Women's Day: Joseph Blatter wants Iran to "open the nation’s football stadiums to women"

"Twenty years ago, I said that the future of football is feminine. Nowadays, more than 30 million girls and women play football in all 209 FIFA member associations," said Joseph Blatter, the president of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) on 06/03/2015, to mark International Women's Day, which was on 08/03/2015.

"When I travelled to Iran in November 2013, I was not only confronted with huge popular enthusiasm for football but also with a law forbidding women from attending football matches. [...] This cannot continue. Hence my appeal to the Iranian authorities: open the nation’s football stadiums to women!" added Blatter in a column titled "An Appeal to Iran" published in the FIFA Weekly magazine.

"In the Arab world, [...] our sport plays a crucial role in efforts to promote integration and equality for women" (Full text of Joseph Blatter's column on 06/03/2015)

• "08/03/2015 is International Women's Day. To mark the occasion, FIFA is staging a Women’s Football and Leadership…