Iran fans have seen their World Cup tickets revoked just days before the tournament begins.
Iran's football federation (FFIRI) on Tuesday claimed that its ticket allocation had been removed by co-hosts USA, calling it a decision “to sabotage the presence of Iranian fans” at the tournament.
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It leaves supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend their team's matches, which take place in the US; against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and Egypt in Seattle.
“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“In an unexpected move, the allocation granted to the Iranian Football Federation has been withdrawn, and under the current circumstances, the federation is unable to provide even a single ticket to supporters of the national team,” it continued.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.
Neither Fifa nor the US administration have publicly commented.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
