The website of the sports paper Goal has reported that the football match between Tractor and Shahr Khodro football clubs has been postponed. According to the site, the game, which was scheduled for Friday, November 22, was postponed by orders from the provincial Council for Security and was conveyed to Iran’s football federation and the Football Pro League Organization.
It did not take long, however, for the Pro League Organization to respond to the decision. “The game between Tractor and Shahr Khodro has not been canceled,” Soheil Mehdi, the head of the organization, told a reporter a few minutes later. “The news published about the cancellation of the games is not true.” He said pointedly that if and when the games scheduled for the 11th week of the Pro League competitions are canceled, his organization and the football federation would officially announce it.
After protests against the increase in gas prices started, the ministry of sports ordered a number of sports federations to cancel national games in various cities. It is not only sports with large numbers of spectators that have been affected. The Iranian Taekwondo Federation has also been ordered to cancel events. As a result, all matches in the fifth and the sixth weeks of the Taekwondo Women’s Pro League season will not take place.
In the last few days, the ministry of sports has asked the Iranian Football Federation to review the situation regarding games for the 11th week of Pro League competitions. The cities of Sirjan, Bam, Tabriz, Karaj, Tehran, Ghaem Shahr, Isfahan and Abadan will host Pro League games from Thursday, November 21, to Monday, November 25.
However, the ultimate responsibility for sports competitions in Iran does not rest with the sports ministry or the football federation, but instead with the provincial security councils, which are tasked with coordinating all sports events, from setting the time and place to ensuring safety and security at the stadiums, police presence and services such as emergency medical teams and firefighters. In emergency situations, the Supreme National Security Council can also decide whether a sports event will be canceled or will go ahead.
But in the case of the game between Tractor and Shahr Khodro, signals between authorities were badly crossed. The Security Council of East Azerbaijan informed Tractor FC, based in that province, of the cancellation. But the football federation and the Pro League Organization were not told anything about it, so the head of the Pro League Organization denied that the 11th-week competitions had been canceled.
“They told us that this week’s game is canceled,” a football club director told IranWire. “We said that we have already purchased [travel] tickets for the team and that we have not received any instructions from the football federation. Their answer was: “We are not obligated to inform anybody. Certainly the government did not inform anybody that it was going to raise gas prices.”
Security organizations informed most Iranian football clubs that this week’s games are likely to be canceled, but neither the football federation nor the Pro League Organization has received any notice from provincial security councils or from the Ministry of Interior. Nevertheless, based on recent news reports, the dark shadow of cancelation looms over the games between Tractor and Shahr Khodro in Tabriz, Saipa and Shahin in Karaj, Nassaji and Esteghlal in Ghaem Shahr and also Persepolis and Naft Masjed Soleyman in Tehran.
Additionally, the football federation will have to take a decision about Pro League games on Saturday, November 23. Tabriz, Rasht, Urmia and Shiraz are among the cities where the provincial security councils have informed the football clubs Shahrdari, Sepid Rood, Navad and Ghashghaei that games will not be taking place.
Related Coverage:
The Iranian Government Bans Sports Competitions in Fear of Revolts, November 19
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