President Donald Trump on Monday called on Australia to grant asylum to the Iranian women’s soccer team, amid ongoing political turmoil and military operations in Iran. The team is in Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup, and Trump said that if Australia doesn’t take the players, the U.S. will.
The players “will most likely be killed” if they’re forced to return to Iran, Trump said in a Truth Social post directed to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Women’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran,” Trump said in the post. “Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM.”
Members of the Iranian women’s soccer team — who are expected to be in Australia until the cup ends on March 21 — drew condemnation from Iranian hard-liners after they stood silently while the Iranian national anthem played before their first match, a tournament opener against South Korea held Monday. In recent months, Iran’s security forces have killed thousands of protesters following demonstrations in January that were fueled by the country’s abysmal economy. Among those killed while protesting was 27-year-old Zahra Azadpour, who played for the women’s team.
Though the players did sing the anthem in later matches, Mohammad Reza Shahbazi, a presenter on Iranian state TV, calledthe players “traitors” and demanded that they be punished for displaying “dishonor and betrayal.”
On Monday, Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s ousted former ruler, said in a statement on Xthat the players “are facing intense pressure and ongoing threats from the Islamic Republic following their courageous act of refusing to recite the regime’s anthem, and they may face very serious consequences if they return to Iran.” Pahlavi also urged the Australian government to give the players support.
In a separate post, Pahlavi said amid fears for their safety, five members of the team “have successfully sought refuge in Australia by leaving the team’s training camp.” The Washington Post was not immediately able to confirm this claim. Earlier Monday, CNN Sports reportedthat five members of the squad had left the team’s hotel in Australia and sought Australian police protection.
FIFPRO Asia/Oceania, the continental division of the world players’ union, on Friday demandedthat the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, “urgently engage” with the Iranian football federation and the Australian government to protect the players.
Beau Busch, president of FIFPRO Asia/Oceania, told reporters Monday that the organization has been “unable to get in touch with the players.”
“That’s incredibly concerning,” Busch said. “That’s not a new thing — that’s really been since the repression really dialed up in January and February. So we’re really concerned about the players, but our responsibility right now is to do everything within our power to try and make sure that they’re safe.”
Busch said that there may be players who want to return to Iran, others who would like to seek asylum, and some who may be “incredibly concerned about the potential journey home.”
In a statement to The Post, FIFA said the safety and security of the players “are FIFA’s priority, and we therefore remain in close contact with the AFC and the relevant Australian authorities, including Football Australia, in relation to the team’s situation.”
Spokespeople for the AFC and Football Australia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for further details on whether Trump’s offer to take in the soccer team represented a broader shift in U.S. policy toward Iranians.
Since returning to office last year, the Trump administration has taken a hard line on Iranian asylum seekers and hopeful refugees, and has enacted a travel ban on people holding Iranian passports. As recently as January, the administration had deported Iranian migrants, including some seeking asylum, flying them back to Iran amid the wave of violence that followed anti-government protests there that month.
Similar repatriation flights occurred under an agreement reached last year. The move marked a shift in U.S. policy, which had long considered Iran a “recalcitrant” country that had refused to take back its citizens.
“We are thankful the President is now interested in offering Iranians asylum. We wish it hadn’t come while he was bombing Iranians and after denying them visas, refugee status and deporting Iranians who had sought asylum in recent months,” Ryan Costello, policy director at the nonprofit National Iranian American Council, said in a statement.
It was unclear what the asylum offer might mean for Iran’s men’s soccer team, which had been due to travel to the United States for this summer’s FIFA World Cup before the administration’s new visa policy went into effect.
“I really don’t care” if Iran plays, the president said in an interview with Politicoshortly after the war with Iran started.
On Sunday in Australia, as the Iranian women’s team bus pulled away from a stadium after the players lost their final match of the tournament, video showed supporters crowding the bus and yelling at authorities to “save our girls.”
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