FIFA threatened with U.S. lawsuit over World Cup ban on pre-revolutionary Iran flag

FIFA intends to ban the pre-revolutionary Iran flag from World Cup stadiums Albert Perez/Getty Images

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FIFA has been threatened with legal action by a non-profit group who want the World Cup organizer to reverse its current policy of prohibiting the pre-revolutionary Iran flag from venues during the soccer tournament in North America this summer.

The Institute for Voices of Liberty has sent a letter expressing concerns to FIFA, via its legal counsel Shahrokh Mokhtarzadeh, who told The Athletic via email that, dependant on FIFA’s response, or non-response, “a decision will be made to commence formal proceedings in Superior Court, State of California or Federal Courts in California on a later date.”

The legal counsel for the group told The Athletic on Saturday afternoon that they had not received any response from FIFA, as of three days after sending the letter to soccer’s governing body. They added: “We are preparing to commence appropriate legal proceedings in case of attempts by FIFA to exclude the Lion and Sun flag.”

Last week, The Athletic reported, via sources with direct knowledge of FIFA’s planning for the tournament, that FIFA’s official guidance for venues will be to prohibit the flag during the World Cup.

Furthermore, when The Athletic formally asked FIFA if the pre-revolutionary flag would be permitted, FIFA replied by sending its list of prohibited items from its stadium code of conduct. This includes “any materials, including but not limited to banners, flags, fliers, apparel and other paraphernalia, that are of a political, offensive and/or discriminatory nature, containing wording, symbols or any other attributes aimed at discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group on account of race, skin colour, ethnicity, national or social origin, gender identity and expression, disability, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, birth, wealth or any other status, sexual orientation or on any other grounds.”

FIFA did not explicitly state which criteria the pre-revolutionary flag would breach, but the presumption is that it would be deemed “political” in nature.

Here, The Athletic explains why the flag is significant, what FIFA have had to say on the matter and why it has provoked a far-reaching backlash in the United States and broader Iranian diaspora over the past week.

What is the pre-revolutionary Iran flag and why is it a sensitive matter?

The pre-revolutionary Iran flag is similar in color to the official national flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both share red, white and green bands, but the pre-revolutionary flag also has a lion and the sun in the middle of its white band, while the official flag instead has an Islamic symbol and phrasing.

The flag was changed following the Iranian revolution in 1979, when the Islamic Republic emblem was placed onto the flag and affirmed the shift away from a monarchy to a theocratic government. The lion and sun, viewed as symbols of the previous Shah-led regime, were removed.

However, the pre-revolutionary flag has continued to be used by those in the Iranian diaspora as a symbol of identity and protest. In January, a protester scaled the balcony of the Iranian embassy in London, pulling down the official national flag and brandishing the pre-revolution lion and sun flag.

At the same time, though, FIFA have another interest to consider. The Iranian Football Federation has previously issued FIFA with a list of demands in order to assure its attendance at the World Cup, which included “respect for the Iranian flag”.

How has FIFA addressed this matter previously?

At the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, many Iranian fans brought the country’s pre-revolutionary flag to venues for the team’s games against England, Wales and the United States in the group stage of the competition.

However, upon arriving at the venues, some fans found they were not permitted to enter the stadium with either the flag, or visible messaging which was critical of the Iranian regime.

The time around the Qatar World Cup was politically charged for Iranians. Anti-regime protests took place across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini a couple of months before the 2022 tournament. She died after being picked up by Iran’s ‘morality police’, a force employed by the state to enforce Islamic dress code, as she left a subway station after being accused of not covering her hair properly.

More broadly, FIFA’s position appears to be that official member association flags are permitted but rival politically-coded flags are prohibited. That is why, for example, FIFA’s official position is that fans can take the Palestine flag into their venues this summer. The difference between this and the pre-revolutionary Iran flag, from a FIFA perspective, is that the Palestine national flag is the officially approved flag of a member association of FIFA, and therefore it should only be removed from fans in the event it is deemed to represent a very serious security risk. It remains to be seen, however, how all such flags are actually dealt with by security teams at the venues.

Where are Iran playing during the World Cup in 2026 and what is the political backdrop?

Iran will play two group stage games at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles and one at Lumen Field in Seattle. The U.S. west coast is home to a large Iranian diaspora and its opening match at SoFi against New Zealand has sold well, according to figures seen by The Athletic, with over 50,000 tickets sold by April 10. This is likely due to the strength of the Iranian diaspora in the region, which has even been affectionately coined “Tehrangeles”.

Iran’s participation in the World Cup has been in question since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, leading to the death of Iranian leaders and triggering a wider conflict in the Middle East. Iran requested for its games to be relocated to Mexico, who share the hosting rights for the tournament with the U.S. and Mexico, but FIFA opposed this.

In March, the U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not care if Iran play at the World Cup. He told Politico: “I really don’t care [if Iran participates]…I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes.”

Iranian representatives were also absent for a World Cup planning meeting in Atlanta in March, which involved all other participating soccer federations, while Iranian soccer federation officials also missed the FIFA Congress in April after at least one, the president Mehdi Taj, was turned away by Canadian authorities while connecting at Toronto en route to Vancouver. Taj is an official with alleged ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian regime’s military and security outfit that is designated as a terrorist entity by the U.S. and Canada.

FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom held a meeting with Taj last week in Turkey, which the FIFA official described to Reuters as “excellent”, adding that FIFA “is looking very much forward to welcoming them in the World Cup.”

What has the response been since The Athletic revealed FIFA’s position on the pre-revolutionary flag?

FIFA themselves have not pushed back on the reporting at all and declined to comment for this story. Within the Iranian diaspora, however, there has been fury, encapsulated by the letter sent by the Institute for Voices of Liberty on May 20, within 48 hours of the story being reported.

The letter demands the retraction and ceasing of enforcement of “any rule, policy, practice, or restriction prohibiting display of Flags, including the Pre-Revolutionary Iranian ‘Lion and Sun’ Flag, at FIFA World Cup 2026 events held in the United States and California”.

The letter goes on to say: “California and the United States of America are not Qatar and do not allow such restraint of free speech on their soil. Any such policy, rule, directive, practice, or enforcement action within the United States and particularly within the State of California would raise grave constitutional, statutory, and public-policy concerns.”

It continues: “The display of flags constitutes core symbolic and political speech protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 2 of the California Constitution. The pre-revolutionary Iranian flag is widely recognized as a symbol of political identity, opposition to the current Iranian regime, and support for democratic and secular principles among members of the Iranian diaspora and others.

“A policy permitting the official flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran while prohibiting the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination and selective suppression of political expression.”

The letter also sets out that several FIFA venues, both in California and across the U.S., are either publicly owned, publicly financed or operated in coordination with governmental entities and law-enforcement agencies. As such, it sets out that FIFA, stadium operators, host committees, security teams and others could be at risk of state action if they participate in “excluding spectators or confiscating flags based upon political viewpoints” during the World Cup.

The letter therefore demands that FIFA “confirm in writing that spectators attending FIFA World Cup events in the United States and California will not be prohibited from displaying flags or symbols based upon political viewpoint or ideological content.”

It also asks that all stadium operators, security contractors, volunteers, local organizing committees, and governmental partners ensure that peaceful political expression and lawful symbolic speech are not suppressed.

The letter finally requests that FIFA preserves all communications, agreements, emails and records relating to the matter that it may have had concerning flag restrictions, Iranian political symbolism, stadium security enforcement and spectator screening policies, while adding that FIFA should also preserve its communications with the Iranian Football Federation or Iranian government representatives.

The letter closes by saying if FIFA fails to provide written assurances, then the group will proceed to pursue “all available legal remedies in California state and federal courts.”

The Institute for Voices of Liberty describes itself as a non-partisan organization, which includes those of both a Republican and Democrat persuasion, saying that it is a “diverse group of professionals dedicated to reflecting the voices of freedom seeking people of Iran.”

Its advisory council includes Joshua Charles, formerly an advisor to former U.S. vice-President Mike Pence, as well as Stuart E. Eizenstat, a former policy advisor to President Jimmy Carter. The advisory council also includes Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor who has previously represented O.J. Simpson, President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.

What has been the broader response to FIFA’s position on the pre-revolutionary flag?

Iranian regime social media accounts, who have used AI and memes to generate virality in the social media battle for supremacy against Trump, have sought to capitalize on the story. The Iran embassy in South Africa posted a tweet of a flag of a soccer ball, which featured the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying: “The flag you will see at FIFA”.

The Iranian embassy in Zimbabwe also posted similarly.

The planned policy has triggered a particularly strong response by conservative-leaning media.

An opinion piece published in both the New York Post and California Post called on President Trump to “make clear that no entity operating on American soil — least of all one touting the demands of a hostile foreign regime — will confiscate the flags of American citizens”. The headline of the piece described a prohibition of the flag as an “insult to America — and a gift to the Mullahs.” The Post’s social media tweet promoting the article was retweeted over 1,900 times.

The author Lisa Daftari, a foreign policy analyst based in California, wrote that to many Iranians, “the Lion and Sun represents freedom, hope, a future and a celebrated past”.

Writing in The Spectator, Atbin Moayedi, a British-Swedish-Iranian venture capitalist, said that FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino “needs a history lesson”. He wrote: “I’ll be carrying my Lion and Sun flag to Iran’s opening game — and intend to wave it proudly. To ban the Lion and Sun flag is not to prevent a political symbol from being displayed; it is to deny a long-suffering, and once-again, abandoned people their rights; it is to hide their identity and to silence their voice”.

FIFA’s position has also attracted a response from politicians, such as Darya Safai, an Iranian-born Belgian politician, who is a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.

Safai wrote on X: “To those around the world: understand the current regime’s flag the same way you understand other ideological symbols throughout history, such as the communist hammer and sickle that replaced the national flags of occupied nations. Ideological regimes often replace the historical identity of a people with symbols of their ruling doctrine.

“FIFA has no right to erase the real national symbol of the Iranian people from stadiums and international competitions.

“A nation’s history, identity, and voice cannot be banned.”

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