Iran's footballers take a detour for game against Palestine

According to information from Tehran, the Iranian national soccer team had to take an unusual route to neighboring Iraq because of new US sanctions. The national team was denied a previously approved flight to two test matches in the Iraqi city of Basra on Tuesday at short notice, the state news agency Irna reported.

Coach Amir Ghalenoei's team then first had to fly to the Iranian border town of Abadan and from there continue their journey by land to nearby Basra. In the evening, the Iranian team completed its first training session before the national team faces Palestine on Saturday and Iraq next Tuesday.

Mohsen Motamedkia, press spokesman for the national team, blamed the USA for the move. They had already tried to humiliate Iran during the World Cup last summer and had failed, he wrote on

In September, the USA imposed new sanctions on the Iranian aviation sector. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened countries with exclusion from the US dollar system if they supplied Iranian airlines with fuel, provided landing services or sold tickets for them. As a result, many international connections were canceled. In some cases, neighboring countries also denied overflight rights to Iranian airlines.

Conservative Iranian newspapers criticized their football association's decision to accept the circumstances. Perhaps participation was justifiable from a sporting point of view, wrote the Nurnews portal, which is close to the National Security Council: “After preventing the direct flight, withdrawing from the competition could also have been a serious option on the association’s table.”