The Iranian Football Federation announced that the International Football Federation (FIFA) has canceled the distribution of tickets for Iranian fans for three group stage matches of this year's World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Each of the 48 national associations of the teams participating in the tournament has the right to receive and distribute eight percent of the stadium capacity for each of their matches at the World Cup, which further increases to several thousand tickets per match.
Those allocations were typically released to each team's most loyal fans shortly after the tournament draw in December, when Iranians had already been under a travel ban by the US government for five months.
Now, just days before the Iranian national team begins the World Cup with a match against New Zealand in Los Angeles, the Iranian Football Federation has claimed in a statement carried by semi-official state media that it is now unable to provide any tickets to its fans.
This claim further intensifies tensions between the Iranian Football Federation, FIFA and one of the tournament organizers, the United States (US), which launched military strikes on Iran on February 28.
Fifa has full authority over World Cup ticketing operations, but the Iranian Football Federation has suggested that the United States has now taken steps to prevent Iranian fans from entering stadiums.
"This incident raises serious questions about the influence of unsporting and political considerations on the organization of the world's biggest football event," the Iranian Football Federation said.
Fifa said in a statement that it was "working closely with the Football Association of Iran to identify solutions that maximize opportunities for Iranian fans to attend matches."
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and FIFA Secretary General Matthias Grafström have pledged logistical support in personal meetings with Iranian football officials in Turkey in recent weeks.
Most of the 26-member Iranian team has not played a competitive match since February because they play for clubs in a domestic league that has been closed due to the war.
They are now based in the Mexican border city of Tijuana instead of the pre-war plan to train in Tucson, Arizona.
Some federation officials have also been denied visas to enter the US, where Iran also plays Belgium in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, on June 21 and then Egypt in Seattle on June 26.
White House FIFA task force executive director Andrew Giuliani said the Iranian team would be able to enter the U.S. the day before the game and noted that it is a short flight from Tijuana to Los Angeles.
He confirmed that some Iranian officials "will not be coming" and while he declined to go into details, Giuliani added that "some people who claim to be trainers may not actually be."
"The president has been clear on this issue, he wants to make sure they have every opportunity to compete here on a level playing field, and at the same time make sure that people who work directly, say, with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) do not have access to the United States," Giuliani said.
Fans who want to come to the US to follow the team will likely face problems obtaining visas and making payments while financial sanctions are in place.
"However, in an unexpected move, the allocation given to the Iran Football Federation has been withdrawn and under the current circumstances the Federation is unable to offer a single ticket to fans of the national team," the Iran Football Federation said in a statement.
It is not clear how many tickets from the Iranian allocation were sold, whether they live in their home country or are part of the diaspora, including about a million people in the US.
If the Iranian tickets are cancelled, Fifa would have just a few days to sell about 5.600 tickets for the Iran-New Zealand match on Monday, even though Los Angeles has the largest Iranian community in the US.
FIFA's sales website today showed rows of pitch-level seats available for $450 apiece, though in the dozens, not the hundreds.
Yet Infantino stated in 2017, when U.S. soccer officials were preparing a joint bid to host with Canada and Mexico, which they won the following year, that fans must have access to the tournament.
"It is also obvious when it comes to Fifa competitions that any team, including fans and officials of that team, that would qualify for the World Cup must have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup. That is obvious," Infantino said nine years ago.
The U.S.'s policy toward World Cup visitors is becoming a strong topic before the games begin on Thursday.
A Somali referee, appointed by Fifa, was banned from entering the US in Miami over the weekend and was expelled from the tournament, which begins in Mexico City, on Monday.
The Iraqi national team was detained for several hours after arriving in Chicago, and a photographer traveling with the Iraqi delegation was denied entry.
The head of FIFA's anti-discrimination monitoring partner, Piara Povar, said she believes the US government is interfering too much in the running of the World Cup.
"The disruption is such that one has to ask who is running the World Cup. Is it Fifa or is it the US government with its racially tinged immigration policies? Before the ball is kicked, the feeling begins to prevail that this World Cup is anything but the celebration of global humanity that the World Cup should be," said Povar.
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