In addition to financial issues and political reasons that is the biggest obstacle for preventing Team Melli playing big teams in friendly matches, not having reliable neutral venues for friendly matches is also a big obstacle.
If we look at the post 2009 Team Melli matches, we can see that:
1. Abu Dhabi was venue for matches versus Brazil in 2010 and Russia in 2011, Dubai hosted match with Jordan in 2012.
2. Austrian cities were neutral venues for many matches during CQ era such as 2014 (Belarus, Angola, Montenegro), 2015 (Chile), 2017 (Panama), 2022 (Uruguay, Senegal)
3. Qatar - 2011 (Angola), 2018 (Venezuela, Palestine), 2022 (Algeria)
4. Then there were various countries who hosted one match for Team Melli, Germany refused to host Team Melli match with Poland in 2017 which led to cancellation of the match.
Turkey - 2012 (Albania)
Hungary - 2012 (Tunisia)
Brazil - 2014 (Trinidad)
Australia - 2015 (Iraq)
Malaysia - 2016 (Papua New Guinea)
Netherlands - 2017 (Venezuela)
Russia - 2018 (Lithuania)
Now with CQ gone, I don't see Austria hosting Team Melli matches. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have benefited from their matches being hosted by Japan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. While Iraq has benefited from Spain hosting high profile matches for them.
With all the political and financial obstacles, I don't see Spain or Portugal agreeing to host Team Melli matches and all other EU countries will refuse as well. Qatar has been unreliable recently due to their struggles with renovating/building stadiums.
So what FFIRI should do is to sign agreements with Oman, Turkey, and Malaysia. All three countries Iranians do not need visa. What do everyone think?
If we look at the post 2009 Team Melli matches, we can see that:
1. Abu Dhabi was venue for matches versus Brazil in 2010 and Russia in 2011, Dubai hosted match with Jordan in 2012.
2. Austrian cities were neutral venues for many matches during CQ era such as 2014 (Belarus, Angola, Montenegro), 2015 (Chile), 2017 (Panama), 2022 (Uruguay, Senegal)
3. Qatar - 2011 (Angola), 2018 (Venezuela, Palestine), 2022 (Algeria)
4. Then there were various countries who hosted one match for Team Melli, Germany refused to host Team Melli match with Poland in 2017 which led to cancellation of the match.
Turkey - 2012 (Albania)
Hungary - 2012 (Tunisia)
Brazil - 2014 (Trinidad)
Australia - 2015 (Iraq)
Malaysia - 2016 (Papua New Guinea)
Netherlands - 2017 (Venezuela)
Russia - 2018 (Lithuania)
Now with CQ gone, I don't see Austria hosting Team Melli matches. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have benefited from their matches being hosted by Japan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. While Iraq has benefited from Spain hosting high profile matches for them.
With all the political and financial obstacles, I don't see Spain or Portugal agreeing to host Team Melli matches and all other EU countries will refuse as well. Qatar has been unreliable recently due to their struggles with renovating/building stadiums.
So what FFIRI should do is to sign agreements with Oman, Turkey, and Malaysia. All three countries Iranians do not need visa. What do everyone think?
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