We focused on playing, not political issues: Alireza

Iranian soccer player Alireza Jahanbakhsh said on Friday that the focus of the team at the World Cup in Qatar was resolutely on the competition and not on political issues related to the nationwide protests in his country. Several Iranian sportsmen and women have used international competition to indicate their support for the protests that have rocked the country since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September. Jahanbakhsh said the team would decide among themselves whether they would sing the national anthem before matches but “had never made a big deal out of it”, adding that goal celebrations were a personal matter for each player.