Friday, 27 May 2022. 09:45
Tehran, Iran – Tehran on Friday denounced a “political” decision that caused the cancellation of a controversial friendly match between Iran and Canada, preparatory to the World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18). .
The day before, the Canadian Football Federation had announced that it was canceling the meeting on June 5 in Vancouver.
This match between two already qualified teams had sparked a controversy in Canada, two years after an airliner carrying Canadian nationals in particular was shot down by Iranian anti-aircraft defense shortly after takeoff in Tehran.
Iran’s Deputy Judiciary Chief Kazem Gharibabadi said in a tweet on Friday that “the so-called land of the free” cannot “keep politics” off the field.
Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the match “wasn’t a very good idea.”
On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752 Tehran-kyiv crashed, killing all 176 people on board, including 85 Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
The Iranian armed forces admitted three days later that they had shot down the aircraft “by mistake”.
The Association of Families of the Victims of Flight PS752 had asked Canada Soccer to cancel the match.
Shortly after the announcement of the cancellation of the meeting, Mohammad Jamaat, media manager of the Iranian team, declared on local television that Tehran would “file a complaint with FIFA” against this decision.
–
