Solidarity with Team Melli: A Football Fan's Emotional Journey Supporting Iran at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The thing about being a football fan whose country isn’t playing in the World Cup is that you can support a foreign team for just about any reason: Your favourite players (Argentina or Portugal), a beautiful playing style (Brazil, Spain), or something personal, like the country where you studied (England), or one you visited and absolutely fell in love with (Mexico, Japan). And then there is politics and solidarity. You either identify with a country’s struggles, or that country’s rival is in the tournament, and in this case, hosting it. Add all that up, and I found my heart beating for Iran at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This is a country on the receiving end of an American-Israeli war of choice that has killed thousands of civilians, including 100-plus children , in an airstrike on a girls’ school in Minab. But solidarity with Team Melli — as the Iranian national team is known — goes beyond the war. Just look at how the players and staff have been treated. The team was told to fly into the US only on the day before each match and to leave for Mexico immediately after. Several coaches, support staff, and officials had their visa applications rejected, and the US revoked Iran’s entire ticket allocation, leaving Iranian fans inside the country unable to attend. Iran has said it will lodge a formal complaint with FIFA, though little can be expected from an organisation that invented a peace prize for the president of the main host country. Further, fans from more than a quarter of the countries taking part are facing travel bans, restrictions and visa rejections. Omar Abdulka Dir Artan, Africa’s referee of the year in 2025 and the man set to become the first Somali to officiate at a World Cup, was turned away at the airport despite holding a valid visa, citing “vetting concerns”. And so, my emotions getting into this World Cup were simple. Iran beating the US in the knockout stage would be too good to ask for; Iran winning the whole thing, almost unimaginable. So expectations were kept realistic: Nothing would be more poetic than Iran simply outlasting the US. The road to heartbreak began as early as the 0-0 draw against Belgium, when the most imaginative free kick of the tournament so far found the net, only to be ruled offside by the VAR (video assistant referee). And when Iran needed just a win against Egypt to advance, they were held to a 1-1 draw after a stoppage-time goal was again disallowed by the VAR for offside, this time for a margin of less than half a foot. By then, it was apparent that the stars were not aligned for Iran. But the math disagreed. Betting markets and sports websites gave them odds north of 90 per cent to still advance as one of the eight best third-placed teams. They needed just one of three results to go their way: Congo not to beat Uzbekistan, Croatia not to beat or draw with Ghana, or Algeria and Austria not to draw. Croatia beat Ghana; no problem, two more results to go. Uzbekistan took the lead against Congo, and all Iran needed was for that to hold. Full-time: Congo 3–1 Uzbekistan. Iran’s odds slid; still, of the three possible outcomes between Algeria and Austria, only a draw would eliminate it. And then came perhaps the most thrilling game of the Cup so far. Algeria came back from behind twice, and after the second half’s hydration break, with the score at 2-2, both teams appeared content to pass the ball and run down the clock because a draw would see them both through. Until Riyad Mahrez scored in stoppage time, sending Iranian hearts — and mine — into pure jubilation. That jubilation lasted less than a hundred seconds. Kalajdzic, who had come on just a minute earlier, headed home the equaliser that was also the last touch of the game. The US had already advanced to the knockout stage long before, so my dream of Iran outlasting them is gone. All I can hope for now is the schadenfreude of watching them lose as they play Bosnia and Herzegovina next. But Iran’s backstory provided the most compelling reason to support a team in years. It is over now, by the thinnest of margins, due to events in matches Iran played and matches entirely beyond its control. Time to find renewed purpose in this World Cup. On to cheering for Cabo Verde, a country whose entire population is a third of my district, Southeast Delhi . The only problem is that, in the Round of 32, they face Argentina — and Lionel Messi. The writer is deputy copy editor, The Indian Express. saptarishi.basak@expressindia.com