Will IRAN have to play all their remaining WC qualifiers on natural grounds?

[D P P]

Does anybody have news on this?

If so it will be extremley unfair


And if this does happen when will it end?

[pajamNL]

Only Saudi Federation knows

[rizz]

The AFC aka the Arab Football Corruption will try everything to give an advantage to the arab teams. Thus you can expect the groups to be conducted in Saudi Arabia and VAE.

[The Realist]

I think this is a consideration in progress.

Given leagues round the world and then in particular the Europeans, I don’t see how outside the FIFA days, the European leagues will agree to release their players for a long periods. Short windows of World Cup qualifiers normally scheduled within FIFA days are different.
One thing seems sure, given the situation with Covid in Iran and unfortunate continuation for a while, unless there would be a programme of free mass vaccinations, countries are unlikely to travel to Iran, we already know AFC stand on that!

I doubt Iran will travel to other countries for the away games, just to learn that others won’t agree to play in Iran for the home games!

These all pose challenges and conundrums!

[rizz]

I think this is a consideration in progress.
Given leagues round the world and then in particular the Europeans, I don’t see how outside the FIFA days, the European leagues will agree to release their players for a long periods. Short windows of World Cup qualifiers normally scheduled within FIFA days are different.
One thing seems sure, given the situation with Covid in Iran and unfortunate continuation for a while, unless there would be a programme of free mass vaccinations, countries are unlikely to travel to Iran, we already know AFC stand on that!
I doubt Iran will travel to other countries for the away games, just to learn that others won’t agree to play in Iran for the home games!
These all pose challenges and conundrums!

DO NOT buy these bullshit Arab Football Corruption excuses and utter lies. Any semblance of logic and rationality suggests that these national teams and national team players would easily be vaccinated by September (if not already done which I'm sure 90% are)....so the Covid situation in Iran should not play any role. All the players, staff and members could easily be vaccinated----you probably wouldn't even need 1000 vaccinations to do it. So if Arab Football Corruption was concerned with the safety of players and staff they could put out the rule that all players, coaches and staff that travel to away games must be vaccinated. That would basically be by far the easiest and most fair way to deal with this. I am sure all countries are able to provide 100 vaccinations for their national players and staff. The Arab Football Corruption is not interested in fair competition---they are now looking how they can put their shit arab teams at an advantage.
All this Covid Stuff is just utter bullshit to put Iran at a disadvantage. Do not buy into these lies. It is a shame that Iranians are starting to buy into this shameful, disgraceful reasoning that serves only the purpose of giving those weak shit arab teams an advantage.

[perspolis#1]

I think this is a consideration in progress.

Given leagues round the world and then in particular the Europeans, I don’t see how outside the FIFA days, the European leagues will agree to release their players for a long periods. Short windows of World Cup qualifiers normally scheduled within FIFA days are different.
One thing seems sure, given the situation with Covid in Iran and unfortunate continuation for a while, unless there would be a programme of free mass vaccinations, countries are unlikely to travel to Iran, we already know AFC stand on that!

I doubt Iran will travel to other countries for the away games, just to learn that others won’t agree to play in Iran for the home games!

These all pose challenges and conundrums!

This would only be a solid logical progression if they didnt make us play in Bahrain 4x when their COVID situation is worse than Iran's by all metrics.

I'm a fan of us making AFC sweat and every action by them in the future should be met with an equal legal claim and CAS decision until they start treating us more fairly.

[The Realist]

DO NOT buy these bullshit Arab Football Corruption excuses and utter lies. Any semblance of logic and rationality suggests that these national teams and national team players would easily be vaccinated by September (if not already done which I'm sure 90% are)....so the Covid situation in Iran should not play any role. All the players, staff and members could easily be vaccinated----you probably wouldn't even need 1000 vaccinations to do it. So if Arab Football Corruption was concerned with the safety of players and staff they could put out the rule that all players, coaches and staff that travel to away games must be vaccinated. That would basically be by far the easiest and most fair way to deal with this. I am sure all countries are able to provide 100 vaccinations for their national players and staff. The Arab Football Corruption is not interested in fair competition---they are now looking how they can put their shit arab teams at an advantage.
All this Covid Stuff is just utter bullshit to put Iran at a disadvantage. Do not buy into these lies. It is a shame that Iranians are starting to buy into this shameful, disgraceful reasoning that serves only the purpose of giving those weak shit arab teams an advantage.

