{"id":534691,"date":"2026-03-12T03:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534691\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:39:14","slug":"we-would-love-to-have-them-queensland-football-club-offers-iranian-players-granted-asylum-new-home-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534691\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We would love to have them’: Queensland football club offers Iranian players granted asylum new home base"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland football club has offered a new home base to players from the Iranian women’s soccer team who have been granted asylum in Australia.<\/p>\n

Six women and one support official from the Lionesses have opted to stay in Australia and break away from Iran’s regime after the squad refused to sing their national anthem at an Asian Cup game last week<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their move prompted serious concerns regarding their safety back in Iran and potential ramifications for their families.<\/p>\n

Brisbane Roar chief executive Kaz Patafta has since offered the teammates a new home to continue to train and play football in the River City.<\/p>\n

“We’ve made an offer for them to have a home base and somewhere they can continue to play their trade,” Mr Patafta told Sky News on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Patafta said his team had not yet spoken directly with the women, but they had been in contact with a former coach and some of the players’ families.<\/p>\n

“We have heard directly from their people. They\u2019re very interested to come and train, to ensure that they\u2019ve got a safe place to play, (and) they can utilise our recovery facilities and gym,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are also conscious there is a lot going on for them at the moment.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not their priority, but they know they\u2019ve got a warm home.”<\/p>\n

Mr Patafta said having the Iranian players at the club would make for an amazing environment.<\/p>\n

“These are elite athletes. They\u2019ve just participated in an elite tournament in the Asian Cup. For them it\u2019s about continuing to play football, and for us it\u2019s about welcoming them to our football club,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We\u2019d love to have them there and participate and train with our team, and you don\u2019t know what the future holds.<\/p>\n

“These are… elite footballers. To have them in and around our environment would be amazing.”<\/p>\n

Brisbane Roar also extended the invitation to the team members on social media.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019d be honoured to open our doors and offer you a place to train, play, and belong and will begin to explore how to make this happen,” a post read on Instagram.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“No politics. No conditions. Just football, community, and a warm welcome.<\/p>\n

“Queensland is your home now.”<\/p>\n

\"Iran<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed that five players had been granted humanitarian visas and the same opportunity would be available to others in the squad who wished to stay in Australia.<\/p>\n

The next day, he confirmed that two additional members<\/a> had opted to stay in Australia, just before the team was due to fly out of the country to travel back to Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When I met with them, I made them the same offer that I had made the five players the night before… if they wanted to receive a humanitarian visa for Australia, which would have a pathway to permanent visa, I would have the paperwork ready to execute that immediately,” Mr Burke said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“They both said that they did. I signed off on that, asked the department to start processing straight away and, overnight, processing happened.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland football club has offered a new home base to players from the Iranian women’s soccer team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[47974,64,63,134301,596,5575,26160,85,15387],"class_list":["post-534691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-asylum","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-roar","tag-football","tag-iran","tag-lionesses","tag-sports","tag-tony-burke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}