Fraud allegation
A man is said to have stood in the goal of the Iranian women’s national soccer team
Iranian soccer player Zohreh Koudaei is suspected of being a biological man
© Talibjan Kosimov / Picture Alliance
The suspicion has existed for a long time: In a crucial game against Jordan, a man is said to have guarded the goal of the Iranian women’s national team. The Jordanian Association is demanding public clarification.
The suspicion has been around for a long time: In Iran’s women’s national team, at least one man is said to have played in qualifying for the Women Asia Cup – as a goalkeeper. This is what the Jordanian Football Association claims in a letter to the Asian continental association AFC and calls for the allegation to be investigated.
The reason is that the Jordanian women lost the decisive qualifying game for the Asian Cup against Iran on penalties – two penalties were parried by Zohreh Koudaei, who is supposed to be biologically a man. The Jordanian Football Association filed a complaint immediately after the game last September, but the AFC did not respond. Therefore the Jordanians repeated their accusation now and made the letter of complaint publicly on Twitter, where the Jordanian association president Ale Al Hussein shared it.
Iranian national team is said to have thrown men from the women’s team earlier
Secretary-General Samar Nassar asked in the letter that a commission of independent experts should investigate the case. He points out that measures against a national team are possible if a player is not eligible to participate. At the same time, you know that a review is not mandatory. The Jordanians also base their suspicions on the fact that “the Women’s national team Iran has a history of gender and doping problems. “
This includes an attempted fraud in 2015. At that time, the British newspaper “The Telegraph” reported, citing an Iranian football official, that eight players in the Iranian national team were actually men and were thrown out of the team after checks. Since the Iranian team plays with hijab, long-sleeved jerseys and shorts with leggings, the real gender of the players can be concealed well.
Sources: “t-online”, “Image”, Twitter