What happens when fans spot their favorite football players? Chances are snap a selfie with the athletic superstars, which of course will instantly be uploaded to social media.
While this may sound pretty normal to almost everyone, it seems to have caused quite some agitation in Iran leading Ali Akbar Mohamedzade, head of the moral committee of the Iranian Football Federation, to issue a warning last week as photos of players with women fans circulated on social media. And yes, this is the second selfie scandal in the Middle East in a week.
Earlier in January, the Iranian football team flew to Australia, home to 70,000 Iranian expatriates, to compete for the Asian Cup. While ladies are banned in Iran from attending men’s sports events, Iranian women enthusiastically made it to the matches in Australia to cheer for their homeland’s team.
Although both the team and the Iranian fans are far away from home, they don’t seem to be very distant from the grip of its authorities. "We are monitoring what is happening in Australia, we haven't sent any representative to Australia," Mohamedzade was quoted as saying.
"National team players should be aware that they won't be used as a political tool so that those who take pictures with them don't use these photos against the players," Iran's Shahrvand newspaper also quoted him as saying.
"So according to this they should not take photos with everyone. If the players don't respect this, we will be obliged to take action," even though it wasn’t mentioned what kind of sanctions the players may face if they don’t act accordingly.
But what’s the whole commotion about?
Tweeted pictures of goalkeeper Ali Reza Haghighi and midfielder Karim Ansari Fard posing with women seem to have caused a lot of worry back home. While another photo shows a fan holding the Iranian flag with a marriage proposal to Haghighi written across it.
Now here’s a real treat. The reason the players were asked to steer away from the female fans who, according to the Football Federation moral committee are inappropriately dressed is: "They [the women] may later use these photos for political ransom against our country or sue the players for harassment. If the players refuse to act according to our clear instructions then we will be left with no option but to deal with them," added Mohamedzade.
"In some of the selfies that our players have taken with the fans we can see they appear next to people whose appearance we regard as being against our moral principles," he said .
"I have therefore had to contact the national coach and questioned him about this issue and he has explicitly denied having agreed to posting of such selfies on social networks."
The only sensible response was that of Iran's Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz who refused to give any statements, and went with the old school “no comment.”
So watch out Beckham, Ronaldo, Messi and all you football superstars, because maybe one of the beautiful fans will turn out to be a nutcase and sue you over a selfie!