FIFA’s desperate bid to keep Iran in the World Cup | OneFootball

It is now two of the three host countries of the World Cup, which will begin next June 11, that have raised their diplomatic tension with Iran, which, despite having already qualified its national team, now faces doubts over its actual participation for those reasons.

Iran’s poor relations with the United States are well known, worsened by the joint bombing with Israel that Donald Trump’s government ordered on Tehran at the end of February. Now, the tension has also spread to Canada after the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, and other officials traveling with him were denied entry into the country, preventing them from taking part in the 76th FIFA Congress to be held this Thursday in Vancouver, with all eyes on the organization of the World Cup.

The fact that the federation officials had obtained their visas on Monday, boarded a flight to Canada, and once there were informed that they would not be allowed into the country was seen as a “humiliation,” and Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported “inappropriate treatment by immigration officials.” This led the delegation to take another flight to Turkey, giving up any possibility of attending the Congress.

The situation has become so tense that the danger of the Iranian national team withdrawing from the World Cup, for which it qualified on merit, is growing, a scenario that Gianni Infantino himself has always tried to dismiss. In fact, in an attempt to rebuild those diplomatic relations that the United States, and now Canada, seem intent on weakening, the FIFA president made a desperate offer to the federation officials.

According to reports cited by the French outlet RMC Sport, the head of world football’s governing body intends to arrange in the coming days a meeting at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, which will also be attended by other senior officials from the organization. At that meeting, Mehdi Taj will be briefed on much of what was discussed and decided at the Vancouver Congress, but above all an effort will be made to reach a decision on Iran’s participation in the World Cup.

The absence of the president of the Iranian Federation from the 76th FIFA Congress being held this Thursday in Vancouver, which is also one of the host cities for the World Cup, only adds to the uncertainty over the national team’s participation in the tournament, something that has been at risk ever since the United States, the main host country, ordered a bombing of Tehran jointly with Israel at the end of February.

Despite the assurances Gianni Infantino tried to offer, Iranian Football Federation president Mehdi Taj had already made it clear that the final word on whether or not the national team will take part belongs to the Iranian government, which will not look favorably on the recent refusal to allow the federation officials into Canada.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.