Italy rescued from the World Cup? Almost impossible, even if Iran is excluded

Oops, he did it again. Iran has relapsed. In Mashhad’s decisive match against Lebanon, which qualified the national team for the World Cup, the women remained outside the stadium. Two thousand fans who had bought tickets out of 12,500 tickets sold. A return to the past because in January, when Iran hosted Iraq, the presence of women, albeit reduced, was admitted. An unacceptable policy that according to some could have dangerous consequences, even up to the exclusion of Iran from Qatar 2022. So much so that yesterday an uncontrolled rumor began to circulate on the web according to which in case of repechage FIFA could choose Italy. All false. And the prospect of an exclusion of Iran from the World Cup is also a decidedly remote prospect. This even though in 2019 FIFA had imposed an ultimatum on Tehran on the presence of female audiences in stadiums, warning that it would risk being excluded from tournaments.

The case of 2019

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Yesterday the FIFA Council did not even talk about Iran. Someone may be raising this issue today in Congress. Meanwhile, the governor of the region, Mohsen Davari, has apologized for the incident, while the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has ordered the interior minister to investigate why the two thousand fans failed to enter. Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on the radio that “if the sale of tickets to women was allowed, they had to find a suitable place for them”. It seems to have been a decision by the local authorities – sporting or political – in Mashhad, the venue of the game and an important Iranian religious center in the north of the country. Since 1979, when the Islamic Republic was founded, the presence of spectators in the stadiums has generally been excluded. The case broke out in 2019, forcing FIFA to intervene, when a fan, Sahar Khodayari, died from setting herself on fire after being discovered while she tried to enter the stadium dressed as a man.