TEHRAN: FIFA president Gianni Infantino is at the centre of the women-in-stadia controversy in the Middle East after attending a match in Tehran at which 35 women were detained for trying to attend.

They wanted to enter the stadium game between Tehran teams Esteqlal and Persepolis which was watched by Infantino and Iranian Sport Minister Masoud Soltanifar.

A live broadcast was taken off the air when a journalist asked Soltanifar when women would be allowed to attend football matches.

According to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Iranian interior ministry spokesman Seyyed Salman Samani said the female football fans were not arrested – but transferred to a “proper place” by police.

Iran has barred women from attending football games since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and calls were issued on social media before the match for women to protest against the ban outside the Azadi stadium.

Women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad had noted: “The FIFA president will be in the stadium . . . I wish women would gather outside the stadium to ask men not to enter without them.”

Azadi means “freedom” stadium in Persian, and one Twitter user pointed out the hypocrisy of “naming a stadium freedom but banning half the population from entering”.

Later Infantino told local media: “I hope, I am confident, I was promised that women in Iran will have access to football stadiums soon.”

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