TEHRAN Two Iranian soccer players who engaged in inappropriate celebratory behavior during a game broadcast on national television might be sentenced 74 public lashings on the pitch, the Iran’s Fars News Agency reported Tuesday.
Iran members of parliament, sports officials and judges have called for the swift punishment of Mohammad Nosrati and Sheys Rezaei, two soccer stars who play for one of Irans most popular clubs, Tehran-based Persepolis.
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After one of their teammates scored the winning goal of a 3-2 match on Saturday, ending a long losing streak, Nosrati touched Rezaeis butt as they and their teammates jumped on one another in celebration.
“This shameless act upset, angered, and outraged Iranian sports fans,” said cleric Jalal Yahyazadeh, who is a member of parliament. “What happened is absolutely not acceptable because it was a very ugly thing,” he added.
In Iran homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment, corporal punishment, and even execution of the accused. Some other things forbidden in Iran include spiky hair, pet dogs, Facebook, ponytails, mannequins, rap music and ties.
Football is the most popular spectator sport in Iran, although women are barred from attending matches as Iranian clerics believe allowing women to watch men in sports would lead to social catastrophe in the Iranian society.
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Valiollah Hosseiny, a Tehran criminal court judge, told the Fars News Agency that the two players have committed “an act against public morality”, and that they should be sentenced to 2 month imprisonment and 74 lashes.
Iran’s soccer federation heeds the demands of the clerics. "Nosrati and Rezaei have been banned indefinitely from all football activities for committing immoral acts,’’ said Ismail Hasanzadeh, head of the Iranian soccer federation’s disciplinary committee, quoted on the website.
The two have also been suspended by Persepolis, a popular club financed by the government, saw their pay cut by 15%, and have to pay a fine of $500 million rials (US$40,000) each.
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Iran cleric: Western immorality is the cause for all these
Iranian soccer stars say the authorities are overreacting to the latest indiscretion. Ali Parvin, a former Persepolis coach and a venerated figure in Iranian soccer, has spoken out against banning Nosrati and Rezaei, saying that officials should offer guidance to the players instead of punishing them.
Come and execute them if it relieves you, he said sarcastically.
Former national team player Mehdi Mahdavikia said Iranian media were making a big deal out of the incident.
When I was playing in Germany, such things happened all the time, he said.
Saturday’s game was broadcast live to millions in Iran and the act horrified its ultra-conservative radical hardline clerics.
The video of the act can viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPeCpq8V … r_embedded
Source:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/s … index.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba … ation.html
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1015.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/0 … ref=sports
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mid … story.html
http://www.newser.com/story/132378/iran … ueeze.html