Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are viewed as the most likely beneficiaries should Iran withdraw from the World Cup, The Guardian reports.
Fifa’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, said on Saturday that “our focus is to have a safe World Cup with everybody participating”, but the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, has raised doubts over his country’s participation by saying: “After this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope.”
Fifa has not commented since Grafström spoke and remains determined to ensure the World Cup, which starts on 11 June, goes ahead as planned, but several sources have said that if its hand were forced by Iran’s withdrawal the replacement will probably come from the Asian Football Confederation.
Fifa’s World Cup regulations are vague on replacing a team that have qualified for the finals, stating only that it has “sole discretion” to “take whatever action is deemed necessary”, and that it “may decide to replace the participating member association in question with another association”.
Iran’s withdrawal from the World Cup would be unprecedented in the modern era, no country having pulled out of the tournament after the draw since France and India did not take part in 1950, citing travel costs.
Iran secured their place at the World Cup finals by winning Group A of the third round of AFC qualifying and are due to play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles then Egypt in Seattle in their group matches.
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The UAE lost a playoff against Iraq, which took the victors to an intercontinental playoff on 31 March against Bolivia or Suriname in Monterrey, from which the winners will reach the finals.
If Iraq fail to qualify, Fifa sources have indicated they would be first in line to replace Iran if necessary. If Iraq do reach the finals any place may default to the UAE, the next highest-ranked country from Asia not to have a place at the finals.
Fifa remains focused on the World Cup being played as scheduled, despite the conflict between Iran and the US. The US government has barred Iranian citizens from entering the country, with limited exceptions for members of the national team and support staff, and several IFF officials, including Taj, were denied visas to attend the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December.
