The Iranian football federation’s president has said they may pull out of this summer’s ‘inappropriate’ World Cup in America after the ‘US and Israeli bombardments on their nation.
The Islamic Republic’s national team have been drawn in Group G of the tournament alongside New Zealand, Belgium, and Egypt, but the prospect of their participation is growing increasingly uncertain.
Following the death of their Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran have been launching widespread retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, largely targeting US and Israeli military bases.
And Mehdi Taj, who leads Iran’s football federation, has told Iranian media over the last 24 hours that the country’s participation in the tournament is in doubt.
‘It’s not possible to say exactly, but there will certainly be a response,’ he said on IRIB Channel 3. ‘This will be studied by the country’s high-ranking sports officials, and there will be a decision on what’s going to happen.
‘But what we can say now is that due to this attack and its viciousness, it is far from our expectations that we can look at the World Cup with hope.’
He added that it would be ‘inappropriate’ for Iran to compete under the current circumstances.
With just 101 days until the tournament kicks off across the US, Canada, and Mexico, questions are continuing to grow for FIFA surrounding their plan should Iran pull out.
At present, FIFA’s only public comment about the war in the Middle East has come from its general secretary, Mattias Grafstrom.
‘I read the news (about Iran) this morning the same way you did,’ Grafstrom said on Saturday at the International Football Association Board’s AGM in Cardiff.
‘We had a meeting today, and it is premature to comment in detail, but we will monitor developments around all issues around the world.
‘We had the finals draw in Washington in which all teams participated, and our focus is on a safe World Cup with all the teams participating.
‘We will continue to communicate as we always do with three (host) governments, as we always do in any case. Everybody will be safe.’
Should they pull out, however, FIFA will have to quickly introduce a replacement.
According to their own regulations, this would be a ‘nominated alternate, often the direct runner-up from the relevant qualifying playoff or highest-ranked non-qualified team from that confederation’.
Iraq would be the frontrunners should they fail to qualify through this month’s Inter-Continental play-off final against either Bolivia or Suriname.
However, if Iraq win and qualify automatically, the nation most likely to replace Iran would be the United Arab Emirates, who lost their confederation play-off to Iraq last year.