Iran says entire ticket allocation for World Cup withdrawn days before tournament
· Yahoo Sports
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.
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This leaves supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend their team's matches.
“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,” the FFIRI added in a statement.
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.
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