Iran will make their World Cup debut against England on Monday (15:00, LiveBlog on HotNews.ro) and national team captain Ehsan Haisafi spoke about the situation in his country (recently there has been a lot of unrest).

Players of the Iranian national football team with protesters in their country

Before the match with England, Ehsan Haisafi openly spoke at a press conference about the less pleasant situation in his country, where there are violent riots and where many people have already died.

According to the BBC and CNN, Ehsan Haisafi supports the protesters and says, among other things, that the situation in Iran needs to change because people are unhappy.

“First of all, I would like to express my condolences to all the families of the victims in Iran.

They should know that we are with them and support them. And that we agree with them about the conditions in the country. We cannot deny the fact that the conditions are bad in my country and the players know it.

We are here, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be their voice or that we shouldn’t respect them. You have to fight, play as well as possible and score goals. And I hope that conditions will change according to people’s expectations” – Ehsan Haisafiat the press conference, quoted by News.ro.

More than 400 protesters have been killed in Iran recently and nearly 17,000 others have been arrested as demonstrations have been put down in a bloody fashion.

Iranian leaders call the protests “riots” organized by the country’s external enemies.

Iran is in Group B at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar along with England, USA and Wales.

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