January 17-2014
Iranian soccer referee Mohsen Ghahremani has been suspended for eight months for misconduct on the field in the Iranian Professional League.
Ghahremani, who has been out of work since September when the charges first surfaced, was suspended by a disciplinary committee of the Iranian Football Federation Sunday for eight months, the Tehran Times reported.
The committee concluded that Ghahremani made erroneous decisions during a Sepahan-Persepolis match in Esfahan in September, where Persepolis lost 2-0.
Persepolis coach Ali Daei had accused Ghahremani of supporting Sepahan at the post-match news conference and the disciplinary committee found the referee guilty of misconduct.
He was not accused of fixing the match and no one else has been implicated in the decisions Ghahremani made.
A number of people have previously been charged with match-fixing offences in Iranian soccer.
In the game in question, the referee gave Meysam Hossaini of Persepolis a red card for a foul on a Sepahan player two minutes into the game. He also awarded Sepahan a penalty, on which it scored one of its goals.