Italy’s repechage to the World Cup: there is a "backup plan"

Iranian national soccer team manager Mehdi Mohammad Nabi in an interview with the Irna news agency spoke out on Team Melli’s worrisome visa situation. According to Nabi, the situation could be resolved within 10 days if everything goes as planned. “On Thursday we will travel to Ankara, where we have set appointments at the embassies of the United States and Canada.”

“It must be said that about 50 percent of the national teams participating in the World Cup are still in the visa application stage. We trust that ours will be granted within about ten days. In any case, we already have a backup plan ready which we will make known at the appropriate time,” Nabi revealed.

On the ban on displaying flags other than the official flag of Iran in stadiums, “This restriction existed in previous World Cups as well. Mehdi Taj’s intervention was appropriate and timely, to remind FIFA not to forget about it.”

Iran is therefore pulling straight despite the uncertainties: it will play some preparation friendlies soon: “We will play against Gambia and we are finalizing an agreement with another African team. A lesser match is also planned before the game with Gambia.”

An encouraging signal had come in recent days from Zurich, where FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström had described the talks with the Iranian Football Federation as “very constructive,” declaring, “We are cooperating closely and look forward to welcoming the Islamic Republic of Iran to the World Cup.” In the background, Italy remains vigilant, which under Article 6.7 of FIFA regulations-which stipulates that FIFA may replace a withdrawn or excluded association with another federation-represents the leading candidate for repechage by virtue of its ranking among non-qualified teams.