Iran-Egypt friendly cancelled

AFC - Iran’s preparations for the final round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers suffered another blow on Thursday when Egypt cancelled their scheduled August 20 friendly game for political reasons.

Earlier, their three planned friendlies against Spanish clubs Marbella and Malaga and English side Charlton Athletic were called off throwing the preparations into disarray.

Egyptian Football Association (EFA) president Samir Zaher told Dream TV: "The Egyptian foreign ministry told us to reconsider playing the match."

"They did not oblige us to cancel it, but we decided to call off the match."

The African champions were scheduled to face Ali Daei’s charges on August 20 in UAE. Currently, the team is training in Spain and will play two friendly matches against Czech Republic clubs.

Iran will also take part in the West Asian Championship to be played in Tehran from August 7 to 16

Team Melli were drawn into Group B in the final round of World Cup qualifiers along side Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, DPR Korea and UAE. They begin their campaign against Saudi Arabia away on September 6.