Iranian Footballer Summoned After Hugging Female Fan

Iranian football’s ethics body has summoned a professional player after he hugged a female fan prior to a match in the domestic league, local media reported.

“The ethics committee of the Football Federation of Iran has summoned Ramin Rezaeian,” Tasnim local news agency reported on Friday.

Rezaeian, who plays for the Tehran giants Esteghlal and Iran’s national team, embraced the fan before his team’s match against Chadormalu in central Yazd province on Thursday.

The football federation has not yet commented on the matter.

Rezaeian, 34, has been capped more than 60 times by Iran. The defender has also played club football in Qatar and Belgium.

According to Islamic law in Iran, which was enacted shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, men and women are banned from making any physical contact unless they are closely related.

Following the revolution, women were generally barred from attending football matches, but in August 2022 they were allowed into a championship match for the first time in more than 40 years.

In April, Hossein Hosseini, a goalkeeper for Esteghlal, was suspended after embracing a female supporter during a championship match.

The media said at the time that the football federation had fined the goalkeeper the equivalent of $4,700 and given him a one-match suspension for “bad behaviour towards security agents at the game”.