Football never stops lecturing the public. Every other week the sport finds a new cause to champion. Players take the knee. Rainbow laces appear on boots and social media feed fill with slogans about equality, justice and inclusion. Clubs are always posting carefully worded statements in “solidarity”. Football wants the world to believe it is a moral force.

But when a group of female footballers actually stand up to one of the most brutal regimes on earth, the silence from the game has been staggering. The Iranian women’s national team refused to sing their national anthem before their recent Asian Cup match against South Korea. It was a quiet act of defiance against the backdrop of US and Israeli airstrikes against the despotic ruling regime, but in Iran that kind of defiance is incredibly dangerous.

Their government responded with immediate fury. An Iranian state TV commentator branded the players “wartime traitors”, accusing them of committing the “pinnacle of dishonour” and demanding they be “severely punished”. Those are not empty threats. This is the same regime that brutally crushed nationwide protests earlier this year, killing at least 35,000 of its own citizens earlier this year. That is the regime these women have dared to challenge, and this is the fate they could now face simply for refusing to sing a song.

Six players have already sought asylum in Australia. Others are returning to Iran to face certain punishment, in all likelihood as a result of threats to their families. That is real courage – and it’s deeply heartbreaking in equal measure.

Unlike most football campaigns, it wasn’t a choreographed gesture before kick-off. Nor was it a social media hashtag designed by a PR firm to trend for a few hours. It was a genuine act of defiance that could cost them their freedom, their careers and ultimately even their lives. And yet the football world, so loud about every other cause under the sun, has barely muttered a word. That silence feels especially loud here in England.

Our Lionesses are celebrated as symbols of courage and empowerment. They are constantly praised for championing women and inspiring the next generation. Their achievements have helped transform women’s football in this country.

But when a group of fellow female footballers – also coincidentally known as the Lionesses – risked everything to stand up to an oppressive regime, England’s team had nothing to say. They should be ashamed of themselves.

For a team that so often speaks about empowering women, their silence while fellow female players face severe oppression is disgraceful. Their international counterparts are staring down the threat of punishment, imprisonment or worse, and yet not a single word of condemnation for the Iranian regime has been heard.

Right now they look like lionesses in name only. But they weren’t alone in their silence. Where were the game’s other big names? Having a well-earned day off social media, perhaps? This tragedy also exposes the wider hypocrisy that has become common across the sport. Footballers are quick to signal virtue when it suits them.

One minute players are proudly wearing rainbow laces to promote LGBT rights and posting about inclusion on social media. The next minute many of those same players happily travel to a World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The slogans are loud when the cameras are rolling, but when the issue involves genuine risk or inconvenience, the principles quietly disappear – exactly as we are seeing now. Much of football’s activism is comfortable. It is fashionable. Wearing rainbow laces or posing beside an anti-racism banner is easy; it carries no real personal risk.

Standing up to a barbaric regime that murders tens of thousands of people is another matter entirely. That is when the virtue signalling stops. That is when the silence begins.

As someone who loves football and plays the game, it’s deeply frustrating to watch. The Iranian players who refused to sing their anthem have demonstrated more courage in a few seconds of silence than most of football’s endless campaigns have managed in years. They are the real lionesses. Because while football’s moral grandstanding often amounts to little more than empty gestures, these women have shown what standing up for your beliefs actually looks like.

And in doing so they have exposed the uncomfortable truth about a sport that loves to preach, but goes very quiet when the cause actually matters.