BFIFPRO Asia and Oceania Players Association President O Bush on Monday called for Iranian players to “ensure their safety” after they were labeled traitors at home for not singing the Persian national anthem before the match at the Asia Cup in Australia.
“The reality is that we are not communicating with our players at this point, which is very concerning. This is not new. We’ve been seeing this since January and February when the crackdown was ramped up,” Bush said at a press conference Monday.
“We are very concerned about our players and our responsibility at this time is to do everything we can to ensure their safety,” the FIFPRO president said, as reported by Australian public broadcaster ABC.
We are very concerned about our players and it is our responsibility to ensure their safety.
This concern is based on the attitude of the players who did not sing the national anthem during their tournament debut against South Korea last Monday due to the Iran war.
“After the match, Iranian state media publicly criticized the players, calling it an act of wartime treason and demanding that they be treated as traitors,” a petition to the Australian government asking for asylum for the players said.
The petition, which expresses “concerns for the safety and well-being” of female athletes upon their return to the Persian country, has already been signed by more than 68,500 people.
Yes, they sang the national anthem at the next game
The players who sang the national anthem in the second and third games ended their participation in the tournament Sunday night and are scheduled to return home at an unknown date.
Public broadcaster SBS said a group of protesters tried to stop the bus carrying the players as it left the stadium last night, shouting “Save the girls!”.
Mr Bush said the association was working with FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and the Australian government to “apply all pressures” to protect players, whether they remain in Australia or return home. “It’s a really difficult situation,” he said.
Pressure on the Australian government
So far, neither Prime Minister Anthony Albanese nor Immigration Minister Tony Burke have commented on the matter, while Foreign Minister Penny Wong declined to comment directly on the request in an interview with public broadcaster ABC.
Iran’s qualification to the AFC Women’s Asian Cup for the first time since 2002 has been celebrated by gender equality activists, citing the Iranian regime’s oppression of women, particularly the requirement to wear veils in public.
The enforcement was one of the triggers for protests in Iran this year, with the Islamic regime’s certified death toll at 3,117, although human rights groups say it is three times that number.
