Iran’s government will only decide on the national team’s participation in the World Cup once they receive a response from FIFA over the relocation of their matches, the country’s \u200bMinister of Sport Ahmad Donyamali said.<\/p>\n
Iran’s football federation (FFIRI) has been pushing to move \u200cthe team’s three World Cup group-stage matches from the United States (US) to Mexico, citing American military involvement alongside Israel in strikes that sparked an ongoing war in the region.<\/p>\n
FFIRI said last month they were in discussions \u200bwith FIFA about a venue switch, while Iran’s sports ministry has banned national and \u200bclub sports teams from travelling to countries it considers hostile until further notice.<\/p>\n
FIFA President \u2060Gianni Infantino said last week, however, that Iran would play their matches as scheduled.<\/p>\n
“Our request \u200bto FIFA to relocate Iran’s games from the US to Mexico is still valid, but we \u200bhave not yet received a response,” Donyamali told Turkish state news agency Anadolu in an interview published at the weekend.<\/p>\n
“If accepted, Iran’s participation in the World Cup will be certain. However, FIFA has not yet responded.<\/p>\n
“As \u200bthe Minister of Sports, together with the Iranian football federation, we will keep the football \u200bteam ready for the World Cup. However, the final decision will be made by our government.”<\/p>\n
Iran are scheduled \u200cto \u2060play all of their Group G matches on American soil against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles before their final fixture against Egypt in Seattle.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump said last month that while Iran’s national team were welcome to play in the US, it might not be \u200bappropriate for their “life and \u200bsafety”.<\/p>\n
He later made it \u2060clear that any threat to players would not come from the United States.<\/p>\n
“According to FIFA’s relevant regulations, security must be provided in the \u200bcountry concerned,” Donyamali added. “However, the World Cup is taking place soon, and \u200bproviding guarantees \u2060during this period is questionable.<\/p>\n
“Under these circumstances, the possibility of Iran participating in the World Cup matches in the U.S. is very low. But, if the relevant security guarantees are provided, our government \u2060will \u200bmake the decision on Iran’s participation in the World \u200bCup.”<\/p>\n
FIFA did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.<\/p>\n
The World Cup takes place in the US, Mexico and \u200bCanada from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20527,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-31001","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The World Cup takes place in the US, Mexico and \u200bCanada from June 11 to July 19.","published_date":"","news_description":"The World Cup takes place in the US, Mexico and \u200bCanada from June 11 to July 19.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31003,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31001\/revisions\/31003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}