FIFA President Gianni Infantino praised the attendance of women and girls at a Hazfi Cup match in the Iranian city of Mashhad on Sunday, calling it “an encouraging development” for women’s participation in sports.
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has largely barred female fans from attending sporting events, with only rare exceptions. FIFA has long faced pressure to sanction Iran’s men’s national team over the ban, particularly ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
Infantino, who has favored direct dialogue with Iranian authorities over punitive measures, hailed the inclusion of women at Imam Reza Stadium as “another positive step forward” toward greater equality in Iranian football.
“I was very pleased to learn about the attendance of women and girls at an Iranian Hazfi Cup game between Nassaji Mazandaran and Shahid Ghandi Yazd,” he said in a social media post Monday.
“This is an encouraging development following last December’s Iranian top-flight match in Isfahan, where 45,000 women and girls were in attendance, and the 2023 Tehran Derby, when 3,000 women and girls were present in the stadium.”
Open Stadiums, the women’s rights campaign group that led calls for Iran to be excluded from the last World Cup, said only limited numbers of female fans were allowed into Sunday’s match between the two lower-league clubs.
The group also noted the match was staged at the same venue where Human Rights Watch reported that dozens of women were forcibly prevented from watching a World Cup qualifier between Iran and Lebanon in 2022.
Last year’s top-flight match between Sepahan and Persepolis in Isfahan was played in front of a crowd made up exclusively of women and girls.
The Iranian Football Federation’s order to exclude male fans came after a Sepahan cheerleader led insulting chants about female Persepolis fans at a previous clash between the clubs at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium in May 2024.
Infantino said he hoped to see more progress in opening up football matches to everyone in Iran and other parts of the world where access is restricted.
“FIFA’s vision is to make football available to everyone in all parts of the world because our game belongs to anyone who wishes to experience it,” he said.
“As we continue our dialogue and efforts with relevant authorities across the world to make football even more global, I hope to see these developments continue in a positive direction.”
Iran has already qualified for next year’s World Cup in North America.
