00:03As Iran's women's football team lost their final match in the Asian Cup, tensions reached a boiling
00:08point. Save our girls, let them go, just some of the slogans chanted by supporters amid growing
00:16fears for the players' safety if they return to Iran. We were telling them that if they want to
00:22stay in Australia we would support them, but I think, well I'm sure of that, that they're being
00:27threatened with their family's safety in Iran. That's why they refuse to answer back to us.
00:32U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Australia had agreed to grant asylum to some of
00:37the players. In an initial post on social media he had urged Australia to take them in, saying the
00:43country would make a terrible humanitarian mistake if it didn't. Trump joined a growing chorus of
00:50voices calling on Australia to protect the team whose players were labeled wartime traitors on
00:56Iranian state TV after refusing to sing the national anthem before one of the games.
01:03The son of Iran's late Shah Reza Pahlavi, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and the Global Players'
01:10Union were among those calling for the players' protection.
01:13There may be players that want to return, there may be some players within the group that would
01:17like to seek asylum, would like to stay in Australia for longer, there may be some that
01:21are incredibly concerned about the potential journey home. It's an incredibly difficult situation.
01:25So far Canberra has refused to comment on whether it could offer the players' asylum,
01:30but according to media reports, five members of the team have already defected and are now
01:37being cared for in a safe house run by the federal police.
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