Iran footballers hold school bags in memory of girls killed in bombing

• Team make gesture before loss to Nigeria in Turkey

• Attack on Iranian school killed more than 175 people

Iran’s players wore black armbands and held schoolbags as their anthem played before a friendly in Turkey on Friday in what a team official said was a protest over the killing of schoolgirls on the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Iran were facing Nigeria in the resort town of Belek before the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, where their participation is in doubt over the conflict.