Canadian football authorities abandoned a forthcoming friendly versus Iran on Thursday after criticism of the match by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Canada Soccer has cancelled the international match that was scheduled for 5 June 2022 against Iran as part of the men’s national team preparations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” Canada Soccer stated in a brief statement.
No further information or objective for the cancellation was given, however the decision comes after weeks of condemnation led by the Canadian government over the World Cup fixture due to be conducted in Vancouver.
Trudeau repeated that he was disagreed to the game, in remarks to Canadian media, indicating that the Iranian team may not be permitted into the nation.
“I’ve expressed my concern that I think this game was a bad idea. I can assure you that Sport Canada has not delivered any funding for this game,” Trudeau stated.
“And in terms of the ability of those players to come to Canada and the teams to come to Canada, the border services agencies make professional and independent decisions on eligibility for people to come to Canada.”
Criticism of the decision to set the fixture was led by families of passengers killed when Iranian armed forces shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight shortly after take-off from Tehran on 8th of January 2020.
85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents were among the 176 people who died in the happening, which the Iranian armed forces later expressed as a mistake.
