TEHRAN – FIFA has asked the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) to postpone the electoral assembly until the federation amend its current statutes.

Football international governing body had already sent a letter to the Iranian federation on Feb. 24, 2020, emphasizing that the FFIRI General Assembly, scheduled for 15 March 2020 should be postponed.

FIFA had hinted that the current version of the FFIRI statutes contains several particularly problematic provisions such as government interference in the FFIRI elections.

In the letter, it was reminded that direct representation of governmental authorities, with voting rights, in a sports association's supreme body contravenes the basic principles of independence of sports set out by the Olympic Movement and it goes against the obligations imposed on our Member Associations by the FIFA Statutes as well.

Besides, FIFA reminded that there must be an electoral committee and an electoral appeal committee to be elected or ratified by its general assembly of FFIRI, which the current version of FFIRI Statutes lacks.

The Iranian federation, in response to the letter, provided some documents and appealed to FIFA so that the FFIRI elections to be held on the scheduled date.

However, FIFA did not consider these documents to be sufficient and, in a new letter, asked the FFIRI officials to conduct revision and amendment in the current statutes and then after the approval of the general assembly, the football federation’s elections can be held.