Nigeria head into Friday’s friendly against Iran in Antalya knowing they will not be facing the same side that would have taken the field three months ago, Footynaija.com reports.
The Middle East conflict has affected Iranian football, and the consequences are being felt right up to the squad named for this week’s games in Turkey. Iran’s most prolific active striker, Sardar Azmoun, is not in the 35-man squad named by coach Amir Ghalenoei for the friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica.
The reason has nothing to do with form or fitness. Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals in 91 internationals since making his debut as a teenager in 2014, was expelled after posting a photo on Instagram showing him meeting Dubai’s ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
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He lives and plays in Dubai for Shabab Al-Ahli, and in the current climate, the picture was enough to have him branded disloyal.
A nation at war with itself
Reports also indicate that orders had been issued for the seizure of the assets of Azmoun, fellow UAE-based forward Mehdi Ghayedi and former international Soroush Rafiei.
Ghayedi’s absence from the squad means Iran are missing two of their most experienced attacking options for games they had originally planned to use as World Cup preparation, as confirmed by Blueprint Newspaper.
The backdrop to all of this is a country still processing the consequences of a war it did not anticipate surviving in its current form.
Iran has launched rocket and drone attacks on the UAE in retaliation for the US and Israeli air strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
