The UK was plotting for the Iranian nationwide soccer group to defect on the pitch on the World Cup in Qatar, the minister of sport and youth has informed the Iranian parliament, with out offering any proof.

The sports activities minister, Hamid Sajjadi, informed MPs the nation’s enemies had tried “the height of sedition”. He mentioned the “Old Fox”, by which he meant the UK, had deliberate for Iran’s gamers to stroll off the pitch at specified moments and search to defect.

Sajjadi claimed the Iranian authorities had foiled the plot. He was keen to substantiate his claims in a non-public session, in what seems to have been a part of a failed try and stave off an MPs’ vote of censure for the state of the nationwide sport, after the group was knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage.

Many outstanding Iranian footballers have been subjected to harassment by state safety companies for supporting the protests which have swept the nation, however this was the primary time a minister claimed there was a plot to subvert the Islamic Republic on the pitch on the match.

His remarks got here as an Iranian chess participant, Sara Khadem, arrived in Spain on Tuesday after receiving what a supply near her mentioned had been warnings to not return to Iran after competing without a hijab at an international tournament in Kazakhstan.

Khadem, born in 1997, took half in final week’s FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with out sporting a hijab, the obligatory scarf underneath Iran’s gown codes.

The supply, who didn’t wish to be named as a result of sensitivity of the matter, mentioned Khadem subsequently acquired a number of cellphone calls during which people warned her towards returning dwelling after the match, whereas others mentioned she ought to return, promising to “solve her problem”.

The sports activities minister’s claims, for which there is no such thing as a proof, underline the ambiance of paranoia that surrounded the lads’s nationwide group on the World Cup as most of the gamers struggled with conflicting pressures from protesters and officers.

The claims didn’t cease him from being censured by the parliament, which accused of him of permitting foreign-based gamers and coaches to be given huge salaries.

Over the previous three months quite a few Iranian footballers have been publicly threatened and harassed by the authorities. The former Iran nationwide captain Ali Karimi was pressured to flee the nation after he expressed help for the protesters on social media, and all his properties and belongings in Iran had been confiscated by the order of the judiciary. The soccer supervisor Ali Daei has additionally been banned from leaving Iran.