According to Mehr news agency, Mehdi Taj said in the ceremony of sending off the members of the national football team to participate in the 2023 Asian Cup: Football is a very popular sport and cannot be compared with any other phenomenon, and many countries use football to express their power. They face others and countries invest the most in football.
He continued: “Football’s impact on society is very high, and with football and sports, many public nuisances can be solved.”
In this event, which was attended by Sardar Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the head of the Football Federation added: “The national team had a worthy presence in the 2022 Qatar World Cup and the IRGC forces helped us a lot.” The football matches we hold in the country bring a million and a half to the stadiums every week, which is not an easy task, they actually watch the game and go home safely. Futsal and beach soccer also have the same situation, and with the help of Sardar Salami, the presence of women in the stadiums was facilitated.
Taj pointed out: Iran’s national football team is ranked 21st in the world, and the national beach football team won the intercontinental tournament and did a great job. Iran futsal is also the champion of Asia and is in the sixth place in the world ranking. Beach soccer is preparing for the UAE World Cup and the national soccer team will be preparing for the Asian Nations Cup in Qatar. The women’s national football team is preparing itself and Futsal is also preparing to go to the World Cup.
The head of the Football Federation added: World Cup competitions are very important for football, and according to FIFA, nearly 6 billion people watched the World Cup games.
In the end, Taj pointed out: In the AFC board, the representative of Palestine presented a report that the Zionist regime killed more than 66 football players in Gaza, this news was for when he reported that some of them were members of the Palestinian national team and 7 children. They also martyred a football player, which is unprecedented in the world and history does not know this type of assassination and attack. In Ilam, they bombed our local team, which we have named the 23rd of this month as Football Peace Day. This happened in Chavar, but now they have done things that no criminal has committed. It is also important that all our national teams reacted to this event, which was approved by the Supreme Leader and is one of the honors recorded in the field of football.