Iran-UAE qualifying match to be held in empty stadium

As the number of cases infected with the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 rises in Iran, National Taskforce for Fighting Coronavirus held a session chaired by President Ebrahim Raeisi on Saturday.

During the session, it was decided that the February 1 match between the national football teams of Iran and the UAE in the AFC qualifying competitions for the 2022 Qatar World Cup will be held in empty Grand Azadi Stadium.

This is while the Thursday match between Iran and Iraq at Tehran Azadi Stadium was held with the participation of 12,000 spectators including 2,000 women in accordance with the earlier decision of the National Taskforce for Fighting Coronavirus. 

Iran has already qualified for the Qatar world cup after defeating Iraq as the first country.

The health ministry said on Saturday that 24 Iranians lost their lives after contracting the Covid-19 in the past 24 hours since Friday while 11,731 new cases of the disease were reported. 

It was also announced that the number of the Covid-19 vaccines administered in the country have exceeded 131,000,000 on Saturday.

In today's meeting of the National Taskforce for Fighting Coronavirus, the participants urged for the acceleration of the booster third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

KI