‘Iran will boycott the United States, not the World Cup’, says president of the federation

Iran will “boycott the United States, but not the World Cup” of football, said the president of the Iranian Federation, Mehdi Taj. According to FIFA’s draw, Iran should play the group stage matches of the World Cup in the United States, but the possibility of moving the matches to Mexico is being examined. “We will prepare for the World Cup. We will boycott the United States, but not the World Cup,” Taj declared in a video released by the Fars news agency. The Iranian Football Federation revealed that it has started talks with FIFA about the possibility of transferring its matches, but the entity that governs world football says that the tournament calendar will not be changed. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that her country is prepared to host Iran’s group stage matches if necessary due to the conflict in the Middle East. “Mexico maintains diplomatic relations with all countries in the world, so we will wait and see what FIFA decides,” said the president. FIFA President Gianni Infantino initially stated that United States President Donald Trump had given assurances that the Iranian team was welcome in the country. The official calendar predicts that Iran will face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and then Egypt in Seattle, in Group G of the World Cup. Trump drew criticism last week when he declared that Iran’s national team should not travel to the tournament “for their own life and safety.” Tehran responded that “no one can exclude Iran’s national team from the World Cup”. Iran was the second Asian team, after Japan, to qualify for the World Cup, securing its place almost a year ago. The Iranian team’s training base for the tournament should be Tucson, Arizona. Abolfazl Pasandideh, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, denounced on Monday “the lack of cooperation from the United States government in issuing visas and providing logistical support” to the Iranian delegation for the tournament.

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