Across Iran, women are leading the charge in massive protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. Morality police, who enforce the use of hijabs in public, arrested the Kurdish native 22-year-old in Tehran on September 16, 2022. Not long after she was taken into custody, she was dead.

What started with the women’s protest in Tehran and Kurdistan has now spread across the country with people taking to the streets, women burning their hijabs, and cutting their hair as a symbol of protest.

These protests have been so effective that celebrities across Iran started joining this massive movement, and that is the biggest nightmare of the clerical regime that has been governed by a known hardliner Ebrahim Raesi who was elected in an orchestrated election. Among the most prominent celebrities to stand with the people is none other than the icon himself, Mohammad Ali Karimi.

Karimi, a household name in Iran and a much-loved figure has been active n social media. The former Persepolis and Bayern Munich player has 12.2m Followers and his voice has been effective, leading the authorities to attempt to arrest him and confiscate his house unlawfully.

The protest does not stop at a former Team Melli icon like Ali Karimi as the current squad has many who sympathize with the people and mourn Mahsa Amini. Sardar Azmoun, the Team Melli current top scorer who plays for Bayer Leverkusen, after the goal celebration against Senegal on Tuesday was one of the saddest witnessed in the history of Team Melli.

Sardar Azmoun, despite the security apparatus ringing Team Melli in the Austrian camp, and everywhere outside Iran for that matter, managed to utter a few words that highlighted his status as a sympathizer for the people against the regime.

The situation gets more complicated if we contemplate that there are players in the squad who are regime agents. This has been a known fact in Team Melli since the 1980s. Some players are recruited by the security apparatus for spying on others and get rewarded for it. Football is not the only game in Team Melli as politics is deep-rooted.

It is clear that Team, Melli is split between three different factions. Dragan Skocic’s case was indicative of these differences with Azmoun and Taremi taking different views on the subject. It is a known fact that Taremi was the instigator and he pushed Jahanbakhsh and Hajsafi to meet the Iranian Minister of Sports while Team Melli was in camp in Doha to demand the removal of Skocic who guided Iran to the World Cup in what looked like Mission Impossible!. The government obliged and pushed for their man Mehdi Taj to be elected as head of the FFIRI with the main agenda item being the return of Queiroz.

No one in his right mind would think that Queiroz got the job on merits. His failure with Egypt and Colombia would relegate him to the third division of the top coach’s league plus the fact that he failed in two World Cups with Iran and two AFC Asian cups. Unknown to him, the Portuguese coach is the main beneficiary in the Iranian politics that could be threatening Team Melli which is ready for combustion in the struggle of the political factions.

These differences are directly related to the status of mass protests in the streets of Iranian cities. If the situation becomes calmer. The Team Melli camp tension will reduce, if things get worst in Iran, then there is a serious risk of disintegration or at least its weakening as a result of the loss of key players.