Jun 9, 2026, 07:18 AM ET

The Iranian football federation announced Tuesday that FIFA has withdrawn the supporter ticket quota for Iran's three World Cup matches on American soil.

Under tournament rules each of the 48 participating federations receives an allocation equal to eight percent of stadium capacity, amounting to several thousand tickets per fixture for distribution to fans.

With Iran scheduled to open against New Zealand on June 15 at the Rams stadium in Inglewood, the federation stated it can no longer supply any tickets to its supporters.

FIFA has not yet responded to requests for comment on the matter.

The development heightens existing tensions involving Iranian football, FIFA and co-host the United States, which launched military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran's squad has relocated its training base to the Mexican border city of Tijuana after earlier plans to prepare in Tucson, Arizona, were abandoned.

Additional federation officials have also been refused entry visas, complicating preparations for matches against Belgium on June 21 in Inglewood and Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.

National federations normally allocate their ticket shares to dedicated supporters who regularly follow the team at home and abroad.

Residents of Iran have faced a U.S. travel ban since last year, making entry unlikely even before the current situation. It remains unclear how many tickets from the allocation reached members of the Iranian diaspora inside the United States after the December draw.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino remarked in 2017, during the U.S. co-hosting bid process, that qualified teams and their fans must receive access to host nations.

"Any team, including the supporters and the officials of that team, who would qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup," he said at the time.

A match referee appointed from Somalia was denied U.S. entry in Miami last weekend and has been removed from the 104-game tournament that begins Thursday.