Women in Iran have long been banned from attending male football matches. However, according to Gianni Infantino, the Italian president of FIFA, that’s all about to change.

Infantino said on Friday that he had been assured by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that there are plans in the works to allow women to attend football matches in the country.

“I was promised that women in Iran will have access to football stadiums soon,” Infantino told reporters at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, shortly after returning from a visit to Tehran. “He told me that in countries such as [Iran], these things take a bit of time.”

The Iranian activist group OpenStadiums criticised Infantino for attending a match between the Iranian teams Esteghlal and Persepolis during his visit to Tehran, saying that female football fans were arrested near the Azadi stadium while he was watching the game.

“While Mr Infantino was enjoying a football match in [the] men-only stadium, Iranian female football fans were under arrest,” the group said on Twitter.

Thompson Reuters Foundation News has more on this story here.

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