It's what you might call political football.

Five Iranian players in today's World Cup qualifier against South Korea took to the pitch with green armbands in apparent support of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader who has alleged massive fraud in last week's presidential election.

The protesters included team captain Mehdi Mahdavikia and Mohammed Ali Karimi, the former Bayern Munich midfielder, although all five had taken the armbands off by the time they came back out for the second half.

Dozens of Iran fans had staged a protest ahead of the match in Seoul to condemn the alleged vote-rigging which saw the hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected by a landslide. During the match itself they unfurled a banner which read "Go to Hell Dictator!" and held up green paper signs asking "Where is my vote?"

Iran went ahead through an own goal in the 51st minute from South Korea’s Kim Dong Jin, who was tightly marking Iran’s Masoud Shojaei, another armband-wearer. Kim was hit by a cross and the ball slid past goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae.

South Korea equalised through a masterful goal from Park Ji-sung, the Manchester United midfielder, who took a short pass from Lee Keun Ho, beat a defender and tucked a left-foot shot just under the bar in the 81st minute. That goal ended Iran's hopes of securing an automatic qualifying berth for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

According to official results, Mr Mousavi won 34 per cent of the vote against almost 63 per cent for Mr Ahmadinejad. The results has prompted massive street protests in Tehran which Mr Ahmadinejad said were little more than “passions after a soccer match".

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