Team Melli was long seen as a unifying force in a fractious nation. As it heads to the World Cup, it has become ensnared in its country’s internal politics.
Iran’s national soccer team has historically been viewed as a representative of the country’s people, not of the Islamic Republic’s government.
Team Melli, as the squad is known, has been embraced as an apolitical force, and as a secular passion that reflected a certain ideal, the Iran of everyone’s imagination.