2 April 2022
Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA
FIFA-Strasse 20
P.O. Box 8044
Zurich, Switzerland
Mr President,
The Iran Transition Council (ITC), which represents the union of the Iranians from different ethnicities, including women who have been subjected to many discriminations by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), wish to bring to your attention the recent discrimination against women who wish to attend the football stadium in Tehran. This new act of discrimination has come about despite the FIFA ordered and demanded Iran in September 2019 to allow women access to stadiums without any restrictions.
This act of discrimination falls short of FIFA objectives, Article 2 (e), which states “ … efforts to ensure that the game of football is available to and resourced for all who wish to participate, regardless of gender or age”. Further Article 4, “non-discrimination, equality and neutrality” states
“Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of race, skin color, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, disability, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.”
Mr. President, I have written this letter to you in order to express the ITC’s concern that the IRI, a member of FIFA, is not fulfilling its obligation according to FITA Statutes 2019. And based on Article 14.2 “Members Obligation” and by the virtue of the “Article 10 Admission, suspension and expulsion”, and Article 16 Suspension and Article 17 Expulsion, for the reason of seriously violating the Statutes of FIFA, the IRI’s membership of FIFA would have to be suspended until such time as discrimination against women was lifted. Disregarding FIFA statutes will cause great damage to your organisation’s reputation.
Hassan Shariatmadari
ITC Secretary General
