Iran shows limits of sports diplomacy with statue of Soleimani in Isfahan stadium | | AW

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

65% : Cristiano Ronaldo's Saudi club Al Nassr played a match in Tehran on September 19, the first time a Saudi team had played in Iran since 2016.
54% : Al-Ittihad's Football Club players arrive ahead of their Asian Champions League match with Iran's Sepahan at the Naghsh-e Jahan Stadium in Isfahan, Iran, October 2, 2023.
45% : Soleimani commanded the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iran regime has built him into a national martyr following his 2020 assassination.
42% : The local news agency Tasnim said the statue of Soleimani was "part of" the stadium and had no connection to the match.
42% : The dispute comes one month after Saudi Arabia and Iran announced a "groundbreaking" deal to resume home-and-away football matches between club sides after seven years of competing in neutral venues.
41% : The Saudi state-affiliated Al-Ekhbariya channel reported on Monday night that Ittihad had left Iran for Saudi Arabia.
37% : "The club administrators found a bust of Qasem Soleimani in the walkway to the pitch.
32% : However an official with Saudi side Al Ittihad said a dispute arose after club administrators objected to a bust of Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2020.

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