Iran denies report on anti-FIFA complaint

MNA – The Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) Saturday denied the report of the German site “sport1” that it has lodged a complaint against the world’s soccer body FIFA.

On Nov. 22, the FIFA Emergency Committee, composed of the FIFA president and one representative of each of the six confederations, decided to suspend the IRIFF from all international activities due to government’s interference in football matters and violation of Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes.

The committee took this decision after determining that the IRIFF was not adhering to the principles of the FIFA Statutes regarding the independence of member associations, the independence of the decision-making process of the football governing body in each country, and the way in which changes in the leadership of associations are brought about.

The Iranian federation announced that it is doing its best to settle the problem through negotiations and does not bring a complaint against FIFA.

The FIFA Emergency Committee further approved the following roadmap:

- Establishment of an IRIFF Normalization Committee appointed by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the composition of which reflects the role of football’s stakeholders;

- Drafting of new statutes on the basis of the FIFA Standard Statutes;

- Organization of new elections under the supervision of FIFA and the AFC after the approval of the abovementioned new IRIFF statutes.