Iran to lodge complaint with FIFA over World Cup restrictions

The Iranian football federation said Thursday it will lodge a complaint with FIFA claiming its team is being subjected to travel restrictions during the World Cup in North America.

Iran wanted to fly from their base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, to the United States two days before their next match, against Belgium in Los Angeles on Sunday.

But a spokesman for the Iranian federation said its request was turned down.

“Despite having submitted its preparation schedule for the tournament well in advance, Iran’s national football team has once again encountered restrictions imposed by the organizers, affecting the implementation of its technical staff’s plans,” the spokesman said.

“Given that the game will be played at 12:00 pm local time in Los Angeles (1900 GMT), the Football Federation of Iran requested that the team be allowed to travel to Los Angeles two days before the match.”

It said the aim of its request was to allow players “to adapt to the match conditions, complete their final training session, and finalize preparations”.

“Despite the technical reasons presented by the federation, the request was once again denied,” the federation spokesman added.

“The federation will formally express its dissatisfaction and lodge an official complaint with FIFA through the appropriate channels.”

The Iranians were also angry that they had to leave Los Angeles the night of their first game of the World Cup, a 2-2 draw against New Zealand.

The US administration has pushed back against the Iranian claims.

Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, said on Monday that Iran had been informed in advance that they would only be allowed to enter the United States on the day before the game.

“The team will be allowed to come in, match day minus one, so the day before the match,” Giuliani told CBS News.

“They’ll be asked to leave the day that the match wraps up, so the evening of the match. And they’ll be able to do that again in Los Angeles.”

He added that the procedure would be the same for Iran’s final group game against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

Iran had a troubled buildup to the World Cup due to the war in the Middle East.

It switched its training base from Tucson, Arizona to Tijuana on the US-Mexico border shortly before the tournament began and says up to 15 team officials have been refused visas to enter the United States.