By Victor Kanayo
Reports has revealed that Iranian football’s ethics body has summoned a professional player after he hugged a female fan prior to a match in the domestic league.
“The ethics committee of the Football Federation of Iran has summoned Ramin Rezaeian,” Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.
Rezaeian, who plays for Tehran giants Esteghlal and Iran’s national team, embraced the fan before his team’s match against Chadormalu in Yazd province on Thursday.
The football federation has yet to comment on the matter.
Rezaeian, 34, has been capped over 60 times by Iran. The defender has also played club football in Qatar and Belgium.
Under Islamic law in Iran, enacted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, physical contact between unrelated men and women is banned.
Women were largely barred from attending football matches after the revolution. However, in August 2022, they were allowed into a championship match for the first time in over 40 years.
In April, Esteghlal goalkeeper Hossein Hosseini was suspended after embracing a female supporter during a championship match. The football federation fined him the equivalent of $4,700 and gave him a one-match suspension for “bad behaviour towards security agents at the game”.
