AFC General Secretary Dato' Windsor John has penned an official letter to Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, secretary of the Iranian Football Federation, announcing the time and place of 7th and 8th matchdays of qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
According to the announcement, Team Melli will host Hong Kong on March 25 at Azadi Stadium of Tehran before playing with Cambodia five days later at Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium.
The letter comes as earlier reports claimed that the AFC has decided to hold all the matches of this stage in Qatar given the country’s successful hosting of the 2020 AFC Champions League.
In the letter to the Iranian Federation, the AFC has called on teams to send their correspondence about the needed arrangements. It also notes that if conditions for hosting the mentioned matches are not prepared due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the body will decide to hold the matches in a centralized manner or not.
Iran is sitting third in Group C of the qualifiers and must win the remaining four games against Hong Kong, Cambodia, Bahrain, and Iraq for a secure berth to the next round.
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