{"id":106026,"date":"2023-10-03T09:43:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T09:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/03\/asian-champions-league-saudi-side-al-ittihad-refuse-to-play-in-iran-because-of-statue\/"},"modified":"2023-10-03T09:43:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T09:43:20","slug":"asian-champions-league-saudi-side-al-ittihad-refuse-to-play-in-iran-because-of-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/03\/asian-champions-league-saudi-side-al-ittihad-refuse-to-play-in-iran-because-of-statue\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Champions League: Saudi side Al-Ittihad refuse to play in Iran because of statue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/131312081_capture-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"_131312081_capture\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Chelsea and Leicester midfielder N&#8217;Golo Kante was among the Al-Ittihad squad that arrived at the stadium<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Al-Ittihad\u2019s Asian Champions League match with Iran\u2019s Sepahan was called off on Monday after the Saudi team refused to leave their dressing room.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi side, managed by former Wolves and Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo and featuring star players N\u2019Golo Kante and Fabinho, were opposed to a statue of an assassinated Iranian general being placed at the entrance to the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>About 60,000 fans were in the Naghsh-e Jahn Stadium in Isfahan, Iran, at the time awaiting kick-off.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia mean that matches between clubs from the two nations had previously been played on neutral territory since 2016 due to security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said the game had been \u201ccancelled due to unanticipated and unforeseen circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe AFC reiterates its commitment towards ensuring the safety and security of the players, match officials, spectators, and all stakeholders involved,\u201d the body said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis matter will now be referred to the relevant committees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statue was of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. He was killed near Baghdad airport in a United States drone strike in January 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia designated Soleimani and other senior commanders of the Quds Force, the overseas operations arm of Iran\u2019s elite Revolutionary Guards, as terrorists in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudis held Soleimani responsible for Iran\u2019s regional activities and accused them of attacks on Gulf shipping, on Saudi oil installations and of support for Houthi rebels in Yemen who have attacked Saudi cities. Iran denied this.<\/p>\n<p>This season has seen the return of Saudi clubs to Iran for the first time since 2016, when a group of hardline Iranian militiamen called the Basij \u2013 part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps \u2013 attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>After that, teams from Saudi Arabia refused to travel to Iran for any international sports competition, saying their security was not guaranteed.<\/p>\n<p>Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Al-Nassr were the first Saudi side to play in Iran this season when they beat Persepolis last month in an Asian Champions League match.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"s1BVo9071fc\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Woes of Renal Patients: Dialysis is too expensive, gov&#039;t should come to our aid \u2013 Patients (2-10-23)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s1BVo9071fc?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Chelsea and Leicester midfielder N&#8217;Golo Kante was among the Al-Ittihad squad that arrived at the stadium Al-Ittihad\u2019s Asian Champions League match with Iran\u2019s Sepahan was called off on Monday after the Saudi team refused to leave their dressing room. The Saudi side, managed by former Wolves and Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo and featuring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Asian Champions League: Saudi side Al-Ittihad refuse to play in Iran because of statue - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/03\/asian-champions-league-saudi-side-al-ittihad-refuse-to-play-in-iran-because-of-statue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asian Champions League: Saudi side Al-Ittihad refuse to play in Iran because of statue - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Chelsea and Leicester midfielder N&#8217;Golo Kante was among the Al-Ittihad squad that arrived at the stadium Al-Ittihad\u2019s Asian Champions League match with Iran\u2019s Sepahan was called off on Monday after the Saudi team refused to leave their dressing room. 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