Good discussion. Here is how I feel about this:

- Does the success or failure of this team hurt the government or help it in any way? I think we all know the answer here. It is a clear no. In fact, I think the government will use the failure as an excuse to shut down football or limit it significantly. It is the only place lots of people get together and disobery in all sort of ways, women in stadiums, no hejAb, or anti government chants.

- Is this a government team or people's team? Well the irony is that everyone (the government and the opposition) all want this team to mix politics with sports. If they do it aligning with the government then some will look at the team as anti people. If they they oppose the government in an open forum way, they will call it mardomi? The problem is that to me none of this defines a national team. A national team is the team of a nation. It is above politics and it always represents the nation, the people of a country, not the government. Even if they bring in a bunch of sepAhies and field them, the moment they take the field, to the world, that will become Team Iran. Trying to cast that team as the government's team will not do anything to the government and only to the image of the nation. No one right now says that Iranian players were booed by their own hamvatan and called bisharaf during the last world cup, except for a few Iranians. The world remembers that day as the day Iran lost to England pretty badly. 6-2. That is the end of the story.

Are the players with the government or with the people? Well, they all have to go through two screens: 1) If they are against the government openly, they wont be on the team. 2) if they are not a big name, are they bribing someone like GN or someone in the government to be on the team. If not, they are gone. So, the expectation that the players will take the field and protest IRI is just crazy and not based in reality of how these players are selected.

The bottom line for me is that I like sports to be above politics. The teams success and failure does not matter to the government but does impact a whole lot of people and the nation's pride. So, I will go and enjoy the games and cheer for my country's team regardless of which way the players think. They still represent my people not the government. Their success or failure only affects the people not the government.