Iran Beach Soccer

PLDC - Dubai, The United Arabs Emirates are doing everything in their power to gain results in this beach soccer tournament that's hosted in their country.


Iran will be missing three key players in the semi-finals of this tournament (vs UAE). During Iran's match against Italy in the group stage (which Iran won), the referee of the match ejected Abdollahi, and gave yellow cards to Ahmadzadeh and Hassani; the players with yellow cards will miss the next match due to accumulating cards. The referee's decisions were nothing short of questionable. Mind you, that these referees were chosen by UAE for this tournament, and are indeed on their pay roll.

But this tournament did not just start smelling fishy recently; in fact, it was rigged from the beginning, when Iran, Russia, Brazil, and Italy were placed in one group; all of them being superpowers in the world of beach soccer. And believe it or not, the other group includes: Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and Morocco. Despite their stacked group, Iran finished first in Group B, and will face UAE in the next round (semi-finals) of this tournament, as the host country finished second in Group A.

The valiant Iranians will face UAE on Friday, November 22nd, at 7:15 PM local time. The other semi-finals match of the tournament is between Russia and Switzerland at 8:30 PM. Both matches will be played in Jumeirah Beach in Dubai.

By: Arman Tamjidi
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