Iran had entered the qualifying draw for the 1986 World Cup and was grouped with Bahrain and South Yemen. With Iran and Iraq still at war, Iran (along with Iraq and Lebanon) had to play all their home matches on neutral ground or away. As a sign of protest to this decision, Iran withdrew from qualifying. Thus a valuable opportunity to play some meaningful games, and possibly qualify for the World Cup for only the 2nd time was thrown away. To make matters worse, Iraq, who also was told that it had to play its home games in another country, not only did just that, but also qualified as one of the two Asian representatives in Mexico.
No comments:
Post a Comment