National soccer team bans players with tattoos

The Iranian football federation has been told to drop tattooed players from the national soccer team.

The Ethics Committee of Iran’s Football Federation has issued repeated warnings to players, saying that having a tattoo was unprofessional, the Tehran Times reported March 18.  It said the committee has now ordered those players to be sacked from the national team.

Those Iranian players with tattoos on their arms routinely enter the playing field wearing long-sleeved shirts for national team games, though they wear short-sleeved gear for their club games.

Ashkan Dejagah and Sardar Azmun had been summoned by the Ethics Committee, however, for revealing tattoos on their arms during games.

Iran considers athletes to be role models responsible for promoting “Islamic values” to the younger generation.

Iranian state media often refer to tattoos as a symbol of “Westernization” or part of a Western “cultural invasion” of the country.  “Tattoos on the bodies of players are against Iranian culture and detrimental to our society,” a sports official was quoted as saying.

The issue can fester for the moment as Iran has completed the World Cup and Asian Cup quadrennial cycles and has no major games on the schedule.  The national soccer team also lacks a coach since Carlos Queiroz left for a new job in Columbia in January at the end of the Asian Cup.  The coach has sent a Now Ruz message to all his Iranian fans.