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Pouyan Makari

About twenty years ago, the story of one of the coaches of the Isfahan Polyacryl youth team spread everywhere. He had a continuous sexual relationship with one of the teenage players. He would take him to his house and after a while, that teenager had convinced a few other players to also have a relationship with that coach. Some time later, the father of one of these teenagers found out about the issue and, being a powerful man, after the situation escalated, the coach hanged himself out of fear of the consequences. Erfan, who has played for several youth football teams in Isfahan, tells this story and says that sexual harassment of children in Iranian football is a common issue. “Many children and teenagers see getting close to the coach as a way to progress, and the coach easily takes advantage of this situation. It can happen anywhere, there is no specific place for it. One of the famous coaches in Isfahan in the youth category was known for his

One of the experienced football coaches in Tehran also agrees with Erfan’s opinion and sees it as a constant problem in Iranian football. He, who does not want his name to be revealed, has more than 17 years of coaching experience, 6 of which were in the youth category (teams other than adults) and the rest in League 1 and 2.

“One of the coaches of a club believes that it is necessary to have sexual relations with children and to ‘arrange’ them in order to control their growth. He has been a coach for many years in the youth and adolescent age group, and his team is one of the top teams in Tehran. The coach we interviewed said that everyone in Iranian football is aware of these issues, from coaches of lower level players to coaches and players of famous Premier League and national teams. One of the coaches who is now a pioneer was known for his child play. He also trained many talented players. Now that he is older, he is featured in a famous sports newspaper, and if I mention the names of the players he trained, he will blow the whistle on me.”

Due to the respect for individual rights, we cannot disclose the names of the players who have been trained under this coach. It can only be said that many famous names can be seen among them. It cannot be said that all of these players have been victims of this coach’s sexual abuse, but it can be boldly stated that all of these players have suffered from the coach’s threats during their adolescence and surely some of them were aware of the sexual harassment by this person towards some of the young players.

I must say that most incidents happen in schools in the lower part of the city, because parents have less supervision in this area. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen in the north of Tehran, but it happens more in the south of the city because parents accompany their children less to football schools. In the southern railway team, because this issue had become very common in the south of Tehran, the club officials had announced that they would not hire a coach who was unmarried. I also managed a football school for several years and was very sensitive to this issue. Thank God, this issue did not happen in my school, but I have witnessed the opposite corruption many times; meaning that some mothers would offer to send their child to good teams in exchange for a sexual relationship with them.

It seems that sexual abuse of children in Iranian football is not something new or strange, and it is only recently that this issue has come to the attention of the media. But has there been any action taken by the Football Federation or official institutions to address this problem?

Until today, the federation has only talked and has not done any practical work. However, I don’t think anything will come from the federation either.

In the midst of all this, the role of clubs is also influential, but they do not take any action to protect their interests in this area. On the other hand, the lack of proper supervision by major clubs such as Esteghlal and Persepolis on lower division teams makes this issue more prevalent. Many of these clubs only form lower division teams to fulfill their obligations and these teams are considered an extra burden for the club.

Cultural issues also play a significant role in this matter. With the disclosure of sexual abuse or harassment, the victim’s honor is more at risk than the perpetrator’s. Of course, proving this issue also has many legal complexities, which in most cases result in the case being closed in favor of the guilty party. The coach being interviewed believes that these incidents are a part of society’s culture and must be dealt with at the root: “This issue is like cursing in a stadium. Cursing in a stadium comes from outside of the stadium, from within society. There must be education and a change in society’s culture in order to eradicate child and adolescent abuse in football schools.”

But is schools and education a suitable place to solve this problem? Erfan is also distrustful of schools and educational centers; “Schools themselves are a mine of child abuse. Many of us have had teachers in middle and high school who had a history of abusing students. Of course, older students were also involved in this issue.”

Based on this, solving this issue requires fundamental changes and strong social determination. Fundamental changes in education and then in football schools and clubs are only a part of the necessary transformations. However, to address this problem, we must move towards transparency and revealing the issue, rather than covering it up and engaging in superficial actions, as the Ministry of Sports and the country’s clubs have been doing lately.