{"id":30150,"date":"2026-03-27T16:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30150"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:51:18","slug":"iran-bans-sports-teams-from-travelling-to-countries-it-deems-hostile","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/iran-bans-sports-teams-from-travelling-to-countries-it-deems-hostile\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran bans sports teams from travelling to countries it deems &#8216;hostile&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Iran has banned national and club sports teams from travelling to countries it \u200bconsiders hostile until further notice, Iranian media reported on \u200cThursday, citing the Sports Ministry, which said the move was due to concerns over the safety of its athletes.<\/div>\n<div>\n&#8220;The presence of national and club teams in \u200bcountries considered hostile and unable to ensure the security of \u200bIranian athletes and team members is prohibited until further \u2060notice,&#8221; the Ministry said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Ministry added that the Iranian football federation \u200band clubs were required to notify the Asian Football Confederation so match \u200bvenues could be relocated.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It cited club team Tractor FC playing a United Arab Emirates team in Saudi Arabia in its statement, but did not specify which \u200bvenues needed to be relocated or which countries were deemed hostile.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Iran \u200bhave qualified for this year&#8217;s World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by \u200cthe \u2060United States (US), Canada, and Mexico, although their participation in the soccer tournament has been under threat since the conflict between the Islamic Republic and the US and Israel began in late February.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>US President Donald Trump \u200bsaid earlier this \u200bmonth that while \u2060Iran&#8217;s national team were welcome to play in the US, it might not be appropriate for their &#8220;life and \u200bsafety.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Iran&#8217;s football federation is in discussions with soccer&#8217;s world \u200bgoverning \u2060body FIFA about moving its World Cup matches to Mexico from the US, federation President Mehdi Taj said last week.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The squad is currently in \u2060Turkey \u200bpreparing for friendly internationals against Nigeria on \u200bFriday and Costa Rica on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13218,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-30150","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The squad is currently in \u2060Turkey \u200bpreparing for friendly internationals against Nigeria on \u200bFriday and Costa Rica on Tuesday.","published_date":"","news_description":"The squad is currently in \u2060Turkey \u200bpreparing for friendly internationals against Nigeria on \u200bFriday and Costa Rica on Tuesday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30151,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30150\/revisions\/30151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}