Iran to face Western geopolitical rivals in World Cup as backlash mounts over its protest crackdown
The Football Association of the United Arab Emirates has condemned the Iranian Football Federation’s decision to suspend its women’s team, saying that the decision threatened to “jeopardize world peace”.
Iran has come under global pressure to respond to the football team’s decision to leave the country, as hundreds of football fans protested across the country, holding banners and chanting “death to the enemy” in support of the IFFU.
The IFFU also said that its board had banned an Iranian team from competing in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta because of similar issues.
Iran has been in a race against time to host the soccer competition, with the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Australia preparing to host the competition later this year.
“It’s not acceptable to leave the country after more than 30 years of participation in the Asian Games in Indonesia,” the IFFU quoted the Iranian Football Federation’s director at the Asian Games committee as saying. “If any team is kicked out, it will be a big shame. It will not only affect the Asian Games, but also the FIFA World Cup.”
The IFFU said that one of its board members had expressed his “full support” for the Iran team’s decision to boycott the Asian Games.
“The director of the IFFU said the IFFU’s board has no choice but to ban the Iranian football team due to this decision. If the board was not against it, we would have let them to play the Asian Games,” the IFFU said.
The IFFU said a decision by the Iranian Football Federation to ban the women’s Iranian team from participating in the Asian Games was a “provocation,” and called on the World Court at The Hague in The Netherlands “to investigate this violation of the FIFA rules and the International Cup of Asian Games rules.”
The protest over Tehran’s protest crackdown was unprecedented. Organizers said they had never seen protests like the one in the capital last month.
The U.S. State Department has warned U.S. citizens in Iran to stay away. A State Department spokesperson said Friday the U.S. would continue to monitor events there.
The United States has not officially recognised the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who came to office in 2013. But many in Iran, and in the
