Iran: Top-tier football players detained following New Year's Eve party raid

Iranian police carried out a raid at a New Year’s Eve party taking place in Tehran where several top-tier football players were temporarily detained. The players were temporarily detained in violation of Islamic law against serving alcoholic drinks.

Iranian media outlets reported over the New Year’s weekend that the police raided a party taking place east of the capital Tehran. The Tasnim news outlet reported that several current players and one former player of a top Tehran football club were briefly detained following the raid over violating Islamic law on alcoholic drinks.

“Some of the players were in an abnormal state due to alcohol consumption,” said the outlet.

Islamic law prohibits interaction between sexes outside of marriage and drinking alcohol. Such social restrictions are part of the issues that triggered mass unrest since September, following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. Amini died days after getting detained for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code on women.

Tehran has sought to blame its foreign adversaries such as the United States and Israel for the unrest that marks one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical regime since the 1979 Revolution. Two protesters have already been executed by the hardline judiciary.

The YJC news outlet said the gathering was a birthday party and that all those who were detained were released except for one person who is not a soccer player. The Fars news outlet reported a prosecutor saying that a case was filed against those who were detained and more details would be revealed.

On Monday, the Telegraph reported that the British government would officially designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, citing sources familiar with the matter. The designation by the UK of the IRGC would mean any association with the group would be criminalized, even such as attending meetings or carrying its logo in public.

The designation is set to be announced in the coming weeks and was already approved by British security minister Tom Tugendhat and Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

The move also follows Tehran’s arrest of seven individuals with links to the UK, some of which are dual citizens. Sunak, on Wednesday last week, urged Tehran to stop detaining dual nationals for diplomatic leverage.