Matildas midfielder Clare Wheeler has offered her support to Iran’s women’s national team after five players secured asylum in Australia.
It was revealed on Monday that players from Iran’s Asian Cup side had escaped from their team handlers and were under the protection of police in Queensland.
There had been growing calls in the lead up to their escape for the government to assist in protecting the Iran squad, with American president Donald Trump warning Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake” if the women were “forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed”.
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Iranian Society of Queensland vice president Hadi Karimi confirmed the five players’ escape but could not disclose exactly how the group got away.
Karimi hopes more of the players will be able to join them in the coming hours.
9News has since obtained footage that shows the rest of the Iranian women’s team being escorted away by police from the team hotel heading towards the airport.
Dozens of demonstrators could be seen attempting to stop the bus while chanting ‘save our girls’.
It is expected that the team will travel from the Gold Coast to Sydney, where they will then get an international flight out of Australia.
Islamic Republic of Iran pose for a team photo during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. Getty
Ellie Carpenter was one of the first Australian players to share her thoughts on the situation, declaring that she hopes Iran’s female athletes “are OK and safe”.
Wheeler shared a similar message to reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
“My thoughts are with the team and obviously the girls who have decided that they would like to seek asylum,” she said.
“It is obviously a really complex situation. But it is great that football, with the growth of the women’s game, can shed light on these issues.
“At the end of the day, it is paramount that their health and wellbeing is protected.”
Wheeler recognised that the Matildas can not do much more than “trust in the AFC and the government to help protect” the wellbeing and safety of the Iran players.
The five Iranian players who are being protected by police are Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi, Karimi said.
They are said to be in a safe house hunkering down.
Karimi said a group of volunteers would remain at the hotel throughout the night ready to help if any other of the players managed to leave.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also confirmed the government was willing to provide “assistance to other women in the team, noting that this is a very delicate situation. It is up to them.”
The chief of Australia’s soccer players association had on Monday expressed concern for the welfare of Iran’s players after protesters claimed at least one of them made “a sign for help” as the team bus left Gold Coast Stadium on Sunday night after their Asian Cup campaign ended.
More than 50,000 people signed a petition urging the Australian government to step in and help protect the players.
Protestors surround the Iran women’s football team’s bus as it leaves Gold Coast Stadium. Nine
After losing 2-0 to the Philippines on Sunday, the Iran team bus was surrounded by hundreds of protesters who wanted the vehicle to be stopped and for the players to be provided security by police.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a source in the Iranian-Australian community planned to ask the Australian Federal Police to intervene, seeking urgent protection for the women.
Professional Footballers Australia boss Beau Busch said efforts to speak to Iranian players had been in vain.
“The reality at the moment is that we’re unable to get in touch with the players,” Busch told the newspaper.
“That’s incredibly concerning, that’s not a new thing, that’s really been since the repression really dialled up in this – sort of February, January etc.
“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 added that it was a priority to ensure “pressure is applied to make sure that the players are safe, that they have some agency around what happens next, whether they’re able to stay here in Australia or if they do want to return, how we do that safely, and then obviously ensuring that they’re incredibly safe when they get back to Iran”.
Busch’s comments followed several protestors who on Sunday night spoke to media and claimed they saw at least one player make a sign with her hand that means “help”.
“The help sign is, I think, the most concerning,” Ara Rasuli told News Corp.
Another protester visited the police station on the Gold Coast to urge the local authorities to act.
“We have seen videos of them showing this sign, requesting help. We need the police to have a safe conversation with these girls, tell them what rights they have,” one told news cameras.
“If they want to stay here we must help them.”
Atefeh Imani of Islamic Republic of Iran waves to fans in the stand. Getty
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong at the weekend would not promise government help for the players.
“It has been really moving for Australians to see them in Australia and the Matildas swapping jerseys with them was, I think, a very evocative moment,” Wong said.
“It spoke to solidarity and the way in which sport can bring us together.
“We know this regime has brutally murdered many of its own people. We know this regime has brutally oppressed many Iranian women and we stand in solidarity with the men and women of Iran and particularly Iranian women and girls.
“I don’t want to get into commentary about the Iranian women’s team.”
The Iran women’s team was threatened last week after refusing to sing the national anthem before an Asian Cup game.
The spectre of war has hung heavy over the Iran team since the Middle East nation was bombed by America and Israel, before launching retaliatory strikes last week.
Iran fans during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup game. Getty
The attack came as the women’s football team was flying Down Under to compete at the tournament.
Players have avoided speaking about it in the days since, for fear of retribution from the Islamic regime. Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes but the conflict remains ongoing.
On Thursday night Iran’s women’s team took a slightly different approach, saluting while the anthem played. Some players sang.
On Sunday night the players sang, although protesters claim they only did so under threat of violence.
On Friday morning, Iranian state TV presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi issued a threat to the players.
“Let me just say one thing: traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely,” Shahbazi said, according to social media platform X’s translation.
“Anyone who takes a step against the country under war conditions must be dealt with more severely.
“This is no longer just a symbolic protest move or the like. In a war situation, in this state of affairs, where they strike and martyr students and seven-to-eight-year-old girls in schools, where they attack the neonatal ward of a hospital, where they hit stadiums.
“For you to go there and not sing the national anthem; this is the pinnacle of dishonour and lack of patriotism. Both the people and the officials should treat these individuals as wartime traitors, not as if they just had a protest or performed a symbolic act.
“The stigma of dishonour and betrayal must remain on their foreheads, and separately they must be dealt with properly.”
The message is a chilling threat given treason can be punishable by death in Iran.
Islamic Republic of Iran players line up for national anthems prior to the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 match between Islamic Republic of Iran and Australia Matildas at Gold Coast Stadium Getty
Australia’s assistant foreign affairs minister, Matt Thistlethwaite, said: “Any sporting team or member of a sporting team gets no preferential treatment.”
However Haidari said: “We can’t compare the current Iranian situation to other asylum process.”
Outside the Gold Coast stadium on Thursday night, groups of protesters praised America and Israel for killing Khamenei, celebrating the supreme leader’s death.
As the war escalates and the clock runs out for the Iranian team’s time here, Australians are facing their own rush to get out of the Middle East..
About 11,000 citizens in the region have told the government they want to come home.
Now 1700 have returned on flights from the United Arab Emirates and 68 boarded flights out of Qatar to Europe when that airspace started reopening on Saturday.
Another 92 took government buses from the Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
Those in the Saudi city of Riyadh are being given two nights free accommodation – as they try to find a flight out.
– with Alyssa Bone and Kieran Campbell
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