A Saudi soccer team made a last-minute withdrawal from an Asian Champions League match in Iran due to controversy over a divisive Iranian general who was assassinated by the United States in 2020.
The Saudi team, Al-Ittihad, which was due to play Sepahan FC at Naghsh-e Jahan stadium in Isfahan, Iran, on Monday, protested the presence of a bust of Qasem Soleimani, the late commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, at the entrance of the pitch. Soleimani is revered as a martyr by Iranian hardliners but seen in Saudi Arabia as a terrorist for having empowered Iran-backed militias in the Arab world and despised for sowing instability across the region.
Mohammad Reza Saket, the head of Sepahan, told Iranian state media that “the request was unexpected, unacceptable and surprising,” adding that the bust of the slain commander had been on display in the stadium for two years and that Al-Ittihad knew that and had trained on the same pitch the night before. Sepahan said that the AFC had approved stadium conditions in a meeting on Sunday. The AFC said the match was cancelled due to “unanticipated and unforeseen circumstances.
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