The Iran Women’s football team has become embroiled in a gender scandal.
It has been reported that eight of the team’s members are actually men awaiting sex change operations – operations they were due to complete before registering as players for the women’s team.
Iranian official Mojtabi Sharifi revealed in a statement: ‘Eight members have been playing with Iran’s female team without completing sex change operations.
Last year, it was reported that the team were forced to undergo gender testing after four of the members were revealed to be men.
The figure has now doubled to eight, meaning that they’ve been deliberately housing male players incognito.
Playing with the headscarf as the Iran team do has allowed the male members to conceal their gender, but now that they’ve been ousted, they’ll be forced off the team until they’ve completed their surgery.
Football has always been immensely popular among women in Iran – despite the fact they are prohibited from actually attending games, and are only allowed play amongst themselves.
