a manifestation of national sovereignty. But the Shiite clerics, obsessed with Zulfiqar and bloodshed, turned the emblem on the Islamic Republic’s flag — from Khalkhali to Ejei — into a symbol of sectarianism, executions, and murder. Yet through noise and populist deception, they seek to sanctify it.

Although the world sleeps on — indifferent to the lack of internet access, the suffocating censorship inside Iran, and even to the genocide committed by the Shiite Nazi government that killed around 45,000 people in January 2026 — for Iranians, the Islamic Republic’s flag is the symbol of Islamic terrorism and hateful, blood-soaked Shiite extremism. It is the only flag in the world carrying words written in the language of another nation — Arabic — and an occupying regime in Iran uses it deliberately as an act of hostility against Iran’s civilization, culture, and history.

And today FIFA, within a democratic country, seeks alignment with the Tehran regime. Through naïve illusions and empty fantasies, both wish to erase the historic flag of Iranian civilization. FIFA refuses to see and hear that the flag of this brutal and tyrannical regime is a symbol of murder and terrorism, while the Lion and Sun flag represents the historical continuity of the Iranian people.

But from today onward, the flag of the Islamic Republic will be widely punctured and torn by patriotic Iranian youth and the Iranian nation, because it has become a unified symbol of resistance. This will continue until the overthrow of the regime, throughout the rocky and winding road of regime change in Iran.

Neither FIFA nor the Shiite clerics can create cultural, historical, or civilizational rupture within Iranian society.

In December 1989, the Romanian flag was also torn open and became the symbol of the anti-communist and anti-socialist revolution. Protesters cut, ripped, and punctured the center of the flag to demonstrate opposition to Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, and it became a powerful symbolic act.

Today, in opposition to FIFA’s decision, Iranians are following the same path so that this act may also carry symbolic power in the struggle for freedom and national identity. FIFA cannot erase the Lion and Sun, the symbol of national unity and identity. Courageous and patriotic Iranians will not allow the world to forget, nor permit this disgrace to pass unanswered. They will defend their national identity.

After the fall of the Tehran regime, this punctured flag itself will become a sacred relic and enduring symbol of the courage of the Iranian people. It will be preserved in museums documenting the crimes of the clerics throughout different cities of Iran. The lasting disgrace will belong only to FIFA, which stood on the wrong side of history and sought to appease and satisfy the Shiite clerics.

At FIFA events themselves, Iranians will display the punctured flag of the Islamic Republic to tell the world that the emblem and banner of the Islamic Republic will soon be sent to the graveyard of history — exactly where it belongs.

And FIFA does not understand that the Lion and Sun flag has become the symbol of the struggle and revolution of Iranians who have grown exhausted by religious dictatorship and the Islamic caliphate of the Shiite clerics.