Tijuana
\nIn a Tehran neighbourhood dotted with shops selling football jerseys and sporting goods, 10-year-old Helma was already feeling World Cup fever.
\n\u201cI\u2019m supporting Iran because it\u2019s always the champion!\u201d she said, sporting a bracelet in the green, white and red of the national flag. \u201cThis year, it will be number one out of all the countries!\u201d
\nHolding a shopping bag containing a national team jersey, her mother explained that Helma was set to appear in a video clip supporting Iran\u2019s side, adding: \u201cWe came to buy Team Melli outfits for the shoot.\u201d
\nBut after weeks of war with Israel and the United States \u2014 one of the co-hosts of this year\u2019s tournament \u2014 not to mention persistent economic hardship and stuttering efforts to bring the conflict to a final close, not every Iranian shares the grade-schooler\u2019s excitement.
\nAt a shop in the same district, 17-year-old employee Houman said Portugal jerseys were the bestsellers, with Spain and Brazil also popular.
\n\u201cThis World Cup is different for Iranians,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see the same enthusiasm as past editions.\u201d
\nTeam Melli\u2019s aspirations on the field have been overshadowed by what has been an especially trying year for Iranians. It began with anti-government protests \u2014 described as foreign-backed riots by the government \u2014 that rights groups say were met with a deadly crackdown.
\nThen came the US-Israeli strikes that launched the war, which only worsened an economic crunch defined by hyperinflation and a currency freefall.<\/p>\n
\u2018No excitement at all\u2019
\nShervin, a 42-year-old photographer from Tehran, was among those finding it difficult to get excited about the football.
\n\u201cIn Iran, no one truly cares about football now, just as no one seems to care about the hardship and difficult living conditions of the Iranian people,\u201d he told AFP journalists based in Paris. \u201cIt makes me angry.\u201d
\nIran\u2019s first World Cup match will be played in Los Angeles against New Zealand.
\n\u201cThe situation looks particularly difficult for the national team players, who have to play in a country Iran is in conflict with,\u201d said Mohammad Pahlevan, an 18-year-old high school student wearing an AC Milan jersey.
\nStill, Team Melli \u201cgot lucky\u201d with its draw, he added. \u201cThey can make it out of the group stage this year.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Ali, a self-professed football fanatic from the northern city of Tonekabon, said he wasn\u2019t in the mood this year after decades of fandom.
\n\u201cAs someone who has loved football and followed every World Cup since 1994, it\u2019s heartbreaking to realise that I feel no excitement at all for the upcoming tournament,\u201d the 49-year-old told Paris-based<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tijuana In a Tehran neighbourhood dotted with shops selling football jerseys and sporting goods, 10-year-old Helma was already feeling World Cup fever. \u201cI\u2019m supporting Iran because it\u2019s always the champion!\u201d she said, sporting a bracelet in the green, white and red of the national flag. \u201cThis year, it will be number one out of all …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98741,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98731\/revisions\/98741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}