On November 20, The Men’s World Cup 2022 began for the first time since 2018, and because The World Cup only happens once every four years, it sparked an interest in social media. While the World Cup has only just started, there is conflict brewing between Iran and the U.S. after the US changed the Iran flag icon on a post of who waAs competing on the second day of the world cup. 

On the United States Soccer Federations social media account they posted who would be playing in group b of the world cup of which this post featured the flag icons from each country. The US and Iran were set up to play that Tuesday in group b, the flag icon for Iran though was not featuring their emblem and only featured the red, white, and green stripes. 

Iran media reacted immediately stating that the US should be booted out of the world cup to which the state media agency Tasmin stated that the US should sustain a 10-game suspension due to their removal of the Iranian emblem on the Iranian flag. 

In reply, the US stated that they only intended on changing to the flag for 24 hours in support of the women in Iran who struggle to get even the smallest amount of rights, and that after 24 hours they would change it to the original flag. The flag icon has since been deleted from the post yet this does not dissolve Iran’s concerns.

The coach of US did state that neither he nor the players had any part in this and never knew about it, although the coach apologized for the act anyways. It is unknown whether the US will be facing any consequences in or out of the world cup for their actions, although it should be accounted for that they are getting a good amount of backlash from Iraninan citizens as well as others involved in the World Cup.