Iran should be barred from World Cup, says ex-FIFA boss Blatter
Iran should be barred from the football World Cup amid widespread protests in the country sparked by the death in custody of a young woman, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told a Swiss newspaper.
Blatter told the BlickExternal link newspaper he would have excluded Iran if he had still been in charge at FIFA. He criticised his successor, saying it was incomprehensible that current FIFA head Gianni Infantino had not taken a clear position on Iran.
Blatter, 86, also said this week it had been a mistake to award Qatar the hosting rights to the World Cup, which begins there on November 20.
Ongoing protests in Iran were sparked by the death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in September in the custody of morality police. She was arrested for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The protests have taken on a wider aspect of women’s rights and opposition to the Islamic regime. They are seen as posing one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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