Iran-Venezuela match in Azadi canceled
(17 votes, average: 1.47 out of 5)
Loading...Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, The friendly match between Iran and Venezuela which was scheduled for October 14 at Azadi Stadium has been canceled. FIFA’s World Match Centre no longer shows the fixture in the database.
The South Americans had initially planned to visit the Middle East to play two friendly matches versus Oman on October 10 in Muscat and Iran in Tehran on October 14. However this is no longer the case. Instead Oman will play Costa Rica on October 10 followed by another friendly on October 13 where they take on Uruguay in Muscat. On the other hand, Venezuela will play Guatemala on October 11.
This is not the first time that a friendly match with Venezuela has been canceled, back in June 2011 a scheduled friendly in Tehran was canceled at the request of Carlos Queiroz. In fact both Queiroz and Football Federation of Islamic Republic of Iran, have been notorious friendly match revokers or FIFA Day truants. For instance scheduled matches with Iraq were canceled in May 2012 and May 2013, North Korea in October 2012, all at the request of the coaching staff and Ghana in 2013 due to FFIRI’s lack of funds. In 2013, Iran played only one friendly match and FIFA days for the current month were missed due to delays in signing Queiroz’s new contract. Team Melli made best use of FIFA days when Afshin Ghotbi was in charge.
However, with regards to October 14 cancellation, we can speculate that perhaps the Venezuelans requested the cancellation as possibly they were unable to make the trip to the Middle East.
Iran who is grouped with Bahrain, Qatar and UAE in the 2015 Asian Cup, has only one scheduled friendly match when they host South Korea in Tehran on November 18. Team Melli’s group opponents in addition to number of scheduled friendlies will also take part in 2014 Gulf Cup, a football tournament for Arab national teams of the Persian Gulf region. It will be heads or tails, as perhaps Bahrain, Qatar and UAE will either be better-prepared or exhausted in comparison to Team Melli.
