The Iranian Football Federation was hoping to finalize two friendly matches for the national team known as Team Melli in Iran and sought two friendlies versus the teams of Iraq and Russia for that purpose.
But, now, Iraqi media are reporting that Iraq will face Russia on March 27 in a friendly match in the city of Sochi. Adnan Darjal, president of the Iraqi Football Federation, confirmed that report and said that all the legionnaires will join the Iraqi team in the game against the Russian team. However, he did not talk about the friendly match against Iran.
Some Iraqi media have claimed that the friendly match with Iran, which was supposed to be held in March in the case of an agreement between the two federations, will not be held.
The Iraqi Football Federation has not yet issued an official statement regarding the cancellation or the possibility of holding a friendly match with Iran.
There are reports that the main barrier that prevented the two federations to reach an agreement was that each side wanted the match to be held on their soil. The Iranian side wanted to host Iraq in Tehran, but the Iraqi side wanted to play that friendly in Basra in the south of the neighboring country.
Source : En.mehrnews
