"Corona" hits the "Lions of Mesopotamia" hard before confronting Iran, and the Iraqi Federation questions the "examinations"

The number of players infected with the Corona virus increased to eight in the Iraqi national football team, before facing Iran this evening in the Asian qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The Iraqi Football Association stated yesterday evening that “the tests were absent eight players from the Iran match, as four new players were infected, Mustafa. Nazim, Sherko Karim, Hussein Ali and Hussein Jabbar, in addition to the medical therapist. The four players will be absent."

And it was announced that four other players were infected with the virus, and they are now subject to quarantine at the headquarters of the Iraqi team’s mission, they are Amjad Atwan, Yasser Qassem, Manaf Younis and Saad Natiq, while Al-Qadisiyah defender Ali Fayez, who was confirmed infected in Kuwait, was unable to join his country’s team.

On the other hand, the local federation quoted the international team supervisor, Younes Mahmoud, as saying that "the Iranian health authorities refuse to allow Iraqi fans to enter Azadi Stadium."

In addition, the Iraqi Federation submitted an official complaint to the AFC and to the match supervisor, requesting the necessity of re-examinations of all members of the national team delegation that took place before the match date, as applied according to the protocol.

According to a media bulletin for the Iraqi federation, the latter submitted "a complaint to his Asian counterpart in which all the events that occurred since the first day of the arrival of the Iraqi delegation were listed."

He accused the administrative director of the Iraqi national team of deliberately delaying the date of informing the Iraqi side of the results of the tests that took place before the match day. At night, a call showed that there were injuries to four players and an administrator.”

The Iraqi team will meet its Iranian counterpart in Tehran in the seventh round of Group A qualifiers for the decisive round of the World Cup finals.

In the event of victory, Iran will guarantee its qualification to the World Cup finals for the sixth time in its history, as it leads the group with 16 points from 6 matches after the start of a great journey, while Iraq is in the fifth to penultimate place with only four points without achieving any victory.

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