Sepp Blatter says Iran should be kicked out of World Cup over protest crackdowns

Disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said Iran should be barred from the World Cup in Qatar over a deadky crackdown on protesters following the death of a woman in the custody of the state’s morality police.

“Iran should be excluded from the World Cup,” the 86-year-old told Swiss tabloid Blick in an interview at the publisher’s headquarters.

Blatter said he could not understand by current FIFA head Gianni Infantino had not taken a clear position on Iran.

The protests, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, pit a leaderless movement made up mostly of youth against Iran’s Islamic Republic regime.

Thus far the regime has resorted almost exclusively to violence to quell the unrest, refusing to consider key opposition demands such as removing or relaxing the hijab law that prompted Amini’s arrest at hands of the morality police but has expanded to include expanded political and social freedoms and economic improvements.

At least 319 protesters have been killed and some 15,000 have been arrested in the unrest, according to Hrana, an Oslo-based human rights group.

Last month, a number of former Iranian sporting figures wrote to FIFA urging it to suspend the Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) and ban it from participating at this year’s World Cup.

“Iran’s brutality and belligerence towards its own people has reached a tipping point, demanding an unequivocal and firm disassociation from the footballing and sports world,” the sportsmen said.

Iran has accused foreign enemies of fomenting unrest raging since the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September after her arrest for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress code imposed on women.

Earlier this week, Blatter also said it had been a mistake to award Qatar the hosting rights to the World Cup. Mr Blatter was Fifa president in 2010 when its executive committee controversially voted to award the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.z

Qatar has faced criticism over its treatment of migrant workers and discriminative LGBT+ laws, while the tournament also had to be moved to November and December due to heat.

Mr Blatter, who maintains he did not vote for Qatar, was cleared of fraud charges by a Swiss court in July following a £1.7m payment to the former Uefa president Michel Platini but remains banned from football because of the incident.