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Mohun Bagan Super Giant, the Indian Super League (ISL) club, face a potential fine and ban after deciding to not travel to Iran for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Two match against Tractor SC. The decision from ISL club has come in the wake of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s death in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon, following which Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered for a five-day public mourning in his country.
Notably, Mohun Bagan were slated to take on Tractor SC on Wednesday, October 2, with a 9:30 PM IST kick-off at the Yadegar Imam Stadium in Tabriz in the Northern part of Iran, but now, they won’t be travelling to the Middle Eastern country. Earlier in the AFC Champions League Two 2024-25 season, Mohun Bagan had to settle for a 0-0 in their opening match of the tournament against Ravshan from Tajikistan last month at the Salt Lake Stadium.
Three foreign players of Mohun Bagan Super Giant wrote to the club about not wanting to travel to Iran
The report from Indian Express had information about three of the foreign players in Mohun Bagan belonging to Australia, who have imposed sanctions against Iran. Furthermore, these players had written to the Kolkata-based club about how they were not comfortable in travelling to Iran in the current political climate in the country in the wake of Israel’s attack in Lebanon, which the Middle Eastern country isn’t in support of.
An official from Mohun Bagan Super Giant remarked that the club wrote several letters to the AFC and AIFF on the matter, including their players not wanting to travel to Iran, and said, “We have written several letters to the Asian Football Confederation and the All India Football Federation. We wrote to AFC yesterday as well that our players would have needed proper security and have already written to us saying they don’t want to go to Iran. In this situation when nobody wants to go, we have written to AFC for different solutions like shifting the match to a different place.
“Three days ago, they (AFC) had written to us that the situation was okay and that the security situation was under control, but the situation has changed in the last three days. We are expecting a letter from them. We have made our arguments and given our proofs,” the Mohun Bagan official added. Meanwhile, the AFC has shared an official statement about the matter on their website, taking note of Mohun Bagan’s intention to not travel to Iran.
Moreover, as per the AFC Champions League Two rulebook, if Mohun Bagan forfeits the match as planned, then Tractor SC will get the win with a 3-0 margin. Furthermore, they could get fined $50,000 apart from a possible ban from the AFC competitions for multiple years.
