Iranian clubs decide against boycott of Asian Champions League

To optimise for archiving, the original image and related documents associated with this article have been removed.

Iranian football teams have decided against boycotting the Asian Champions League after their games were moved from Iran to the United Arab Emirates over security concerns.

Two games were originally scheduled for this week but were postponed due to security concerns after several countries issued warnings against traveling to Iran, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) then announced that the games were being relocated to the UAE with a statement saying “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.”

Iran’s parliament did not agree with this decision and said the decision had come from misinformation provided by western media and that the call for Iranian clubs to boycott the competition had come from the highest political office. The AFC sought to avoid a boycott so provided the clubs with the following proposal: the rescheduled matches remain in the UAE and the first three group stage matches for Iranian clubs are played away in the hope that by the time the three home games are set to be played, the tensions in Iran will have settled.

The four Iranian clubs, being Perspolis, Sepahan, Shahr Khodro and Esteghlal FC were threatening to boycott the competition all together but eventually backed down and agreed to the AFC proposal after a meeting held between the clubs and the General Secretary of the AFC.

You may also like

View All

RUSADA reports record 47 whereabouts violations in July, highest monthly total of 2025

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency reported 47 new cases of ‘availability for testing’ rule violations in July

Read More

Career uncertainty forces Australian netballers to change their sport

Australian netballers are increasingly turning to the women’s Australian Football League for more viable careers

Read More

First woman to umpire regular-season MLB game

Jen Pawol will become the first woman to umpire in a regular-season Major League Baseball game

Read More