Inside Iran's brutal World Cup journey: Why horrors of the war have led to a fractured fanbase, the top striker axed over 'act of disloyalty' and the scramble to replace him that involved a TV star, a DNA test and a name change

It's been a brutally long road to the World Cup for Iran, with too much time in the early stages spent on a bus journey, from which the players witnessed the damage wreaked by the war.