The Ukrainian Association of Football has called for Iran to be excluded from the World Cup in Qatar. The UAF’s executive committee says it has made a request to global governing body FIFA to kick Iran out of the tournament, which starts on November 20, over what it describes as the country’s “systematic human rights violations” and “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 21st. Anti-government protests have engulfed the Middle East country since the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16th.
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.