NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
EXCLUSIVE: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has allegedly used the country’s football system to spy on citizens, potentially violating FIFA’s bylaws, according to a new report by a major opposition party.
The US office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) provided the report to Pakinomist Digital. It outlines an alleged plan for Iran’s football federation and top clubs to be drawn into a wider state security apparatus, and that at least 15 IRGC bosses have been formally documented and identified in the management of football clubs.
NCRI, citing purported official IRGC documents, accuses the IRGC of using clubs, stadium infrastructure and security-related management positions to monitor fans, suppress dissenting athletes and violate FIFA rules on political interference.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist
The report claims that facial recognition technology and other devices and tracking systems were used to monitor spectators. The report cites purported internal Iranian security documents, including the 2025 Tehran Provincial Security Council material and a 2024 Sarallah headquarters security plan.
According to NCRI-US’s translations of these documents, officials discussed facial recognition cameras at Azadi, Takhti and Shahr-e Qods stadiums; ticket sales linked to Iran’s national civil registration database; seat-by-seat mapping of spectators by national ID; monitoring and control of fan club leaders; and designated police scenes or rapid response units inside stadiums.
“It is extremely critical for security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to use and exploit the video surveillance cameras in the Azadi complex during matches, given the constant potential for unpredictable security incidents. It is very conceivable that future riots and civil unrest could originate from inside the sports stadiums,” the report said, citing the documents.
Pakinomist Digital reached out to the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Association and Iran’s Mission to the United Nations for comment.
THE OLYMPIANS TOGETHER TO SPEAK AGAINST IRAN FOR THE INFLAMMATION OF THE COUNTRY’S STAR ATHLETES
NCRI-US is the Washington office of Iran’s National Council of Resistance, an Iranian opposition coalition that advocates replacing the Islamic Republic with what it describes as a democratic, secular and non-nuclear republic. The group says the material was obtained through the network in Iran of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or MEK, a major opposition movement that Tehran considers an enemy.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of NCRI-US, told Pakinomist Digital that the organization first became focused on stadium surveillance while tracking how Iranian authorities identified protesters during the recent uprisings.
“Our focus was basically in terms of the protests and seeing what Iran’s regime was actually like [was] trying to identify the protesters in the streets, identify the leaders of the protests,” Jafarzadeh said. He said the NCRI later realized while reviewing what he described as a large batch of internal material that “when it comes to a sports venue, Iran’s regime has a special focus on sports as a means of repression.”
Jafarzadeh added that Iranian football stadiums are among the few spaces where large numbers of young people gather and express collective emotions, making them a target for security forces. Football is Iran’s most popular sport, with clubs such as Persepolis and Esteghlal attracting massive followings.
According to NCRI’s report, minutes of a May 2025 sports commission meeting under the Tehran Provincial Security Council discussed the need to equip more Azadi, Takhti and Shahr-e Qods stadiums with facial recognition cameras.
The same document says cooperation from the Football Federation, Football League Organization, Esteghlal and Persepolis was “strictly required” for the video surveillance project at Azadi Stadium, according to NCRI. Another section lists the president of the Iran Football Association, Mehdi Taj, among officials copied for “executive implementation”.
The report also cited minutes of a later session of Tehran’s provincial security council that said officials discussed smart ticketing linked to Iran’s National Organization for Civil Registration, mandatory identity verification, numbered seats matched with national ID numbers, facial recognition cameras, X-ray scanning machines and “fan cards” for pre-approved fan managers.
Jafarzadeh said the NCRI believes the purpose of collecting such information is to identify people opposed to the regime and enable later arrests.
IRAN REGIME USES WAR TO MASQUERATE ‘BRUTAL’ DEATH SENTENCES AGAINST POLITICAL OPPONENTS
Iranian football supporters gather at Enghelab Square in Tehran on May 13, 2026 for a ceremony honoring the Iran national football team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The event featured performances of anthems dedicated to the team and the unveiling of the team’s kits. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu)
“The information they got from the sports facilities they used to identify the people who were opposed to the regime and later arrested them,” Jafarzadeh said. “The regime uses sports and athletic events to exercise its repression of the population.”
The report further claimed that Iran’s football system has been penetrated by the IRGC and security-related individuals for decades. The NCRI names at least 15 people it describes as IRGC or security-related individuals who have held senior positions in clubs, federations, league management or sports bodies. Among them, the report identifies Taj as a former IRGC intelligence officer who currently heads the Iranian Football Association.
The official FIFA statutes state that member associations must “manage their affairs independently”, ensure that their affairs are not influenced by third parties, and that they are “neutral in matters of politics and religion”, “independent” and avoid “any form of political interference.”
Jafarzadeh said FIFA should expel Iran’s football federation, comparing the case to international sports bans imposed in apartheid-era South Africa.
Iranian football supporters gather at Enghelab Square in Tehran during a ceremony for the Iran national football team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on May 13, 2026. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu)
“You cannot have a sports club, a sports facility, dominated by the military, which is part of Iran’s regime,” he said. “Sports federations, they must be able to function independently of the government…
“My message to FIFA is that you do exactly what you did to South Africa during apartheid. The Iranian Football Association controlled by the Revolutionary Guards must be expelled from FIFA.”
FIFA also says that violations of this independence requirement can lead to sanctions, even if the outside influence was not the confederation’s fault.
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to FIFA for comment.
The report also accuses Iran of systematic gender discrimination in sports, particularly restrictions on women’s access to stadiums and state control of female athletes’ uniforms.
Human Rights Watch reported in 2022 that Iranian authorities blocked dozens of women from entering a soccer stadium in Mashhad. However, FIFA has also pointed to recent instances of women being allowed to attend Iranian matches, including a women-only crowd in 2024 at a Persian Gulf Pro League match in Isfahan.
Rights groups say Iranian women continue to face discriminatory barriers to entering the stadium.
Iranian football supporters gather at Enghelab Square in Tehran during a ceremony for the Iran national football team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on May 13, 2026. Thousands attended the event where anthems dedicated to the national team were performed and the team’s kit for the tournament was unveiled. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu)
Rights groups have documented cases where Iranian athletes were punished after supporting or participating in anti-government protests.
Habib Khabiri, a former famous Iranian national football player and team captain, was listed in a 1985 United Nations report among those “allegedly summarily and arbitrarily executed” in Iran in 1984–1985. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Khabiri was arrested in 1983, tortured in prison and executed in 1984 for alleged ties to the Mojahedin-e Khalq.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pakinomist APP
Jafarzadeh singled out Khabiri as a symbol of the regime’s repression of athletes, as Khabiri was a rising soccer star who became captain of Iran’s national team before being arrested and asked to appear on television to renounce his political beliefs.
“He refused and he was executed on June 21, 1984,” Jafarzadeh said. “He became a symbol for all the athletes.”
