Iran's World Cup football team declined to sing their national anthem before their opening match against England today after many fans back home accused the squad of siding with a violent state crackdown on persistent popular unrest.
Protests demanding the fall of the ruling Shi'ite Muslim theocracy have gripped Iran since the death two months ago of young woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest for flouting the strict Islamic dress code.
Dozens of Iranian public figures, athletes and artists have displayed solidarity with the protesters - but not the national football team, until today's match when all team members remained silent when the national anthem was played.
Iranian state television did not show the players lined up for the anthem before the match got under way in Qatar, just across the Gulf from their homeland.
The Iranian squad could not avoid being overshadowed by the anti-government unrest, while other World Cup teams were squarely focused on their tactics on the pitch.
Ahead of the match, no Iranian player had voiced support for the demonstrations by compatriots from all walks of life, one of the most sustained challenges to the cleric elite since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In the past, the Iranian football team was a source of fired up national pride throughout the country. Now, with mass protests, many would prefer it withdrew from the World Cup.
Before travelling to Doha the team met with hardline Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Photos of the players with Mr Raisi, one of them bowing in front of him, went viral while the street unrest raged on, drawing an outcry on social media.
The activist HRANA news agency said 410 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of Saturday, including 58 minors.
Some 54 members of the security forces had also been killed, HRANA said, with at least 17,251 people arrested. Authorities have not provided an estimate of any wider death count.
Iranians are especially outraged because athletes around the world have been speaking out for the demonstrators in Iran while their football team has remained largely silent.
Some Iranian fans who went to Qatar for the World Cup made no secret of their solidarity with the unrest.
They carried banners that read "Woman, Life, Freedom" in support of the protests. "Freedom for Iran. Stop killing children in the streets!" shouted one Iranian woman.
Another Iranian woman with the colours of an Iranian flag painted on her face said Iran is a football-crazed nation.
"But this year," she said, "everything is different, all we care about is this revolution and for people to get their freedom back, and not be scared to just walk on the street, do and dress as they want, and say what they want."
In the capital Tehran, some banners of the national team have been burned by angry protesters.
