Rio2016 Football 7-a-side vacant slots

Following the decision of CAS to dismiss NPC Russia's appeal of the IPC decision to suspend its membership, there are now 14 vacant slots in our Paralympic tournament. The IPC has sole discretion to fill the vacant slots and there is no appeal of this decision (page 9 of the Rio Qualification Guide).   The matter is out of IFCPF's hands.

The IPC has advised us of their decision to redistribute the 14 vacant slots to the NPC of Iran for the following reasons:

• Iran’s national team has consistently performed at the highest level, winning bronze medals at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Paralympic Games
• Iran was not able to qualify for Rio due to factors outside of their control (non-viability of 2014 Asian Para Games qualifier which Iran won; visa issues prior to 2015 IFCPF World Championships)
• At the recent IFCPF World Championships Qualification Tournament in Denmark, Iran finished first place after achieving five resounding victories
• Replacing one podium contender (Russia) with another podium contender (Iran) will preserve the quality of the tournament in Rio, and even more importantly the balance within the pools – a redraw of the pools (very difficult from a broadcast perspective!) will not be necessary
• The inclusion of the Iranian team would increase regional representation from two continents to three.

Please note as indicated above, the IPC has decided there will be no redraw for the tournament.

In addition we have been advised that Iran will be permitted to field players classified in the recent tournament in Denmark.  The requirement in the Qualification Guide that only players who have entered at least one tournament between January 1, 2014 and June 25, 2016 has been waived by the IPC.  

We will continue to provide you with updates as soon as we are able.