Concerns have been raised that covert Iranian agents could have played a role in convincing three more members of the national women’s soccer team to change their minds about staying in Australia and return home.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed on Sunday that two more soccer players and a team procurement officer told Australian officials they no longer wished to stay, bringing the total number of members who have decided to return up to four.

The trio are understood to be Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, Mona Hamoudi, and Zahra Sarbali. Initially six players and a support staff member accepted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia, but now only three remain.

Lawyer Kambiz ‘Kam’ Razmara, vice president of the Australian Iranian Society of Victoria, told Daily Mail there was no doubt the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ‘would have got to them’ despite the women being held in a safe house at a secret location.

‘The pressure on the family back home, perhaps via the players who have already left, the usual routine by this regime to intimidate, frighten and coerce into action anyone who defies it,’ he said.

‘And it’s not just threats on their families. It’s also the social stigma for them back in Iran. 

‘Only 11 per cent of the country is (pro-Ayatollah), but they have status and they would be using propaganda such as the US bombing of the school to try and turn people around.’

Mr Razmara claimed there would be ‘enormous pressure’ for the remaining three players to return home. 

Immigration Minister Tony Burke poses with the original five, Fatemeh Pasandideh, Mona Hamoudi, Atefeh Ramezanizadeh, Zahra Ghanbari and Zahra Sarbali, of whom Hamoudi and Sarbali are no longer staying

Fatemeh Pasandideh (top left) is one of the three players still staying in Australia. Number 15 (third left, front) is Muhaddeseh Zolfi changed her mind on Wednesday to return to Iran, as has Zahra Sarbali (bottom right) this weekend

‘That kind of feeling, the dread, is just awful. It’s akin to waiting to know whether cancer is going to kill you,’ he said.

Mr Razmara’s organisation opposes the ‘oppressive’ Iranian government on its human rights atrocities and said he felt deeply for the three remaining players. 

They are Atefeh Ramezanizadeh, 33, midfielder Fatemeh Pasandideh, 21, and forward  Zahra Ghanbari.

Iran brought 26 players to Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup. One the eve of the first game, the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Following players’ silence during the anthem before their opening game against South Korea on March 2, they were branded ‘traitors’ on Iran’s national TV station 

This prompted fears of persecution if they returned to Iran, and on March 9 five of them hatched a deal via Immigration Minister Tony Burke to seek asylum and stay in Australia.

The original pack included Zahra Sarbali and Mona Hamoudi, and they were joined by Mohaddeseh Zolfi, who refused to get on the team flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night.

Procurement officer, Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, also known as Fleur, had also declined to return to Iran.

Record-holding top goalscorer Zhara Ghanbari, who has decided so far to stay is pictured (above) last year with her mother, of whom she posted  ‘you are the reason I stand Mom, you are the reason I breathe’

Atefeh Ramezanzadeh, 33, a former captain of the Iran team, is still in the diminished group staying in Australia although lawyer Kam Razmara warns the women will be ‘under immense pressure’ from the regime to eventually cave in and go home

Fatemeh Pasandideh is staying for now while according to prominent Iranians in Australia the intimidation and coercion applied by the regime back home would have convinced two more players to return

However, by Wednesday, Zolfi had changed her mind and decided to return to Iran.

And this weekend three others – Meshkeh-Kar and the players Zahra Sarbali and Mona Hamoudi also decided to go home and to not stay in Australia.

Mr Razmara said of the remaining three he ‘would hate to be in their shoes’.

‘I feel for them immensely and we stand with them wholeheartedly,’ he said.

Of the three women still at the secret safe house, the eldest, diminutive 1.6metre tall Atefeh Ramazanzadeh is the quietest on social media, while Fatemeh Pasandideh has an exuberant presence.

On Instagram, she can be seen pulling faces, jumping for joy in the field and dancing wildly by a roadside to Middle Eastern music.

In contrast, Zahra Ghanbari, has posted heartfelt tributes to her parents, to her late father, and a photo of her kissing her mother.

Alongside it she wrote in June last year: ‘The foundation of my life has been broken, our bloodline has been broken But you are the reason I stand, Mom, you are the reason I breathe…’

Mr Razmara said the women’s soccer players, if they stayed, would be subject ‘to the pressure of watching things unfold from afar’.

Midfielder Fatemeh Pasandideh (above) has an exuberant presence online. The 21-year-old is one of three remaining defectors living in a secret safe house after accepting an offer of asylum

The team’s youngest player, 21-year-old Mohaddeseh Zolfi, who refused to get on the team flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night, had changed her mind by the next day to go home

Lionesses procurement officer Zahra Soltan Meshkeh-Kar, also known as Fleur had also decided to return to Iran

‘It can be that the IRGC can go and arrest family members, or make businesses suffer or just harass someone as they walk down the street,’ he said.

‘We understand it will be difficult for them. We are in solidarity with them.’