I love football. I’m a Manchester United season ticket holder who has watched Iran and England at three World Cups: Germany 2006, Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022. This summer I am going on a family holiday to California to visit relatives. Coincidentally, following the group draw in December, two of Iran’s games at this year’s World Cup are played in LA, just an hour north of where most of my US relatives live. Los Angeles and Southern California is home to almost a million people of Iranian descent, the largest population of Iranians outside Iran. The Iranian national football team would in theory be playing against New Zealand and Belgium with a fervent home support. Many Iranians will be there to cheer on their country. But I won’t be joining them. As much as it pains me to say so, I’d be relieved should the national team of the Iranian regime be absent from this year’s World Cup.

It would be an abomination to allow the Iranian regime’s team to compete at the World Cup

It would be an abomination to allow the Iranian regime’s team to compete at the World Cup

In an effort to repair US ties with Giorgia Meloni, after the two fell out over the Pope’s comment on the Iran war, a top envoy to........

© The Spectator