By Andrew Warshaw
February 18 – Whilst much of the focus in Asia is on next week’s FIFA presidential election, internal regional spats within the giant and diverse confederation continue to rumble on.
In the latest, Iran has warned that it may withdraw its teams from Asia’s biggest club tournament if it is prevented from hosting games against Saudi Arabian clubs because of the breakdown in political relations between the regional rivals.
Last month, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) decided to amend the schedule for the AFC Champions League involving matches between clubs from the two nations but stopped short, pending further checks, of upholding a Saudi request to play fixtures on neutral ground because of safety concerns.
Four Saudi teams have formally asked to play national and club fixtures against Iranian teams on neutral territory and the AFC’s Competitions Committee have set March 15 as the date for an evaluation of the situation to be complete. But the AFC have made it clear that if there has not been a return to normal relations by then, all matches between teams from Saudi Arabia and IR Iran will be played at neutral venues for the rest of the competition.
That has clearly riled the Iranians.
“I hope there will be a resolution but we are considering to withdraw from the Champions League if they insist on a third place (neutral venue),” Rassol Khorvash, coach of Iranian champions Sepahan told Reuters.
Al-Hilal, al-Nassr and al-Ahli have all stated that they will not play in Iran but Khorvach said the Saudi complaint should be rejected. “They are looking for excuses, whatever politically happened should not get involved with the sport,” he said.
“We do not have any problem to host them, we have been hosting them for many years and never ever anything has happened to them, nor any Arab country or any other club in the world or national team coming to Iran.”
Saudi giants Al-Hilal dispute that, however. The 13-time domestic champions, twice winners of the Champions League in its former guise, the Asian Club Championship, said they had problems last year when they visited Iran’s Foolad Khuzestan. An al-Hilal spokesman said he wanted his side’s May 3 fixture at Tractor Sazi moved to “Qatar, Oman or wherever.”
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