The Confusing Case of a Soccer Team: Why was Malavan FC female squad dissolved?
When the men’s soccer team Malavan of Anzali Port was relegated from Iran’s Premier League (the Persian Gulf League), many fans in this northern city of Iran were in tears. The club’s board of directors, who had been a day late and a dollar short for the whole league, always blaming finances for the club’s free fall, soon took ‘innovative’ measures to take the team back. The club was to purchase the license to attend in the league from a club in Tehran, Naft, previously owned by the Petroleum Ministry. When soccer authorities made it clear that they opposed the bid, Malavan or ‘Sailors’, once the sports club of army's naval forces, finally lay low for a multi-billion company to finalize the purchase. The Malavan’s men squad are now preparing to play in Azadegan League, Iran’s second tier soccer league. A club that was once known for its portfolio as a star-maker, which included most prominently the legend Sirous Ghayeghran, is turned into a 'military team' populated with professional players who are serving their military service and have to play in the team with contracts much lower than those commonly signed in Iran.
The women’s Malavan was horse of a very different color. The most decorated team in history of women’s football, with four league trophies, was reported dissolved on Friday, according to the club’s officials. Soon a quote from the club CEO was making the rounds on the social media: “We have many mouths to feed. When a storm-lashed ship is sinking, it starts unloading extra burdens,” Rezaeian said. Many fans, activists, and female athletes took offence, comparing the men’s and women’s teams, saying the decision indicates gender discrimination. Some noted that the real reason behind the dissolution might lie in the captain and goal-scoring machine Sara Ghomi’s interview in which she had slammed the club’s officials for their failing to appreciate the squad’s achievements. At the same time, a photo of the squad training on a rooftop resurfaced fueling anti-discrimination sensations. Due to media limitations, advertisements are not common in women’s sports, damaging the turnover all over the scene.
Malavan women’s goalkeeper Samira Rostami posted a teasing text on her Instagram account putting the blame on the administration and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to let unqualified executives manage football clubs. In an interview with ISNA, a former coach of the team, Maryam Irandoust, noted the fact that team had become integral to the identity of women in Anzali and attracted 2500 fans to the city’s Takhti stadium. While asking the president to intervene, she also expressed hope that the officials apologize and take back their sexist remarks.
However, the tides soon turned when the club issued a self-contradictory statement in which it provided a number of reason including financial impediment. Finance was followed other reasons that “could not be discussed in an Islamic society”. Observers interpreted the statement as to be implicitly referring to reports that caught little attention when they first appeared late May. Ghanoon Daily, a reformist newspaper now banned, then had reported the rise of 'unconventional' sexual relationships among female Iranian athletes. The article published in Ghanoon was precautious not to offend the female sport community but revealed that a 70-page report on bisexuality and homosexuality had been submitted to the petition committee of the parliament, a self-supervisory committee known as the Principle 90, and would soon be investigated. The article had consulted a number of the Iranian national teams of football and futsal who had admitted gender identity crisis among some female sport personalities, but denied the prevalence of such deviations from the norm.
The new controversy might be a new episode after the Iranian women's football team were accused last year of having eight men “awaiting sex change operations”. The revelation of highly stigmatized homosexuality among female athletes, claimed to be more prevalent in football and futsal, sounds as out of place as it is likely. If the report submitted to Majlis comes up to bear hints of a larger truth, it might as well jeopardize women’s sports in Iran.