Wagga woman Leigh Swansborough has gone viral after a video of her chasing Iranian team officials in a Gold Coast hotel was broadcast across the world. Photos: Supplied.
Wagga woman Leigh Swansborough has lifted the lid on how she helped members of the Iranian women’s soccer team seek asylum in Australia following their Asian Cup campaign.
Her efforts saw her chase male Iranian team officials down a hotel stairwell while filming them and shouting “You’re in Australia, motherf*****”. A video of the incident has been broadcast by international media outlets such as the New York Post and Fox News.
The female footballers had made headlines following their refusal to sing the Iranian national anthem during their first game of the Asian Cup on the Gold Coast, only days after former Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini was killed by American strikes.
Following the team’s act of defiance, many feared for the players, their families, and the staff. Ms Swansborough has been friends with several of the players for years and went to support the team during their campaign. However, upon trying to reach out to her friends, her trip ultimately turned into a rescue mission.
How a Wagga woman befriended Iranian footballers
Ms Swansborough made contact with members of the team when she walked across Iran as a backpacker in 2022.
“I started following domestic women’s football in Iran about 10 years ago, and I have always done expeditions,” she said.
“I wanted to walk across Iran to show the West that we needed to separate the regime from the people because the regime was not reflective of the people.
“I thought as a middle-aged gay woman who walked across Iran, I could show the Iran that I was experiencing.
“I copped a knee injury while I was there, and the national team doctor for the team ended up being my physical therapist. They were just shocked by how much I knew about the team and the players.”
Ms Swansborough first visited Iran in 2022, where she walked from one end of the country to the other. Photo: Supplied.
From that interaction, she continued to tune into the Iranian soccer team’s matches, leading to her visiting the team in 2023 when they played an Olympic qualifier in Perth.
She formed several connections with the team via WhatsApp, even visiting them again in 2024, this time in Iran. The friendships she formed led her to book tickets to each of their games during the 2026 Asian Cup in Queensland.
Players ‘controlled’ by officials
Even prior to the team’s refusal to sing the national anthem, Ms Swansborough claimed it was impossible for her to get in touch with her friends.
She believed that some of the male officials managing the team were connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a fierce military group that protects the country’s leaders.
She said the players were tightly “controlled” and not allowed to meet with family or friends.
“I did not know where they were staying when they first came to the Gold Coast,” she said.
“The only way I found out was because one of the IRGC Alliance staff made the mistake of posting a picture from her balcony in her hotel, and I figured out where they were staying.
“I changed my hotel booking, and once I got there, I was mortified. The Iranian team had security everywhere.”
Ms Swansborough claims male team officials were constantly recording and monitoring the players’ movements and interactions, including their team manager, whom she photographed here and posted on social media. Photo: Supplied.
Refusal to sing the anthem
Ms Swansborough said she was aware of unrest among certain players towards the regime, following what she described as a massacre within Iran earlier this year that saw multiple players’ loved ones killed.
The unrest is what she believed to be the key motivator for the team’s refusal to sing the national anthem.
“They came here completely traumatised. Coming out of a massacre before, you know, before the war even started.
“This is where things get complicated, because they’re playing for their country, not the regime.
“By not singing the anthem, people started connecting the dots, and that’s when security decided to increase in the hotel.
“I felt like I’d flown back to Iran, but I was in an Australian hotel. The only difference was that in Iran, I had more freedom. I could hug my friend in Iran, and I could buy her a coffee. In the hotel, I couldn’t.”
The viral chase
Following the team’s refusal to sing the national anthem, they became a focus for the world. U.S. President Donald Trump weighed into the issue, urging the Australian Government to grant the players asylum.
Ms Swansborough said the protesting and outside noise worried the IRGC about the potential that members of the team could escape from the hotel and defect.
She said in the moments leading up to the clip, she and a couple of journalists noticed team management frantically running across the hotel foyer towards the hotel stairs.
“We weren’t 100 per cent sure what they were running after, but we had a strong feeling that they were worried about a player escaping,” she said.
“We knew that we probably had six players ready to defect, and so we were monitoring the lobby.
“The AFP officer was going up the elevator with people in suits. We believed that was Home Affairs, which was a good sign.
“At around six o’clock, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the team manager, the coach, one of the team assistant coaches and the translator start running across the lobby, and I knew something was up.
“We go running after them down the staircase. We went after them because either they were trying to escape or they were trying to stop players from leaving the hotel.”
Latest on player asylum claims
As of writing, eight members of the Iranian team, seven players and one staff, were granted the opportunity of asylum in Australia; however, six have now chosen to return to Iran.
Ms Swansborough claims threats towards the players’ families at home drove them to deciding to go home.
“We knew when they [the players] went silent that the regime was going to put the foot down and really put pressure on them to come back, and they do that with coercion like they’d done the whole time in the hotel, threats to their family,” she said.
“Some players, family members, we believe, have been kidnapped or harmed.
“My close friend couldn’t stay because she knew what the repercussions were. I mean, these women were given an impossible choice. Stay in Australia, and their family gets punished, threatened, tortured, or killed, or go back to Iran, and they face the same punishment.”
The two players who chose to stay have since begun training with the Brisbane Roar’s W-League side.
Original Article published by Jarryd Rowley on Region Riverina.
