London:&nbsp;Eight members of Iran's national&nbsp;women's football team are actually men awaiting sex change&nbsp;operations, reports have claimed.
A report in the 'Daily Telegraph' quoted an Iranian&nbsp;football official revealing the bizarre development. Iran's&nbsp;national football association was accused of being "unethical"&nbsp;for knowingly fielding eight men in its women's team.
"(Eight players) have been playing with Iran's female&nbsp;team without completing sex change operations," Mojtabi&nbsp;Sharifi, an official close to the Iranian league, told an&nbsp;Iranian news website, which has been picked up by the British&nbsp;newspapers.
The report said that Iranian authorities ordered gender&nbsp;testing of the entire national squad and leading league players on Wednesday. The names of the players thought to be&nbsp;male were not revealed.
The Iranian women's team play in hijab headscarfs,&nbsp;long-sleeved tops and tracksuit bottoms.
In 2014, the country's football governing body introduced&nbsp;random checks after it was revealed that four national team&nbsp;players were either men who had not completed sex change&nbsp;operations, or were suffering from sexual development&nbsp;disorders, according to the newspaper.
In 2010, doubts were raised about the gender of the&nbsp;team's goalkeeper.
The newspaper said that gender change operations are&nbsp;legal in Iran though there are strict rules governing sexual&nbsp;morality, which forbid homosexuality and pre-marital sex. It&nbsp;also said that the full procedure of 'sex change' takes up to&nbsp;two years before the full gender transformation is completed.&nbsp;
Football is highly popular among many Iranian women,&nbsp;despite religious rules that bar them from entering stadiums&nbsp;to watch matches between male teams.&nbsp;
The Iranian national team is ranked 59th in the world and&nbsp;13th in Asia.

Eight members of Iran's national&nbsp;women's football team are actually men awaiting sex change&nbsp;operations, reports have claimed

Eight of Iranian women's football team 'are men': Reports

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Eight members of Iran's national&nbsp;women's football team are actually men awaiting sex change&nbsp;operations, reports have claimed

Eight of Iranian women's football team 'are men': Reports

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Eight of Iranian women's football team 'are men': Reports

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