Tehran (EFE).- The Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFI) announced this Friday that it has filed a complaint with FIFA regarding the restrictions faced by the Persian country’s national team in traveling to the United States ahead of matches.
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The FFI requested to travel to Los Angeles two days before Sunday’s match against Belgium, given that the game is played at 12 noon, and sought to have time for the players to acclimatize and rest, but the request was rejected.
“The Iranian Football Federation considers these restrictions to be incompatible with the principle of equal conditions for participating teams and could affect the technical preparation of the teams,” the organization indicated in a statement.
“Consequently, the Federation, while expressing its dissatisfaction with this decision, has filed its protest with FIFA through official channels,” it reported.
The same situation in the New Zealand match
This same situation already occurred in the New Zealand match last week, when U.S. authorities only allowed the Iranian team to travel one day before.
Iran has reported numerous problems playing matches in the United States.
The Asian national team has in fact established its operations center during the World Cup in the Mexican city of Tijuana, on the border with the United States, due to logistical and diplomatic obstacles for which it blames the White House.
According to Iranian authorities, fifteen team members and several members of the coaching and management staff have not received authorization to enter the United States.
The FFI also denounced, before the start of the championship, that the United States had revoked the tickets that correspond to it according to FIFA rules to try to prevent the attendance of Iranian fans at the World Cup matches.
It is the fourth consecutive FIFA World Cup that Iran will attend, as well as the seventh time it has participated in its entire history. However, it has never managed to get past the first round.
