Iranian Co-Ed Soccer Ends With Suspensions

If you’ve seen the movie Offside, then you’ll know that the Iranian government’s attitude to women and soccer isn’t exactly liberal.

And that goes double for co-ed games, as the law bans any physical contact between unrelated/unmarried men and women.

So – for bravery alone – maximum respect to the men and women of Esteghlal football club, who defied the law by playing a game between their men’s youth team and women’s first team in South Tehran last week.

The game ended 7-0 to the youth team, but I’m guessing the result wasn’t all that important.

Those involved in the game are now in a bit of trouble. Apparently video taken on cell phones was used as evidence and punishments have been handed out:

According to the Esteghlal soccer club, Mohammad Khorramgah, the club’s technical manager, was suspended for a year and fined 50 million rials ($5,000) for the Jan. 20 game.

The only woman among the suspended — Saeedeh Pournader, head coach of the female team — also got a year’s suspension. Mostafa Ardestani, head coach of the youth team, got a six-month suspension and a 20 million rial ($2,000) fine.

A prominent Iranian soccer player and manager of the club’s soccer academy, Ali Reza Mansourian, got a written rebuke and a fine of 50 million rials, the club said.

The lesson here isn’t just “if you’re going to have an illegal co-ed soccer game in Iran, it’s probably best to ban all cell phones” (although clearly that is one of the lessons here). It’s that despite all the pointless fluff surrounding football (£100m transfer rumours, tell-all sex books, Champions league Wack-a-Mole) the beautiful game is still important enough to be a platform for protest and – maybe, in the long run – an agent of social change.

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Category: World Football