Iran Bans Sports Teams From Traveling to ‘Hostile’ Countries
“The presence of national and club teams in countries that are considered hostile and are unable to ensure the security of Iranian athletes and team members is prohibited until further notice.”
Iran’s sports teams cannot travel to “hostile” countries, putting the country’s participation in the World Cup at risk.
The announcement came before Tractor FC’s game in Saudia Arabia.
“The presence of national and club teams in countries that are considered hostile and are unable to ensure the security of Iranian athletes and team members is prohibited until further notice,” declared Iran’s Ministry of Sports.
Iran and Saudi Arabia do not get along:
Tractor’s playoff game in Saudi Arabia was the result of the Asian Football Confederation’s draw Wednesday to determine the quarterfinal pairings, a day after announcing that the western zone playoffs that were postponed because of the war in the Middle East have been rescheduled for April 13-14 in Jeddah.
The Saudi city is also slated to host the tournament quarterfinals, semifinals and final from April 16-25, with organizers setting the dates and hoping for peace in the region.
The Iranian ministry added that the soccer federation and clubs “will be responsible for notifying the Asian Football Confederation of this matter in order to relocate the games.”
Regarding the World Cup, Iran asked FIFA to move its matches from the Americas to Mexico.
A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump said, “The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.”
Iran has games against New Zealand, Belgium, and Egypt in June.
“Considering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup,” responded Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali.
Donyamali added: “Our children are not safe and, fundamentally, such conditions for participation do not exist. Given the malicious actions they have carried out against Iran, they have forced two wars on us over eight or nine months and have killed and martyred thousands of our people. Therefore, we certainly cannot have such a presence.”
FIFA could either add another team or treat Group G as a three-tem group.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
That limits them to Russia, North Korea and China, Chicago, La, NYC?
I was going to write nowhere but I guess your answer is good although there are a lot of democratic run cities you could add such a Boston StLouis Minneapolis SF etc… Also for countries add Cuba and Canada,
You’re right.
Nowhere close, at any rate — not after they flung bombs at all their neighbors in a fit of explosive diarrhea. Maybe they can scare up a game in North Korea, or Palau-Palau.
Hey, I know — they can ring up Sadiq Khan!
Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali:
What about the 1000s of non Iranians your rulers have murdered over the years?
What about the 10,000s of thousands of Iranians your rulers/IRGC have murdered in the last few MONTHS?
How many people have to die because of your stubbornness – how many????
As many as Allah wishes them to murder. Being infidels or apostates… no biggie.
Add this guy to the to-be-droned list,
yeah…..well…….
It seems to me that Iran has a different reason for not playing in some coutries. It’s that little matter of some of their athletes choosing not to return home.
They can always play at Columbia University and in NYC as that is where a lot of the regime cheerleading crew has power and is highly influential. In NYC, the Iranian athletes will be sure to feel just as scared of falling out of line with their evil government as they would be back home.
So basically they will only lose to superior competition in Russia and China.
This is prob to prevent defectors
Iran’s Ministry of Sports is about to become another Iranian Ministry Staffed by Dead People