What was your relationship like with the Iranian national team during the recent World Cup? I know the two things are separate, but were there any kind of internal conflicts that you had for cheering them on? Or do you feel like it's difficult to separate the team and the regime? Wow.

See, that's a huge question.

And if this was during the World Cup, we'd probably do a whole podcast about it because it was such a divisive thing, even amongst Iranians.

I've always loved the Iranian football team.

I remember four years ago during the Mahsa Amini revolution, the Iranian football team, they blacked out their profiles.

They showed support for the people and they didn't sing the national Iranian anthem.

the islamic regime national anthem before the game against england i don't know if you remember that so everyone thought wow this is a team on the side of the people and then they were made to sing the national anthem and when they beat wales i was extremely happy and then they played america and they lost so um this time around it was different because it was basically the same players and a lot of the younger players coming through were stopped from making them because they're all asked to pledge their allegiance they're all said will you speak for the regime so a lot of the players like Mehdi Tarimi, like all these people who work in the West, were seen to be making, and we know they're being forced to make, pledge allegiance to the regime.

Was he as wild or was he a sense of humour? I imagine they say everybody's got a sense of humour, but did he just play the part?

It's terrifying.

Yes, and we saw in the Guardian newspaper, the thing about academics who were putting out this thing about where they stand against Israel and Trump, but they also stand with the prisoners of conscience in Iran.

I thought, should I say something? And I thought, no, they're all going to rip each other to pieces.

And actually they did.

People were saying, oh, how can you do that? You should be only, forget about the Iranians, only talk about Trump and Israel.

I had a journalist tell me that you need to prioritize hatred for Trump and Israel over whatever happens to the people of Iran.

And I just said to him, you know what? If you've got nothing good to say about the people of Iran, you just need to keep quiet.

So I'm hopeful.

When you look at the circumstances of what happened, how do you reflect on that era? Is there a tiny, just the teensiest element of taint to any of it?

No, not at all.

And the fact that it's Maurizio Pochettino, someone who lost all credibility in this whole issue when he readily accepted Balogun's red card that was rescinded at the World Cup when he was manager of the United States, just because Donald Trump had a word with Gianni Infantino.

And he said, yeah, this is great.

We've got a chance to win now.

And I'm sorry, it's someone who was a Chelsea manager as well.

That kind of lack of loyalty, you can only think that he's doing it to get some kind of attention.

yeah.

Do you feel let down?

We feel not just let down, but we're outrageously, uh, let down, disappointed, and actually offended because the people of Iran who took to the streets, of which the number of people have been killed, which by the way, we put at thirty-six thousand, Donald Trump said thirty-two thousand.

Those people who t- who protested did not protest for a better nuclear deal, they protested to get rid of this regime.

And the fact they're even negotiating with them, we would like to think it's all a sham.

We'd like to think that when you, when you look at the, uh, United Nations norm, R, R2P, Responsibility to Protect, it's something that came in two thousand and five, where if a country is killing its own people...

And by the way, what's happening in Iran is not a genocide, because they're attacking the majority of the people.

This is an extermination of human beings who are protesting because it goes against their own Islamic laws, that to kill someone is bad, even worse, it's sedition.

Is that what you think is going on?

Why? Why?

Because we have a regime that funds terrorism, uh, and this is something that people who are listening need to hear this very, very clearly.

And all the people who are saying, "Oh, but Iran stands up to Israel," bear in mind, there was a football match, and you- we- we're big football fans, and after October 7th, there was a football match between two of the big rivals, uh, in, in Iran, and, and a regime person came on and was waving a Palestinian flag.

The football fans of Iran started singing, "Shove that Palestinian flag up your backside."

Mm

... minister for security.

Uh, he seems to have intelligence that the regime are actually over.

These are the final death pangs of a regime.

What's it been like watching this from afar as a British Iranian?

Well, you know, there are a lot of Iranians right now who are all sleep debri- deprived.

[laughs] We're all on our phones, we're on the Telegram channels, we're on the Instagram channels, we're on Instagram Lives with, uh, Iranian television networks, trying to get as much information as we can.

When I first saw this unfold, it started off as the bazaaris peop- which means people who own bazaars.

And the, w- we're very well aware the economy is crashing, the Iranian economy is crashing.

This is a regime that spends so much money.

Uh, they've got millions and trillions of dollars, but they, some cities don't even have clean water, electricity.

[laughs]

First of all, what, what is the latest you're hearing about the wave of protests not just in Tehran but across the country?

country?I mean, it's, uh, what's, what's unfolding is absolutely incredible.

I was up til 2:30 in the morning last night.

The video after video after video s- they're showing things that normally if these things happen on the street, you'd g- you would get shot in the face for immediately.

For example, bringing down the main flag in the, in Iran's second city, Mashhad.

I suppose, well, the Ir- the Islamic regime flag was pulled down.

The statue of Qasem Soleimani, who was a, an IR- IRGC, uh, leader was burned and, and, and brought down.

But it does seem to me that this is pretty important in terms of the geopolitics, not just of the Middle East, but of the world.