Iran says entire ticket allocation for World Cup withdrawn days before tournament | OneFootball

Iran's ​football federation (FFIRI) said on Tuesday that its ⁠ticket allocation for the World Cup has been pulled ⁠just ​days before ⁠football's global showpiece kicks ⁠off.

This leaves supporters ​who ⁠had already ‌made travel plans unable to ‌attend their team's ‌matches, with the FFIRI calling it a decision “to sabotage the presence of Iranian fans” at the tournament.

“This is despite the fact that ⁠many Iranian football fans, relying on the officially announced process, had already made the ‌necessary plans ​to attend ‌the matches,” ⁠it added ⁠in a statement.

It said the move was “contrary to the spirit governing international competitions and the principle of equality among participating countries”.

Under Fifa regulations every participating country gets eight percent of tickets for each match allocated to its federation to officially distribute to fans, with Iran due to receive the standard allocation.

However, the FFIRI is now claiming to have had this revoked just days before their Group G opener with New Zealand in Los Angeles on 15 June.

“In an unexpected move, the allocation granted to the Iranian Football Federation has been withdrawn, and under the current circumstances, the federation is unable to provide even a single ticket to supporters of the national team,” it continued.

Iran, who have already accused the US of “discriminatory behaviour” for denying visas to key members of staff, have denounced this as an “obstruction” of Iranian fans.

Iran’s presence in this summer’s tournament was thrown into doubt after the outbreak of war with the USA and Israel in February.

The team has moved its base to Tijuana, Mexico after reports that the Trump administration did not want it at its original planned base in Tucson, Arizona.

US visas for players were only approved on Friday but several members of staff, including Mehdi Taj, the head of Iran’s football federation, were denied visas.

Abolfazl Pasandideh, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, said the visas were issued under strict conditions that the team leave US soil on the same day as their matches.

This is despite World Cup rules which state every team is expected to travel the day before each game, to attend a press conference at the stadium.

Iran will play all of their group stage games in the US: they are slated to face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and Egypt in Seattle.

Neither Fifa nor the US administration have publicly commented.