AL RAYYAN, Qatar, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Iran coach Carlos Queiroz on Monday said he hoped the next World Cup would feature less about politics and more about football, stressing there were better ways to use the sport as a force for good.
Speaking ahead of his team's Group B match on Tuesday against the United States, Queiroz was asked about the U.S. Soccer federation temporarily displaying Iran's national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic, in solidarity with the protest movement.
"I still believe I can win games with those mental games," he told a news conference.
"Those ... events surrounding this World Cup I hope will be a lesson for all of us in the future and we learn that our mission is here to create entertainment and for 90 minutes make people happy."
In a barely veiled reference to the United States, he added: "You talk of human rights, racism, kids dying in schools with shootings, we have solidarity with all those causes.