Milan, 31 March (LaPresse/AP) – On Tuesday, ahead of their World Cup warm-up friendly against Costa Rica, the players and officials of the Iranian national football team posed with photographs of children believed to have been killed in US and Israeli air strikes. There were no spectators at the stadium in Antalya, but FIFA President Gianni Infantino was in attendance. The Iranian players, alongside coach Amir Ghalenoei, Iranian Football Federation vice-president Mehdi Mohammad Nabi and other members of the coaching staff, held the photographs aloft whilst singing the national anthem. Iran won the match 5-0. The players’ gesture came after they had, on Friday, prior to another friendly against Nigeria, displayed small school bags in memory of the victims of the deadly missile strike on a primary school in southern Iran. More than 165 people, most of them children, were killed in the attack on 28 February, which was likely launched by the United States.
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