The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) has declared that Iran should be banned from the World Cup in Qatar owing to their “systematic human rights violations.”
It is currently unclear whether or not the Ukrainian football governing body has formally requested that FIFA ban them from the tournament at this stage, but the UAF executive committee voted on Monday to make the request “to consider excluding the Iranian national team” from this month’s tournament.
The UAF affirm that Iran has “possible involvement” in supporting Russia in their military intervention in Ukraine and intend to point to the ongoing human rights issues in the country that has resulted in large scale protests following the death in police custody of a woman who was accused of wearing her hijab “improperly” back in September.
Since that event took place, at least 284 people, including 45 children, have been killed by Iranian security forces whilst they were cracking down on protest, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
GWFN
