{"id":484663,"date":"2026-06-09T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/484663\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:26:10","slug":"iran-federation-says-ticket-allocation-has-been-pulled-days-before-start-of-world-cup-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/484663\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran federation says ticket allocation has been pulled days before start of World Cup | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s football federation said on Tuesday its ticket allocation had been pulled just days before the World Cup<\/a> starts, leaving supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend their team\u2019s matches.<\/p>\n

The World Cup begins on Thursday, with Iran<\/a> playing their first two Group G games in Los Angeles, against New Zealand on 15 June and Belgium on 21 June, and then facing Egypt in Seattle on 26 June. In a statement, the Iranian federation said it had already begun the ticket sales process for the matches but could no longer provide them to fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is despite the fact that many Iranian football fans, relying on the officially announced process, had already made the necessary plans to attend the matches,\u201d the FFIRI added in a statement. \u201cDepriving Iranian supporters of access to their lawful and official allocation of tickets is an action contrary to the spirit governing international competitions and the principle of equality among participating countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis development raises serious questions about the interference of non-sporting and political considerations in the organization of the world\u2019s biggest football event.\u201c<\/p>\n

Each participating federation at the World Cup receives 8% of the tickets for each of their matches to be allocated to fans according to their own criteria. The FFIRI did not say who had made the decision to withhold the tickets but urged Fifa, football\u2019s governing body, to adhere to \u201cthe principles of neutrality, fairness, and established regulations\u201d and called on it to prevent off-field issues from casting a shadow over the tournament. Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s participation in the World Cup has been clouded by uncertainty since the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in late February, triggering a regional conflict. Iranians have been subject to a travel ban by the US government for five months.<\/p>\n

The FFIRI negotiated to move the team\u2019s base camp from Arizona to Mexico<\/a> due to uncertainty over whether they would be granted US visas and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad\u2019s presence in the US should be kept to a minimum. After weeks of uncertainty, the US awarded visas to all the players last week \u2013 10 days before their first match \u2013 but several members of staff did not receive them<\/a>. A US official told Reuters on Friday that the administration had issued \u201cthe visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fifa said earlier on Tuesday that their secretary general, Mattias Grafstr\u00f6m, had held a \u201cpositive discussion\u201d with the FFIRI president, Mehdi Taj, after the team arrived at their tournament base. \u201cWith the team now in Mexico, Fifa will continue dialogue and collaboration with the FFIRI to ensure the team and the delegation\u2019s experience is a positive one,\u201d Grafstr\u00f6m said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s football federation said on Tuesday its ticket allocation had been pulled just days before the World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-484663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}