Get our boys charter flights!

November 20th, 2008 | by: Afshin Afshar | Comments Off

Thanks to the AFC’s scheduling, Team Melli’s last three games come at them like whirlwind! In the span of a short 11 days, the boys have to fly to Pyongyang on June 6 to face Korea DPR, back to Tehran to host UAE on June 10, and back to the Korean Peninsula again, this time to Seoul, to play their last Group 2 match versus Korea Republic on June 17.

This is by far the toughest closing in Group 2. Korea Republic plays on the same dates, but they play their last two games at home. The other three teams in the group have a longer break between their 6th and 7th games. For example KSA plays their sixth game in April, and their 7th is in June.

AFC Group 2 Schedule

The way this group is developing, it is likely to be a neck to neck race until the end and every bit of an advantage counts. Come June 17, the boys are going to be dead tired of all the air mileage and hotel hopping, and the Koreans will surely be ready for them.

It is very important for the Iranian Football Federation to start planning now! They must charter direct flights to these destinations, especially to Seoul, and not put the team through the agony of long layovers in airports all over Asia. One has to remember the 1998 WC playoff match against Japan, when the team was on the road for over 24 hours, to realize why this could become an issue.

I am not a big fan of petitions, but perhaps this is one of those cases where it could help the fans make sure that our national team gets what it deserves while travelling thousands of miles to represent our nation.