TEHRAN - The Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) has released a statement on choosing Bahrain as host of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Group C.

Bahrain was chosen as centralized venue for the competition in Group C by AFC on Friday,

The matches are scheduled to take place from May 31 to June 15.

Iran was originally scheduled to host three matches out of four remaining matches before coronavirus shut down the competitions.

Now, the Iranian federation has showed dissatisfaction over the AFC’s decision.

“On Jan. 5, the AFC announced that the renaming matches would be held on a home and away basis but unfortunately in a webinar session held on Feb. 16 the AFC announced that the competition would likely be held at a centralized venue. Iran had already sent a letter to the AFC and announced that the competition, under no circumstances, should not be held at a centralized venue,” the statement said.

“On March 3 the FFIRI submitted its request to host the matches and AFC said that Iran faces difficulties in terms of commercial, broadcasting and logistics due to the U.S. sanctions. Iran, relying on logical reasons, once again, sent a letter to the AFC and defended its right to host any international competition.

“Iran was completely ready to host the remaining matches but in a surprising move, the AFC granted the hosting rights to Bahrain. The commercial and broadcasting rights had to be devoted to the participating countries but the AFC selected Bahrain as host. The AFC ignored Iran’s inalienable right for hosting the remaining matches.

“The AFC uses sanctions as an excuse to ignore our inalienable rights to host the competitions. The football federation reserves the right to take all necessary measures to defend its right according to the international laws,” the statement read.