Following the Iran women's national soccer team's third group-stage match of the 2026 Women's Asian Cup, five members of the team have reportedly defected and are now in protective Australian police custody. The defections come on the heels of a turbulent week for the team following the joint U.S.-Israel military offensive against Iran, which killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, and which has killed over 1,300 civilians in the country. Though the national team had left for Australia for the tournament prior to airstrikes, the war has been felt half a world away.
In the pregame routine ahead of the team's first tournament match against South Korea on March 2, the Lionesses stood silently while the Iranian national anthem played, a longstanding gesture by Iranian athletes usually interpreted as a form of protest against the regime. The gesture was condemned by the state back at home: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting personality Mohammad Reza Shahbazi called the team "traitors during wartime" during a broadcast and said that they must be dealt with "more severely" due to the timing of the anthem protest, just 48 hours after the death of Khamenei.
Shahbazi's threatening message, coming as it did from the state television apparatus, as well as the general unrest in the country during the continued American and Israeli attacks, appeared to have affected the players. For the team's second and third games of the group stage, against Australia and the Philippines, the players sang the anthem while raising their hands in a military salute:
After the match against the Philippines, a crowd surrounded the Iranian team bus as it was preparing to depart from the team's Gold Coast hotel to the airport, chanting "Save our girls!" and "Let them go!" Like many of the Iran fans during the games, some of the people surrounding the team bus were carrying the pre–Islamic Republic imperial flag of Iran, a symbol of opposition to the current government. Police intervened and no one was injured, according to ABC News in Australia.
Following the incident at the hotel, Iran manager Marziyeh Jafari said that "we want to come back to Iran as soon as we can," though the team remains in Australia as of press time. Now, it appears as if the team will not return in its entirety, since five members of the squad have defected reportedly in a safe house operated by Australian Federal Police. The removal of the players from the hotel on Monday evening local time followed emergency talks regarding their safety, which involved the Australian government, the Asian Football Confederation, and FIFA. According to human rights activist Minoo Ghamari, who spoke with the Sydney Morning Herald, the five defectors intend to seek asylum in Australia. FIFPRO, the global soccer players union, released a statement in support of the team on Monday. Beau Busch, the union's president for Asia and Oceania, said the union had not been able to contact the players directly.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who instigated this entire situation with attacks that included the bombing of a school that killed dozens of Iranian schoolgirls, attempted to pressure Australia on Monday to take the players in and prevent them from returning to Iran, where he says they will be killed. Trump added that "the U.S. will take them if you won't."
