Iran will have to fix weak points: Suzuki

Speaking at the press conference Monday held in conjunction with the AFC’s Special Mission Team’s (SMT) visit to Iran to help the country qualify for the premier continental club competition, Suzuki said:

“There will be a couple of things which are Iran’s weak points. Most of all, we will re-assess the facility part and I look forward to seeing any improvements in this aspect.

“Secondly, we will check the flows of the respective groups such as players, officials, media, fans and VIP.

“Thirdly, it seems that Iran still can’t produce an accurate figure for match attendances. We will see how the clubs are doing the attendance counts.

“This inspection by the SMT will be very critical for Iranian football since Iran shall fail to meet the criteria if any of the items does not meet the criteria set by the AFC. Therefore, I would like to stress the significance for the clubs, league and federation to meet the criteria,” said Suzuki.

During the opening ceremony of the inspection visit, Iran Pro League President Aziz Mohammadi welcomed all the AFC delegation members to the south Asian nation and was delighted that Iran had made a big progress and improvement since the AFC’s inspection in 2010.

“However, there would be still a few criteria which we may not meet and we would be happy to follow up on them and finally meet all the criteria set by the AFC,” he promised.

Suzuki thanked the hosts for the warm reception and hospitality and congratulated them for two Iranian clubs which had qualified for the R-16 of the current edition of the ACL.

“I hope that both teams can do a good performance for a qualification to the next round,” he said.

Foolad Mobarekeh Sepahan and Zobahan have both progressed to the R-16 and are set to clash with Bunyodkor (UZB) on May 24 and Al Nassr (KSA) on May 25 respectively.