There is an extremely remote possibility Italy could be promoted to the 2022 World Cup if Iran is excluded for banning women from the stadium.
The theory was floated by Sport Mediaset, followed by Sky Sport Italia and Sportitalia, but remains very improbable.
It became an issue because Iran locked 2,000 women out of the stadium for their World Cup qualifier against Lebanon, despite the fact they had purchased tickets.
Iran won the game 2-0, but had already been warned by FIFA in 2019 to stop banning women from the stands.
As this is a repeat offence, member of the Iranian Football Federation Mehrdad Seradschi noted on Twitter he had heard “worrying news from FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation.”
The most extreme approach would be for FIFA to exclude Iran from the 2022 World Cup, for which they have already booked their spot.
If that were to happen, in theory FIFA could promote in their place a country with the highest co-efficient in the world rankings that has missed out.
That would be current Champions of Europe Italy, who didn’t even make it to the play-off finals after a 1-0 defeat to North Macedonia.
