For around 24 hours.
The US Men's team displayed posts and twitter banner of the squads matches.
But the Iranian flag bearing only it's green white and red stripes.
Then last night those images were removed and the emblem is back on the flag.
A spokesperson for the US Soccer federation explained the modified flag
was meant to show support for women's rights as protests chic Iran.
>> Iran and the United States are set to play against each other during
the World Cup this week and there's already been quite a bit of controversy
leading up to the game Now the United States hasn't played Iran since 1998 and
Iran actually did win last time.
But aside from the match the upcoming match I think it's worth discussing
what the United States did the US Soccer Federation did with altering
the flag of Iran and how Iran responded to it.
And it's part of this endless growing tension between the two countries.
This is more than just a soccer match.
This is about geopolitical relationships and
the ongoing conflict between these two countries.
Now Iran is demanding that the that the United States get booted from
the World Cup after the US Soccer Federation changed Iran's flag on
social media platforms to show support for the protesters in Iran.
The federation had temporarily displayed Iran's national flag on
its official twitter instagram and
facebook accounts without the emblem of the Islamic Republic.
A now deleted graphic of the group B standings posted on saturday
displayed the Iranian flag only bearing its green white and
red colors, as you guys saw in the video earlier.
Now, US soccer has said that it just wanted to change the official flag for
24 hours to make a point that they support the protesters in Iran and
after that they would change it back which they did.
But I can also understand the outrage that Iran might feel over this.
Just consider what the United States would feel if Iran did the same thing in
altering the us flag.
Now US Soccer says quote the change was a one time graphic.
We have the main flag on our website and other places and
I do want to go to the USA soccer team reacting to this form of protest.
Let's watch.
>> The intent of the post was to show support for women's rights.
It was meant to be a moment.
We made the post at the time.
All the other representations of the flag remain consistent and
will continue to support women's rights.
>> We always have, we always will that that message will will remain consistent.
And what we're doing as a team is supporting that while also trying to
prepare for the biggest game that the squad has has had to date.
>> And it is the biggest game for the US team because the US team
must win in order to advance to the next I guess round of matches.
So Jenk, what do you think about this?
Because on one hand when it comes to these sporting events, whether it's the olympics
or the World Cup, there's always been some form of protest, some form of political
commentary by the athletes and it's been kind of important for them to speak out.
On the other hand though, I do kind of feel like antagonizing
Iran in this context isn't really helping the situation much.
>> You've got a problem there, anna which is that you're doing nuance,
which people don't like.
>> So I don't actually have a problem?
>> You actually just blame one side or another and keep it simple.
>> I was like wait what problem?
You know because like- >> So here, let me explain.
So I loved it when Iran's team show solidarity with the protest
by not singing the Iranian national anthem on their first game.
See that is a powerful message to the people of Iran were actually on your side,
not on your oppressor side.
When we do a gimmick, like taking the, you know,
the logo off of the Iranian flag, it presents a couple of problems.
One, it makes our side needlessly political.
Number two, it makes it look like America's meddling in their own internal
affairs, which is not helpful.
It's counterproductive, right?
And number three,
some people might take offense at the fact that it's removing something Islamic.
I don't think that's the intent at all, okay?
But but people are going to find a reason to find offense at things like
that, right?
And then it puts it takes us off the moral high ground.
And then Iran gets to say America should get kicked out when in
reality this bracket here is a really fascinating bracket,
both in terms of soccer and geo politics, right?
This is what I'm calling the revolution bracket.
Okay, because you've got America against England.
Well that was, we did a revolution against them by the way, Wales is also in there.
So you could throw England and Wales together for great Britain in America and
great Britain helped to do a coup and
a revolution in Iran which led to a counter revolution.
And now we're in the third round of that potential revolution because of what
we started in America and England against Iran.
So each of these games, I mean the America us, the England thing is not as loaded
obviously anymore now that we're very strong allies, but each of these games has
a really interesting historical and political backstory to it, but
the one that's most obvious is the one that's coming up tomorrow.
So not only do you have these current day machinations with the Iranian
government protesting a little too much here and
what they're trying to reason why counterproductive for
us to do it is because it gives the Ayatollah in Iran away to say, you were
all fighting against the americans and especially if they're about to play a very
emotional game where both teams, basically World Cup is online, right?
It's basically an elimination match, a de facto one.
So the Iranians are gonna be really pumped up against America and
this allows the oppressive government to go.
You see how America disrespects us and what they did to our flag and
it becomes counterproductive when we're trying to get the Iranian side to be
with the protesters and and support a democratic revolts, let's say in in Iran.
>> And well this isn't necessarily directly related to the unrest and
protests that are taking place in Iran.
The United States also lacks moral high ground in regard to its
geopolitical conflict with Iran.
Considering we're the ones who pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal under the trump
administration, Iran was following all of the rules that went along with that Iran
nuclear deal and we were ensuring that they weren't developing nuclear weapons
trump pulls out and
then immediately implements all of these crippling economic sanctions on Iran.
So that's all to say that while the United States and certainly the US.
State Department likes to position itself as you know,
the group that has the moral high ground here.
In reality if they genuinely have concern about the people being brutalized
in Iran the lives of women in Iran, they should probably consider the impact
of those sanctions on the people of Iran, especially during the pandemic
where obviously they needed resources to keep people safe and alive.
So anyway that's a little bit of a side track.
But I think it's important to bring it up in this context.
With that said though, maybe we should take tomorrow off to watch the match.
I really do want to watch the match.
And I'm not really a sports person.
So no no, no, I'm going to find a way to keep it on the second screen.
Okay, so listen guys, last things on this, you know,
in sports now, common lingo is revenge match.
So when tom brady plays the patriots, it's a revenge match.
Revenge match.
There's a revenge match in all directions because we can consider a revenge match
for the hostages.
They could consider it a revenge match for Soleimani.
Remember we killed their top military leader.
Yeah.
And but by the way, you know, half of Iran probably cares about that.
The other half was like whatever, right?
Because they're revolting against their own government that Soleimani was
a part of.
But but and that's right.
The real, I mean this is you'll never see in the news, but the real revenge match,
part of it for Iran is the sanctions that has been brutalizing the country.
And and by the way that we America are completely wrong about.
But and then last notice on the soccer itself, the US Team for
the first time ever in history in my opinion.
And the opinion of a lot of others is an exciting team.
It's a young exciting team that is not stale and boring and
plotting as all the other american teams have been and they almost beat England.
And so on the other hand, Iran's a young exciting team.
So it's kind of a revolution within soccer.
No, I'm serious.
This time around.
There's a lot more parody throughout the world before.
The bigger teams would just dominate and steamroll.
But this year everybody's meeting everybody.
Japan's beating Germany Saudi Arabia's meeting Argentina and
brazil beating Serbia.
>> Could you believe it?
>> Yeah, that one's a little bit more believable.
And then Iran beating whales to nothing after we lost the whales.
So after I'm sorry, after the US tied whales and so it's, it's topsy
turvy in both in football as the rest of the world calls it and in politics.
So, I mean the whole world should be watching tomorrow and
and both sides are like I said, playing for their lives in the World Cup and
one of them will advance to round of 16 and be an exciting team.
So pretty much everything's on the line in this match