Ukraine FA calls on FIFA to ban Iran from World Cup

The Ukrainian Association of Football has called on FIFA to exclude Iran from the World Cup in Qatar.

The executive committee of the UAF claims it has made a request to the global governing body to kick Iran out of the tournament, over what it describes as the country’s ‘systematic human rights violations’.

It has also cited the “possible involvement of Iran in the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine.”

Iran are due to kick off their World Cup campaign against England on November 21.

Anti-government protests have engulfed the Middle East country since the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16.

Amini had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.

A group of Iranian sports personalities had already called on FIFA to ban the country from the tournament on the basis that the failure to allow women to attend matches in the country constituted a breach of FIFA’s own articles.

Now Ukraine has added further political pressure, citing the Iranian government’s treatment of its own people and its suggestion that the regime in Tehran could be supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.