World Cup chief operating officer says tournament is 'too big' to be postponed amid global turmoil

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DALLAS (AP) — FIFA's World Cup chief operating officer says the tournament is “too big” to be postponed because of global turmoil caused by the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.

Speaking Monday at the International Broadcast Center for the 48-nation tournament, which starts June 11, Heimo Schirgi said FIFA continues to closely monitor the Iran war and its fallout.

“If had a crystal ball I could tell you now what is going to happen, but obviously the situation is developing, Schirgi said. “It’s changing day by day and we are monitoring closely. We’re working together with all our federal partners and also our international partners in evaluating the situation, and we basically take it day by day and at some stage we will have a resolution. And the World Cup will go on obviously, right? The World Cup is too big and we hope that everyone can participate that has qualified.”

The tournament, expanded from 32 nations to 48, is scheduled for 11 U.S. venues plus three in Mexico and two in Canada. While the Trump administration has imposed a travel ban on four of the nations that have qualified — Iran, Ivory Coast, Haiti and Senegal — it says it will make an exception for players, team officials and immediate relatives.

Schirgi said FIFA is in constant contact with Iran's soccer federation for updates, but he wouldn't share any details about those conversations.

FIFA officials were in Dallas for the announcement of plans for the city's fan festival that will operate for 34 days during the World Cup and to view construction of the broadcast hub at the downtown convention center — about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys where nine matches will be played.

“Given the state of the world today, this will be a great opportunity to bring everyone together,” Schirgi said. “For you who have not experienced the World Cup, the World Cup is very special because it’s truly global and it brings everybody together. We witnessed that in Qatar, in Russia, everywhere. People were amazed how international this whole thing is.”

Schirgi also addressed FIFA's surprise decision last month to add a 48-hour window for ticket sales. FIFA has been criticized for ticket prices as high as $8,680 for category one seats — the best in the lower bowls — $5,575 for category two and $4,185 for category three. Tickets for the first round range as high as $2,735 for category one, $1,940 for category two and $1,120 for category three.

“It was basically giving an opportunity to fans who have applied and were not successful for tickets in their category to offer them a different category of tickets,” Schirgi said “So if you have applied for a category three ticket for a specific match and you haven’t got it because we don’t have enough category three tickets, we offered those people because they applied early — we said instead of having a category three ticket, would you like a category two ticket?”

After criticism, FIFA said in December it was selling a few hundred $60 tickets for every game to the 48 national federations in the tournament, to be sold to their regularly attending fans.

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