{"id":1296,"date":"2026-06-18T05:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2026-06-20T08:49:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T08:49:40","slug":"the-pitch-as-a-battleground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/the-pitch-as-a-battleground\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pitch as a Battleground"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>A Goal Celebration and the Politics of Intimidation. <\/strong>By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel<\/h3>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Iran\u2013New Zealand World Cup opener in Los Angeles was not merely a football match; it was a public stage on which Iran\u2019s political conflict unfolded before the world. The final 2\u20132 scoreline mattered, but it was secondary to the spectacle in the stands, where the stadium became an arena of open confrontation between supporters of the regime and those who reject it.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/the-pitch-as-a-battleground\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Times of Israel<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1300\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1300\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1300 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/threaten-300x172.jpg\" alt=\"The Pitch as a Battleground. A Goal Celebration and the Politics of Intimidation. By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel\" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/threaten-300x172.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/threaten-768x440.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/threaten.jpg 1118w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1300\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Pitch as a Battleground. By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Goal Celebration and the Politics of Intimidation. By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[274,12,32,25,271,277],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-football","tag-iran","tag-irgcterorrists","tag-raghu-kondori","tag-the-times-of-israel","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Pitch as a Battleground - Shahvand think tank<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pitch as a Battleground. 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