Al-Ittihad’s Asian Champions League Match with Sepahan Called Off
On Monday, Al-Ittihad’s Asian Champions League match with Iran’s Sepahan was called off after the Saudi team refused to leave their dressing room. The match, which was set to take place in the Naghsh-e Jahn Stadium in Isfahan, Iran, was due to kick off in front of a crowd of 60,000 fans.
The Saudi side, managed by former Wolves and Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo and featuring star players N’Golo Kante and Fabinho, were opposed to a statue of an assassinated Iranian general being placed at the entrance to the pitch. This decision was made due to the tense political relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which has led to matches between clubs from the two nations being played on neutral territory since 2016.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) released a statement saying that the game had been cancelled due to “unanticipated and unforeseen circumstances”. The statement went on to say that the AFC was committed to ensuring the safety and security of all players, match officials, spectators, and stakeholders involved. The matter will now be referred to the relevant committees.
The statue in question was of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed near Baghdad airport in a United States drone strike in January 2020. In 2018, Saudi Arabia designated Soleimani and other senior commanders of the Quds Force, the overseas operations arm of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, as terrorists. The Saudis held Soleimani responsible for Iran’s 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.
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 – part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran. After that, teams from Saudi Arabia refused to travel to Iran for any international sports competition, saying their security was not guaranteed. Cristiano Ronaldo’s 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.
The cancellation of Al-Ittihad’s match with Sepahan is yet another example of how tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia can affect international sports competitions. It remains to be seen what action will be taken by the relevant committees in response to this incident.