The Minister of Sports, Hamid Sajjadi once again highlighted the reluctance of the regime in allowing women entry into the stadium. The tactics of procrastinating the issue have been Modus Operandi of the authorities whose clerical hierarchy strongly oppose the presence of women in stadium calling it a sin and a corrupt act. Faced with pressure from FIFA, Iran has exceptionally allowed the presence of women in Azadi on one occasion. However, the authorities have been coming up with all sorts of excuses to procrastinate the issue for as long as they could.

In response to FIFA’s letter about allowing women entry into football stadiums during league competitions, the Minister of Youth and Sports Sajjadi said: “FIFA has proposed the presence of women in league competitions in its letter. I emphasize that FIFA’s letter was only a recommendation. We are following up to identify stadiums that have proper infrastructure and meet the conditions of the supreme religious Council, security, and law enforcement guidelines. Meetings have already started in this regard and it had nothing to do with FIFA’s letter. When we started this work, they said that a couple of years ago, arrangements were made for allowing women into the stadiums at both national team and club competitions. We also follow the same arrangements and if a commitment was made and something was signed, it was from Iran. After all, this is the name of Iran and it doesn’t matter if I am a minister or someone else. They have talked about this. Because of the FIFA guidelines, then it has to be followed one by one. For example, FIFA says that certain standards must be applied in the stadiums for the spectators’ safety, the parking and dressing rooms should be like this, and the standards of the stadiums should be like that”.