The Iranian Sports Minister, Ahmad Donyamali, rules out the men’s team participating in what will be held this summer in the United States, Canada and Mexico due to the current war situation that the country is experiencing after the American and Israeli attack on February 28, during which the country’s leader died.
“Since this corrupt government has assassinated our leaderthere are no conditions under which we can participate in the World Cup in view of the malicious measures taken against Iran and that two wars have been imposed on us in eight or nine months and several thousand of our citizens have been killed. Therefore, we definitely have no possibility of participating in this way,” Donyamali said in a television interview.
Iran must play its three group stage matches against Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand in American cities, two of them in Los Angeles and another in Seattle. As indicated by the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, the president of the United States, Donald Trump assured him in their meeting this Wednesday that the Asian team is “welcome” to the country.
The president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, has also hinted at a boycott following events surrounding the women’s team at the Asian Cup in Australia. Six players decided to stay in the oceanic country after the Government of that country granted them humanitarian visas. US President Donald Trump had said they would offer these visas if the Australians did not do so.
“What sensible person would send his national team to the United States if the World Cup was as political as the Asian Cup in Australia was?” Taj warned in this regard.
Fines and penalties on Iran
If the military escalation in Iran is the determining factor for not participating in the World Cup, the country would be threatened with fines for being absent from the competition. If you notify FIFA more than thirty days in advance, The regulations contain that the Disciplinary Commission will impose a fine of more than $300,000. However, if you notify after next June 11, that amount could be increased to more than 600,000 thousand dollars.
On the other hand, the economic hole would increase because he will have to reimburse all the funds received from FIFA for the training and preparation of his team. That means about 1.5 million dollars for each team and a total of 10.5 million for playing the competition. To all this, the expulsion from future events organized by FIFA itself could be added.
Who can replace you
“If a participating federation withdraws or is excluded from the 26 FIFA World Cup, FIFA will decide at its sole discretion in this regard and will take the actions it deems necessary. FIFA may decide, in particular, to replace said federation with another,” states section 6.7 of the regulations that regulate these situations.
Given this situation, the main beneficiary of the Asian Confederation is Irakbut he is currently in the play-offs so he has not yet lost all the opportunities to go to the World Cup. If they qualify via play-offs, the other candidates would be Oman and United Arab Emirates. However, there may be crazy cases such as Israel participating, which came third in its group, making its participation impossible, in theory.
