Ayatollahs try to ban MoS man reporting hijab protest at match

IRAN tried to block a Mail on Sunday reporter from attending an international football match on European soil in a chilling attack on freedom of speech.

Match organisers in Austria informed journalists that the decision to ban them ‘was made by the Iranian FA’ amid attempts from the authoritarian state to suppress coverage of widespread protests.

The ban was lifted at the eleventh hour after the Iranian FA came under pressure from footballing authorities to allow journalists and fans into the game – a friendly between Iran and Uruguay.

During the match in St Polten, peaceful protesters were frogmarched out of the stadium by Austrian police for demonstrating against the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman in police custody.

Mailman Ian Herbert said: ‘I’ve been writing about sport for 15 years and no one has ever tried to ban me from a match. How dare they try to deny journalists access to a football fixture on European soil? Our inquiries showed that this was quite obviously an act by the Iranian state.

‘Only when we met the team’s Portuguese manager did they change their tune and allow us in.

‘The expulsion of two supporters who were merely holding up an A4 image of Mahsa Amini on Friday night was a disgrace.’

Mr Herbert said it was ‘an embarrassment to Austria’, who are hosting Iran for a World Cup preparation camp. He added: ‘This augurs extremely badly for Iran ahead of a Qatar World Cup, where their opening game will be against England.’

Protests have erupted across Iran after the death of Ms Amini, which followed her arrest by the hardline state’s morality police for ‘improperly’ wearing a headscarf. Demonstrations are expected to continue during the World Cup.

Austrian police said the protesters left the stadium ‘voluntarily’ and insisted there was ‘no intervention on the part of Iranian government officials’.