Tag: New Zealand

FFIRI negotiates friendlies with Argentina or Brazil.

The Iranian football federation FFIRI Secretary-General Hassan Kamranifar has declared that his federation is actively planning friendly preparatory games for Team Melli ahead of its participation in the FIFA World Cup Qatar, 2022.

Kamranifar said: “As you know, Brazil and Argentina have a postponed match in the World Cup qualifiers which is scheduled to be held in Qatar. We are negotiating with one of these two teams to agree to play an international friendly against them.

The Secretary-General of the Football Federation added: “4 teams out of 6 possible opponents of Team Melli are among the best and are in the top ranks of the FIFA rankings. Both teams are in the middle ranks, we are going to choose teams whose games are close to our opponents. Therefore, we have negotiated with Peru, New Zealand, and several other countries, which we will announce immediately after it is finalized.”

He continued: “Holding friendly games is difficult due to financial issues. One or two teams have requested to play behind closed doors and without television broadcasting, which is still good ”
in discussing the readiness of  Team Melli,  Kamranifar emphasized: “Skocic is also trying on his side to use his contacts to arrange friendly games and we hope this will happen soon so that we can play a friendly match in the first FIFA Day,”

UPCOMING FIFA DAYS 2022

Dates Matches
30 May – 14 June 2022 4
19–27 September 2022 2

Team Melli to play Papua New Guinea on Friday

After the cancellation of Team Melli’s friendly against Thailand, an alternative match has been hastily arranged against Papua New Guinea in Shah Alam Stadium in Malaysia on Friday Nov 11th 2016.

Papua New Guinea is a member of the Oceanic Football Confederation. Its highest ever FIFA ranking was 160, in June 2004. In its last match on 17th June 2016, international Friendly,  Papua New Guinea defeated  Malaysia 2–0 in capital Port Moresby. A week before that , it lost the Final of the OFC Nation cup against New Zealand in Penalty Kick out after a goalless draw.

Both result are quite respectable for a nation that is still competing in the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers.

Team Melli , on the other hand , needed a warm up match before facing Syria in day 5 of the World Cup qualifiers. It is expected that the legionnaire players to be available for the Friday match against the not very tough opponents.

Team Melli will be missing 4 major players. Goalkeeper Biranvand due to injury, Ando Teymourian for non inclusion while Azmoun and Hajsafy are suspended for one match each.