Iranian TV censors Italian football badge

Iranian TV/Mehdi Rostampour Screen capture of Iranian TV showing censorship of AS Roma's club badgeIranian TV/Mehdi Rostampour
The Capitoline Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus proves too much for Iranian censors

Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that Iranian state television censored the logo of an Italian football club during its coverage of UEFA Champions League football.

While AS Roma were being roundly beaten by FC Barcelona in the competition's quarter-finals last night, people watching Iran TV's third channel noticed that producers had blurred out a female wolf's teats on the club badge.

The team from the Italian capital's logo shows Romulus and Remus being suckled by the Capitoline Wolf, from the myth surrounding the foundation of Rome,

However, that appeared to be too much for bosses at Iran's Voice and Vision organisation, and the club's badge appeared on screen with the nipples clearly blurred.

The move was greeted with taunts and mockery on social media.

"In 3,000 years, Remus and Romulus were only deprived of their mother's milk, but Iran's state broadcaster deprived them of even a wolf's milk," Denmark-based Iranian sports journalists Mehdi Rostampour wrote on his Telegram channel.

"People could have been provoked by the wolf's breasts!" said one Twitter user, while another mocked the producers' prudishness by claiming "We could have touched ourselves".

However, one user expressed their lack of surprise: "They're so meticulous."

AFP AS Roma players train in front of an uncensored club badgeAFP
AS Roma players train in front of an uncensored club badge

Reporting by Alistair Coleman

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