The CAFA Nations Cup 2025 tournament will kick off on August 28. This tournament, involving national teams from Central Asia, is generating strong interest among fans. At the same time, various questions and speculations are arising about the squads of the participating teams. Information related to the Iran national team has caused major discussions, reported Mehrnews agency journalist Mehdi Mortazavian in an interview with championat.asia.
According to Mortazavian, Iran’s team, under the leadership of Amir Ghalenoei, will participate in this tournament without its legionnaires. The main reason for this decision is that CAFA Nations Cup 2025 is held outside the official FIFA calendar. That is, clubs are not obligated to release their foreign-based players for the national team.
Currently, many high-level footballers in the Iran national team play for foreign clubs. Among them are: Mehdi Taremi ("Inter"), Sardar Azmoun and Saeid Ezatolahi ("Shabab Al Ahli"), Mohammad Ghorbani ("Al Wahda"), Saman Ghoddos, Mehdi Ghaedi, Shahriyar Moghanlou ("Ittihad Kalba"), Sadegh Moharrami ("Dinamo", Zagreb), Alireza Jahanbakhsh ("Heerenveen"), Ali Gholizadeh ("Lech Poznan"), Saeid Saharkhizan ("Orenburg"), and others.
The absence of these players from the tournament may affect not only the potential of the national team but also the overall quality of the competition. In recent years, Iran’s team has been recognized as a high-level team in the region and globally. However, the absence of several key players may weaken this status.
In addition, the Malaysia national team has also announced that it will not participate in CAFA Nations Cup 2025, citing the tournament’s scheduling outside of FIFA dates.
Likewise, several of Uzbekistan’s legionnaire players may not make it in time for the first match against Oman. The emergence of such issues at the beginning of the tournament undoubtedly creates unrest in the sports environment.
Having national teams participate with their full squad in regional tournaments like CAFA is very important for fans. It not only determines the level of competition but also enhances the prestige of the tournament.
Therefore, in the future, the need to organize such tournaments in line with the international calendar becomes apparent again. Otherwise, the development of football in the region and fan interest may be negatively affected. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!
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