Many Iranian and African journalists have been denied the necessary visas to cover the World Cup in the United States, according to the International Sports Press Association.
The association sent a letter on Friday to Bryan Swanson, FIFA’s director of media relations, and Jochen Steinhoff, the soccer governing body’s head of media operations and services.
“We find ourselves facing a long-standing and unacceptable problem for us journalists: the denial of entry visas to regularly accredited colleagues,” association president Gianni Merlo wrote, per The Athletic.
“There are many cases: Iranian colleagues, African colleagues, some of whom have been given single entries, so if their team goes to play in Canada or Mexico and they follow it, they can no longer return to the States. The cases are countless and, I repeat, unacceptable. Politicians always say that sport unites and builds bridges between young people in countries in conflict, but in this case, we are going in the opposite direction.
“We believe it is important to allow colleagues to attend the event and work, because their presence will be crucial to the image of sport and what it represents, especially in a country like the United States of America, where freedom of the press is a must.
“I hope FIFA can do everything possible to secure visas. We’re already significantly behind schedule, and many colleagues have already lost the opportunity to use plane tickets booked on time, and they’ll also face significant additional expenses.”
The 48-team FIFA World Cup begins Thursday and runs through July 19 with matches in the US, Mexico and Canada.
Iran is competing in the tournament despite an ongoing armed conflict with the US African teams in the field include Algeria, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
Several teams, including Ivory Coast and Tunisia, require multi-entry visas because they have games scheduled in the United States as well as in Canada or Mexico.
As of Saturday morning, the US State Department had not responded to a request for comment from The Athletic.