Iran and Egypt ask FIFA to cancel World Cup Pride Match celebration

The soccer powers in Iran and Egypt are not too happy that they will be playing in the first-ever FIFA World Cup Pride Match celebrating the LGBTQ community.

When Iran plays against Egypt in Seattle on June 26, the match will be designated by the local organizing committee the first-ever FIFA World Cup Pride Match. In irony of ironies, both Egypt and Iran criminalize homosexuality, and Iran executes people for it.

The date of the match had been set before the World Cup draw, which took place last Friday. When the final schedule came out the next day, these two anti-gay countries had been slated for the match.

Suddenly the Pride Match was an opportunity to highlight some of the most cruel anti-gay laws in the world.

Iran and Egypt don’t like it one bit.

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According to Al Jazeera, the Iranian Football Federation that oversees its national soccer team has taken notice and took to television to condemn the match’s designation.

Related

World Cup Pride Match in Seattle will feature… Egypt and Iran. Say what?
A World Cup match in Seattle has been named the Pride Match. That game now features Egypt and Iran, which imprison gay people.

Why Iran vs. Egypt is the best World Cup Pride Match possible
Iran will play Egypt in Seattle on June 26 for LGBTQ Pride at the World Cup. It’s an opportunity to showcase their horrific anti-gay policies.

From Al Jazeera: “The head of Iran’s Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, was quoted by local news agency ISNA as saying Tehran and Cairo had both raised ‘objections against the issue,’ which he labelled an ‘irrational move that supports a certain group.'”

And as the BBC reported, the Egyptian Football Association sent a letter to FIFA that “categorically rejects holding any activities related to supporting (homosexuality) during the match between the Egyptian national team and Iran.”

Pride events at sporting matches have become common in the United States for the very reason that supporting this “certain group” is necessary because of the environment around men’s sports in particular that has long made LGBTQ people feel unwelcome.

A Pride Match with Iran and Egypt is exactly why these events exist, to ensure people feel welcome in sports. It’s hard to believe a gay player on the national team of either of these countries would have the red carpet rolled out for him.

Depending on the source, somewhere around 12,000 to 15,000 Iranians live in the Seattle area. Fans coming from Iran may be banned from entering the United States.

It’s unclear how much sway FIFA could have over the Seattle local organizing committee’s designation of the match as a “Pride Match.” FIFA has made very clear that it is not in control of the Pride Match designation, that it is entirely run by the local organizing committee, and it is not an official FIFA designation.

For FIFA to now reach out to Seattle and try pressuring the organizing committee to move its Pride Match — or worse, to swap another match for the Iran vs. Egypt matchup — would be an act of cowardice and complacency with laws that imprison and execute people for being gay.

Though it would certainly seem to be on-brand for FIFA, which has courted anti-gay nations like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as hosts and that has been slow to act on anti-gay chants at some matches.

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