Personally, I haven’t trusted Arab sources from the day I was born. In fact the same probably goes back to 3000 years through our ancestors. Your presumption that the source of the Covid situation and status in Iran are Arabs and Arabs sources is shot. There are many cities and towns in Red. That’s not on Arab news it’s on Iranian media.

I agree that total vaccinations of those travelling to Iran can help matters, but it will not stop unfair AFC blocking that. As I said challenges. Hopefully come September these issues subside

[Nokhodi]

Looking at the dates AFC currenlty has now, the games (except for 2 in January and FEbruary) are on FIFA days. They have spaced them out just as they would pre-Covid days. If that is the case, travel to and from countries will be very difficult. Let's say Iran has to go to Australia and then Lebanon for example! Can you imagine?

If AFC is smart, they figure out how to host 2 mini tournaments in Qatar (home and away). Qatar has all the facilities.

Knowing AFC though, they've been working behind the scenes to make Saudi and UAE hosts or something.

[rizz]

I'm not saying the COVID situation in Iran is made up by Arabs---just saying that as the Arab Football Corruption only considers how to put their shit arab teams at an advantage, it is a foregone conclusion already that they'll try to schedule the games in Saudi Arabia and VAE. The rest are excuses and lies. Like I said---the Arab Football Corruption should demand that only vaccinated players and staff members are allowed to travel to away games---problem solved but they will try to distort the competition as much as possible to put their shitty weak ass teams at an advantage.

[naderb94]

If they're playing on neutral venue, Qatar would make the most sense. They have plenty of stadiums to offer and their covid situation is much better than the rest of the countries.

[Iran_19]

If it is played in neutral venue, it will be on intense few weeks scheduling like ACL few months ago, i don't know how this will be possible as it will interfere with the European league schedule

[Farzadfarhangni]

If it is played in neutral venue, it will be on intense few weeks scheduling like ACL few months ago, i don't know how this will be possible as it will interfere with the European league schedule

Jack7000 shared the following link in another thread.

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/a...ng-what-s-next

Games are played on regular fifa dates, 2 at a time through fall and spring. Makes no sense to have it at a central place but would not put anything past AFC.

[Karimi 8]

Always assume the worst with AFC, and anticipate that our voice will not be heard after our complaints. They only want Arab teams to succeed and we will constantly have to pull through on our own will, it backfired with their Bahrain plan, and we will make sure to embarrass them again next time around too. Also doesn't help that our own IFF is run by a bunch of illiterate donkeys

[AM_89]

uae and saudi will get it. maybe qatar. if they go for central location

[Futbaldoost]

Since AFC is requiring VAR, Iran will most probably lose hosting unless IFF is able to pull off a miracle. Alireza Faghani had said that from the day you commit to VAR it take a whole year to implement it. Unless things have changed significantly or AFC comes up with a fast track process for implementing VAR in countries who don't have it, not only Iran but six of the 12 countries including Vietnam, Lebanon, Oman will also lose hosting on their own soil (Iraq and Syria in all likelihood are unlikely to host due to security issues).

Now, since FIFA and AFC just announced the dates today in first and second leg format with pair match days 5 days apart starting on September 2nd and ending on March 29, 2022 (see my post under TM News thread), central tournament fashion is out (at least for now). Unless FIFA and AFC change the plan in the next 2.5 months, this means countries that can't do VAR will end up hosting on neutral ground. I don't like this at all but for Iran I recommend Qatar as the neutral ground. I am hoping that all my information is outdated and AFC will use this as an opportunity to help many of the countries that currently don't have VAR implement it. I think that's wishful thinking on my part .

Go TM!