{"id":439296,"date":"2026-01-26T21:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439296\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T21:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:14:10","slug":"iran-football-great-ali-karimi-leads-call-for-infantino-to-speak-up-on-protest-deaths-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439296\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran football great Ali Karimi leads call for Infantino to speak up on protest deaths | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of prominent Iranians with links to football have called on Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino, to condemn the killing and arrest of footballers in Iran<\/a> and the threats made against players in the country.<\/p>\n

The demand was made in open letter also addressed to the presidents of Fifa\u2019s more than 200 national associations. Among its 20 signatories are Ali Karimi, who played 127 times for Iran, and three other former full internationals. The list also includes a football coach, a referee and sports journalists.<\/p>\n

The letter says a \u201cnationwide, popular, and civic movement\u201d has been met by the Iranian authorities with \u201csystematic repression, mass killings, and actions that constitute clear instances of crimes against humanity and war crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among thousands killed in protests this month<\/a> \u2013 the letter refers to information and reports that put the death toll at more than 18,000, though other estimates are even higher \u2013 were what the letter describes as \u201ca significant number of members of the football community\u201d. It names among them Mojtaba Tarshiz, a former top-division player, who left behind two young children.<\/p>\n

Other victims listed include Saba Rashtian, a women\u2019s football assistant referee, the youth coach Mehdi Lavasani, the footballers Amirhossein Mohammadzadeh and Ribin Moradi, and Mohammad Hajipour, a goalkeeper for Iran\u2019s national beach soccer team.<\/p>\n

The letter also raises concern over the fate of Amirhassan Ghaderzadeh, a 19-year-old footballer with Sepahan Isfahan, whose family has reportedly been informed that he faces an imminent risk of execution owing to his participation in protests. His case was condemned by the US state department last week after being highlighted by Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n

Signatories of the letter, who include a second player picked for the World Cup by Iran in Bakhtiar Rahmani, say a nationwide shutdown of internet and telephone communications<\/a> has made it difficult to verify deaths and arrests. They say several members of the football community have been arrested upon entering Iran for expressing their opinions, and have had their passports confiscated.<\/p>\n

Addressing Infantino, the letter says: \u201cFootball, as the most influential social phenomenon in the world, cannot and must not remain silent in the face of executions, killings, arbitrary arrests, and threats against athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group call on Fifa and the national football federations to publicly condemn those actions, demand an immediate halt, use all available legal and disciplinary mechanisms to protect Iranian football figures and \u201caffirm that peaceful protest and the expression of personal opinions are fundamental human rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter concludes: \u201cSilence in the face of these crimes amounts to abandoning the very principles that global football claims to defend.\u201d Fifa has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

From left to right: Saba Rashtian, Amirhossein Mohammadzadeh, Ribin Moradi, Mehdi Lavasani, Mojtaba Tarshiz. Photograph: Voices of Iran<\/p>\n

Karimi has become one of the most prominent sporting voices supporting Iran\u2019s protest movement<\/a>. In 2022, he accused authorities in Iran of trying to kidnap him and claimed his family had been threatened after he publicly supported anti-government protests. Karimi, who played for Bayern Munich, moved to the US in 2023 after Iranian security forces briefly seized his family home.<\/p>\n

Karimi told the Guardian that Iranians had paid \u201cheavy prices, such as their lives and their freedom\u201d for basic rights over decades and that his aim was to ensure the international community hears about the crimes being committed.<\/p>\n

A protester wears a T-shirt emblazoned with Ali Karimi\u2019s name during a demonstration in Germany in 2022. Photograph: Zuma Press Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always considered myself one of the people,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that our country is going through one of its most sensitive and sorrowful periods, the least I can do is be the voice of my people.\u201d Karimi said the protesters were \u201cmore hopeful than ever\u201d and that \u201cfreedom and democracy through the ballot box\u201d were what they wanted. \u201cWe witnessed the mass killing of people, the real numbers of which are far higher than the figures that are announced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has been told of at least 22 athletes from other sports, including basketball, rock climbing, wrestling and taekwondo, who have been killed for taking part in the protests. Massoud Zatparvar, a two-time World Classic Bodybuilding champion, was killed during protests in the city of Rasht in Gilan province in northwestern Iran. \u201cWe only want our rights, the voice that has been stifled for 40 years must be shouted out,\u201d he wrote in his last Instagram post on an account since deleted.<\/p>\n

It is understood Iranian authorities are using CCTV footage from shops to compile evidence against those who took part in the protests. The deaths of prominent athletes are often given widespread coverage in the state-run media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll they try to do is to create fear,\u201d said one source in Iran who did not want to be named. \u201cThey want to say: \u2018This is what we do to the athletes, this is what we do to the celebrities, this is what we do to the biggest names. What do you think we can do to you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of prominent Iranians with links to football have called on Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino, to condemn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-439296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}