President Raisi calls for dealing with those behind iran football violence

Raisi said that his administration is strongly opposed to behaviors similar to what happened in Mashhad that hosted the match between Iran’s National Soccer Team and Lebanon’s.

In late March, the president instructed interior minister Ahmad Vahidi to look into the events outside the Imam Reza Stadium.

Vahidi was tasked to look into whether the rights of people who had bought tickets for the match were violated. The interior minister later said many of the people who tried to enter the stadium had fake tickets.

The match happened during the Nowruz holidays. Many women who had bought tickets to watch the match, failed to enter the stadium. They said police did not let them in and the footage released showed some security forces force them to leave the surroundings of the stadium using pepper spray.

Authorities say many of the people did not have tickets for the match and that’s why they were not let in.

Following the event, the governor of the city of Mashhad apologized over the failure of the football fans to enter the Imam Reza Stadium to watch the match between Iran and Lebanon.

Mohsen Davari said 23 thousand people entered the stadium but large numbers of other did not succeed in doing so because of overcrowding.