Sport

Iranwire – Sardar Pashaei, a former world wrestling champion and coach of Iran’s national wrestling teams, protested yesterday against the removal of Mahsa Ghorbani, Iran’s first female international football referee, from participating in the 2022 World Cup by publishing a photo of her on Twitter. Mr. Pashaei wrote in his tweet: “Mahsa Ghorbani, Iran’s first female international football referee, was …

rferl.org – The mothers of several children who were scheduled to participate in a karate competition in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad have been barred from watching the event in person as security officials enforced a government ban on women entering stadiums in the country. Video of a security officer stopping the mothers from entering a sports hall where …

Iranwire – Mehdi Taj has caused a sensation by registering in the Iranian Football Federation’s presidential election – for a second time. Formerly president of the Federation from 2016 to 2019, Tahj is one of the most divisive figures in the history of Iranian sports. His would-be vice presidents were named as Mehdi Mohammadnabi and Mansour Ghanbarzadeh. In a past …

Iranwire – Iranian football coach Ali Karimi launched a blistering attack on the IRGC officer and conspiracy theorist Hassan Abbasi on Wednesday, demanding: “At least we’ve made the hearts of a few people happy. What have you done, you bozo?” The tirade, posted on the outspoken ex-player’s Instagram account, came after Abbasi spoke in mocking terms about the contribution of …

Iranwire – The last queen of Iran has penned an open letter to Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, asking him to intervene decisively this November in the ongoing stalemate over Iranian women not being allowed into football stadiums in Iran. In the correspondence published on Monday, Farah Pahlavi wrote that it was “shameful” Iranian women were still not being allowed to take their rightful …

Iranwire – The Iranian-born wrestler Melika Balali won gold at the women’s British Senior Wrestling Championship last weekend. On the podium in Manchester, the 22-year-old, a member of the Scottish national freestyle wrestling team, held up a poster that read: “STOP forced hijab. I have the right to be a wrestler.” Balali is more than a top sports practitioner with …

RFL/RE – “Israeli football fans, for me, are the most hated. I cannot tolerate them. I won’t exchange my shirts with assassins.” That was what Iran’s state TV quoted Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese soccer star, as saying during a report it aired on June 15. Except Ronaldo did not make those comments. State TV used footage from a 2016 video that Ronaldo …

Dragan Skočić, the manager of Iran’s national football team, and Mirshad Majedi, acting president of the Iranian Football Federation, reportedly had a shouting match last week that lasted for more than 90 minutes. Mere months before Team Melli is due to compete in Group B at the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar, consultations are taking place at President Raisi’s office …

Al-Monitor – Driven apart by clashing regional interests, Turkey and Iran appear headed for a face-off in Syria, with Tehran explicitly opposing Ankara’s plan for a fresh military operation against Kurdish-held areas, wary of risks to its own posture in the region. Turkey has failed to get a green light from the United States to press ahead with the plan, …

Iran-HRM – The plight of Iranian women athletes has been highlighted by two weightlifters who fled the world sports camps, seeking asylum in other countries. In recent days, Parisa Jahanfekrian and Yekta Jamali, two women weightlifting champions left Iran. Parisa Jahanfekrian, 27, has recently applied for political asylum from Germany. Parisa Jahanfekrian, who should have been the first female weightlifter …