According to the Mehr reporter, the Iranian national football team will face the Canadian national team in the first friendly match before the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, on June 7th.
Previously, Iran had a match with European teams on the agenda, but this was not possible; Including meetings with Russia and Albania.
The game against Russia and Albania is not practical, but each has different reasons. Albania was left out of Iran’s friendly list due to financial requests. Russia is also unable to compete due to a suspension by FIFA due to a military attack on Ukraine; An issue that the Football Federation has officially inquired from FIFA.
Hamid Estili, the manager of the Iranian national team, said in this regard: The program of all European teams in “Fifadi” is full. It was just a Russian country. They also expressed a desire to meet with Iran. We inquired from FIFA that it was announced that we could not play against Russia.
The manager of the Iranian national team also said about the cancellation of the match with Albania: “This match was not possible due to financial issues.” We had to pay Albania and get a special flight for them. We were going to play Albania in Tehran or Qatar. When we played in Canada, Albania was practically out of order due to the long distance.