As reported by the Tehran Times, world football’s governing body has already sent a letter to the FFIRI on February 24, stressing that the event, due to take place on March 15, should be delayed.

In response to the letter, the FFIRI provided some documents and appealed to FIFA so that the General Assembly could be held on the scheduled date.

But FIFA did not consider the documents to be sufficient and, in a new letter, it has asked FFIRI officials to first conduct "revision and amendment" to the statutes before staging the event.

FIFA had implied that the current version of the statutes contains several particularly problematic provisions, such as Government interference in the FFIRI elections.

In the letter, it was reminded that direct representation of Governmental authorities, with voting rights, in a sports association's supreme body contravenes the basic principles of independence of sports set out by the Olympic Movement and that it also goes against the obligations imposed on Member Associations by the FIFA Statutes.

FIFA also pointed out that there must be an electoral committee and an electoral appeal committee to be elected or ratified by the General Assembly of FFIRI, something which the current version of statutes does not address.

In January, Masoud Soltanifar, Iran's Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, had a meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the Swiss city of Lausanne during the Winter Youth Olympic Games, as reported by the Tehran Times.

Soltanifar told Infantino that the FFIRI's General Assembly would be held on March 15 after former President Mehdi Taj resigned in December, but it is unknown whether the status of the FFIRI was discussed.

Heydar Baharvand is currently the FFIRI Acting President.