The World Cup. Unarguably, the biggest sporting event in the world-to-date. It comes only once every four years and the preparations are so massive it takes three years just to plan and qualify teams. With all the stress already on teams and players, it’s natural for peoples tensions to be at extreme highs. This is taken one step further when politics are mixed in. One small mistake or move and the sparks start flying.

Last week, the United States and Iran were set to play each other in a sink-or-swim match to move on from the group stage. With the past political issues between them and the domestic turmoil occurring in Iran’s homeland, fans were uneasy on how this match-up would result.

On Friday, November 25th, The U.S. National Soccer Team shared a post on social-media of The Group B standings. The post included an Iranian flag without the Islamic Emblem. The Iran state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency called for Team USA’s ban in a Twitter post, saying that “By posting a distorted image of the flag of the Islamic Republic of #Iran on its official account, the #US football team breached the @FIFAcom charter, for which a 10-game suspension is the appropriate penalty.”

The U.S. team intentionally posted the flag without the emblem to show support for the women protesters in Iran. They later stated that it “was a one-time graphic” and that “[they] have the main flag on our website and other places.”

Prior to the World Cup, violent protests were occurring in Iran as a push-back in regard to the death of 22 year-old Mahsa Amini in September. Amini was arrested by Iranian morality police for wearing her hijab wrong and for supporting skinny jeans. Her family reportedly states that she was struck in the head several times. Iran denies these claims and states that she died from an “underlying disease.”

With more games to come, fans are excited and the world is patiently waiting for the winner to be decided. Hopefully tensions wont arise in the events to come.