The Iranian football federation has had enough and has decided to raise their complaints to FIFA, lodging a complaint against the organisers of the competition regarding the strict rules that forbid them of staying overnight at the United States to play their matches.
The team asked to fly from their base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, to the United States two days in advance of their next World Cup match (against Belgium, on Sunday, at 12:00 PM local time in Los Angeles, 21:00 CEST, 20:00 BST). They were denied permission.
"Despite having submitted its preparation schedule for the tournament well in advance, Iran's national football team has once again encountered restrictions imposed by the organisers, affecting the implementation of its technical staff's plans", the Federation said. "Given that the game will be played at 12pm local time in Los Angeles, the football federation of Iran requested that the team be allowed to travel to Los Angeles two days before the match".
"The aim was to provide sufficient time for players to adapt to the match conditions, complete their final training session, and finalise preparations"
United States has ordered Iran to enter and leave the country within hours of the match. For their opening match against New Zealand, they were allowed to arrive to the country the night before, but that "luxury" was denied for Game 2. This naturally causes physical constraints in the player: less time to prepare for the match, less time to recover. All of that, while the new ceasefire and agreement between US and Iran, expected to be signed today, has been delayed...