The AFC is moving two Champions League matches from Iran to the United Arab Emirates due to security concerns.
Shahr Khodro FC was scheduled to play Bahrain’s Riffa, and Esteghlal FC to play Kuwait SC, on Tuesday, January 21, but both matches were postponed after several governments issued warnings against travel to Iran.
The warnings and venue switch come amid security tensions following the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by the US earlier this month.
Iran’s sport and youth minister Masoud Soltanifa said the move was “totally political and unathletic”, and based on “false pretexts of lack of security and safety of aerial routes to Iran”, according to Al Jazeera. The Iranian president’s chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi also spoke out on the AFC decision, saying: “This is an unsporting and unprofessional move. As we examine it, we realise this has become a political issue.”
The AFC said in a statement: “To help facilitate the switch to neutral venues, which has been approved by the relevant AFC committees, the AFC will now reschedule the games to January 25, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates.”
The Iranian Football Federation earlier this week threatened to boycott the AFC Champions League if it was barred from hosting matches. The IFF’s president Heidar Baharvand told state television that if the ban was not reversed, Iran would withdraw its four teams from the tournament.
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