Tehran condemned on Friday a “political” decision behind canceling a controversial preparatory match for the World Cup in Qatar between Iran and Canada.
The Canadian Football Association announced the day before that the match, scheduled for June 5 in Vancouver, had been cancelled.
This match between two teams who have already qualified for the next World Cup sparked controversy in Canada, two years after a plane carrying Canadian citizens was accidentally shot down by Iranian anti-aircraft defense shortly after take-off in Tehran.
Iran’s deputy judiciary chief, Kazem Gharibabadi, lamented in a tweet on Friday that the “so-called freedom state” could not “leave politics” out of the field.
Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Todeau declared the match “not a very good idea”.
On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752 crashed, Tehran-Kyiv, killing all 176 people on board, including 85 Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Three days later, the Iranian armed forces admitted that they had shot down the plane “by mistake”.
The Association of Relatives of Flight PS752 Victims has called on Canada Soccer to cancel the match.
Shortly after announcing the cancellation of the meeting, Mohammad Jamaat, the Iranian team’s media official, announced on local television that Tehran would “submit a complaint to FIFA” against this decision.
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