Link: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7302070/2026/05/25/world-cup-iran-flag-lawsuit/

The Institute for Voices of Liberty has sent a letter to FIFA outlining its concerns and plans to follow up with legal action

"Keep Politics Out of Sports" merely serves as a way to use sports to enforce status quo politics:

The letter demands the retraction and ceasing of enforcement of “any rule, policy, practice, or restriction prohibiting display of Flags, including the Pre-Revolutionary Iranian ‘Lion and Sun’ Flag, at FIFA World Cup 2026 events held in the United States and California”.

The letter goes on to say: “California and the United States of America are not Qatar and do not allow such restraint of free speech on their soil. Any such policy, rule, directive, practice, or enforcement action within the United States and particularly within the State of California would raise grave constitutional, statutory, and public-policy concerns.”

It continues: “The display of flags constitutes core symbolic and political speech protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 2 of the California Constitution. The pre-revolutionary Iranian flag is widely recognized as a symbol of political identity, opposition to the current Iranian regime, and support for democratic and secular principles among members of the Iranian diaspora and others.

“A policy permitting the official flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran while prohibiting the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination and selective suppression of political expression.”