Demonstrators started assembling ahead of Iran’s opening World Cup fixture against New Zealand, with many saying they intend to make their presence felt during the game.
The group gathered at an intersection roughly a 10-minute walk from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, around six hours before kickoff.
Los Angeles is home to the world’s largest Iranian community outside Iran, earning the nickname “Tehrangeles,” with the population estimated at about 500,000.
Protesters opposing the Iranian regime waved flags and displayed banners reading “No to Shah” and “No to Mullahs,” while calling on FIFA to remove Iran from the tournament.
One demonstrator, who asked not to be identified because they still have family in Iran, told the Daily Mail: “We will be heard all over the world in the stadium when the game kicks off.”
The protester added: “We will not be silenced. We demand an end to the regime, and we will be turning our backs on the players and booing the national anthem.”
‘This is not a team for the Iranian people, this is a team of the government and the regime in Tehran.’
A protester holds a sign with a portrait of the son of the last shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, as people demonstrate against the Iranian regime outside Los Angeles Stadium
A group gathered at an intersection around ten minutes walk from the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles
On one placard, there were images of 25 Iranians, who demonstrators said had been murdered by the rulers in Tehran.
The message read: ‘Honouring fallen athletes in Iran’, adding that ‘FIFA must expel the IRGC controlled Football Federation of Iran.’
Among them was an image of youth champion Erfan Khari, 20, an anti-regime protester who was shot dead during the January uprisings.
Also pictured was Mehdi Ghadimi, 26, a talented footballer who was also shot and killed in January during an uprising in Mazandaran province.
Nasser Shariff, 64, President of the Californian Society for Democracy in Iran, told the Daily Mail: ‘We are here to tell the world that Iranian people in their entirety reject the current regime in Tehran.
‘We are supporting a free and democratic Iran, and we are telling the world people are ready for change in Iran and its real athletes.
‘The team that you see here at this World Cup are backed by a regime that is killing people.’
Mr Shariff, who fled Iran following the revolution which brought the dreaded Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to power, added: ‘Just look at the poster with the faces of all the sports people who have been executed in Iran in the latest uprisings, all young men with their lives ahead of them.
‘So, we need to support the people, FIFA needs to side with Iranian people and not the Iranian regime.
‘The Iranian regime is using the platform of the World Cup to tell the world everything is normal but in reality, it is not.
‘They should treat Iran as they did with South Africa and kick them out of FIFA because of their crimes against humanity.’
The Iranian national team arrived in LA on Sunday – a day before the game and earlier than had been expected after US officials initially said they would have to fly in and out on the match days.
Protesters wave Iranian pre-Revolution flags and hold signs featuring names and photos of athletes they say were killed by the Iranian government
A person holds a sign as they protest against the Iranian regime ahead of the team’s first game against New Zealand
It came just as President Donald Trump declared a peace deal had been struck and the team’s early arrival was seen as a ‘sweetener’ for the regime to allow the time to prepare for the match against New Zealand.
The war has claimed thousands of lives and Iran has fired missiles at neighbours in the Gulf in retaliation. Shipping in the vital Straits of Hormuz had ground to a halt as a result – although it is now reopened to allow oil to flow again.
Protesters in Los Angeles waved the pre 1979 revolution Iranian flag which features a Sun and Lion and which has become a symbol of resistance to the regime.
Another demonstrator said: ‘On their social media the players of the team just trumpet the regime, they do not care about the people, it’s disgusting, they are not representing real Iranians.’
Protesters plan to wave the unofficial flags at the match in the SoFi Stadium which could be problematic for FIFA as coach Amir Ghalenoei has been ordered by officials in Tehran to walk off if that happens.
At their press conference on Sunday FIFA prevented reporters from asking the coach about the plan insisting they ask only about football.
Security is tight for the game with extra police on patrol and US officials who granted visas to most of the squad and staff but not all, say they will be ‘closely monitored’ and the same applies for when they return later for their other group games.
They are due to play Belgium back in Los Angeles and their final game will be in Seattle, with Egypt being the opponents.
And for all games, the team will be travelling straight back to their base camp in Tijuana, over the border in Mexico.
Iran’s allocation of tickets was also revoked before the match but it is thought locals have snapped many up, not to watch the game but to voice their opposition instead and they have been changing hands at almost £2,000.
A short distance from the stadium, in a hotel, rival sets of Iranian fans were checking in – those in favour of the regime and those opposed.
Dr Saba Torabian, 45, who left Iran 26 years ago, and is now a children’s autism specialist in San Jose, California, was proudly wearing the pre-revolutionary flag.
She spoke to the Daily Mail as a group of pro-regime fans stared intently at her and said: ‘It’s going to be pretty chaotic, I anticipate there are going to be true regime people there, who will try and take our national Sun and Lion flag away.
‘Even FIFA have banned us, but we are still going to take our flags in, and I know IRGC people are going to take theirs in, so I can see there being chaos.
‘I’ve seen people here in this hotel with the pro-regime flag but no one will stop me bringing my flag, it has been the flag of our country for 1000s of years.
‘They have banned our flag and let the IRGC one be permitted and they are a terrorist organisation.
‘I heard the coach say that if he sees our flag, he will take the team off, but we don’t care, we want the team to lose, as a matter of fact, we are not there to cheer our team.’
Dr Torabian, who revealed she had paid $3500 for a VIP ticket simply to protest, added: ‘This team is not a representation of the Iranian people it’s a representation of the regime.
‘They have killed more than 50,000 innocent people a few months ago, unarmed protesters, and this regime-backed team, who are playing in the World Cup killed them, so that’s why we want them to lose.
‘Yes, I’ve paid a lot of money just to come and protest but I feel very strongly about this. I know the brutality of this regime, it kills its own citizens, it rapes them, blinds them and they gotta go.’
