The Jordan Football Association has demanded an investigation into the Iranian goalkeeper who played in a women’s qualifying match after suspecting her of actually being male.
The President of the Jordan Football Association, Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, claimed the Iranian goalie who featured in a qualifier for the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup was a man pretending to be female.
Jordan lost the tie on penalties after the match ended goalless on 25th September and Iran qualified for the Women’s Asian Cup for the first time.
Iranian goalkeeper Zohreh Koudaei made several key saves during the match.
As a result, Jordan has requested that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) open an investigation to confirm the gender of the Iranian goalkeeper.
Al-Hussein said in a tweet on Sunday that they are “requesting a gender verification check” on the goalkeeper in question, calling it “a very serious issue if true”.
He also told the AFC to “wake up” and expressed doubts over the “eligibility of a participating player”.
Meanwhile, Iran has denied any foul play in the women’s football qualifier.
Iranian coach Maryam Irandoost said: “Medical staff members have carefully examined each player on the national team in terms of hormones to avoid any problems in this regard, and so I tell all fans not to worry.
“We will provide any documentation that the Asian Confederation of Football wishes without wasting time.”
Irandoost said Jordan’s accusation was simply to defer criticism for losing the game, adding: “These allegations are just an excuse not to accept the defeat against the Iranian women’s national team.”
She also said that the “Jordanian team considered themselves the big favourite to qualify” and tried to “escape responsibility for this failure”.
It is not the first time the Iranian Women’s National Team has been accused of fielding men. In 2015, it was claimed that eight of the squad’s players were actually men awaiting sex change operations. However, nothing eventually came of the allegations.
Similar accusations were made in 2014, when it was claimed that four women’s team players were men who were either awaiting sex change operations or had disorders of sexual development.
And as far back as 2010, questions were raised about the sex of the women’s goalkeeper at the time.
The 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup takes place in January in India.
