Iran said Tuesday that its allotment of World Cup tickets for its three group stage games had been pulled off the market.
Iran’s first game of the 2026 World Cup is on June 15. In a statement obtained by Reuters, its soccer federation said that it had begun selling tickets to the three games but those tickets are now no longer available.
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In that statement, the federation intimated that there was possible political interference behind the move, but did not offer a specific reason why the tickets were no longer for sale or directly blame the United States or FIFA for the removal of the tickets.
“This 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,” the FFIRI added in a statement.
“Depriving 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.
“This development raises serious questions about the interference of non-sporting and political considerations in the organization of the world’s biggest football event.”
Each country receives a ticket allocation of 8% of a stadium’s capacity for all of its World Cup matches.
As the United States, Israel and Iran are in the middle of a war that does not seem to be nearing an end, Iran’s World Cup process has been far from straightforward. The team has moved its base camp to Tijuana, Mexico, even though all three of its group stage games — June 15 and 21 in Los Angeles and June 26 in Seattle — are in the United States. The Iranian team has said it is not staying overnight for any of its games. It’s flying in before the game and then immediately departing back to its base camp.
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The statement also came days after Iran said the United States had not granted visas to everyone in the team’s traveling party. The team arrived in Mexico on Sunday, several days later than it had originally planned to come to North America for the World Cup because of visa delays.
Each Iranian player was granted a visa for the World Cup, but its embassy said that some support staff had been prevented from entering the U.S.
The United States has said that it granted visas to all “necessary” support staff. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump blamed Iran for shooting down an Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz and said on social media that it was necessary for the U.S. to respond. Trump has been teasing a permanent ceasefire among the countries for weeks after a temporary deal was reached in April.
