The head of the moral wing of the Iranian Football Association recently issued a warning to its soccer players currently in Australia for the Asian Cup to avoid snapping selfies with female fans or else, they’ll face repercussion.
According to Ali Akbar Mohamedzade, the photos taken with national footballers can be used for political purposes to tarnish the country’s image at home, especially the national team players who are favorites in the Asian circle due to their previous high qualifying record in the Asian Cup. Iran had a record of being a 3-time winner of the Asian Cup and has made it mostly to the semi-final qualifying round in other previous matches.
He issued the warning according to the Sharvand Newspaper in Teheran, with the following message “National team players should be aware that they could be used as a political tool so that those who take pictures with them may use these photos against the players. So according to this they should not take photos with everyone. If the players don’t respect this, we will be obliged to take action.”
Actually, women are barred by the national moral laws from attending men sport’s event in Iran.