Kalnoi: I didn't feel strange in Basra.
The postponement of the Nations Cup changed our plan to give an opportunity to the youth.
The head coach of the football team:
Our flight was supposed to take place from Tehran to Basra, but we were informed that there was no possibility of a direct flight. We thought it happened because of security issues, because human life is important to us, but if we thought it was about political issues and we still don't know, we would never have come to Basra, because for us the honor of Iran and the Iranian people is more important than anything else. In many places they chant that football is not political; But the behavior that happened to us in America was a clear example of political behavior.
We had a lot of changes in the tournament in Basra and tried to give more opportunities to younger players. Asian football is progressing and many investments are being made; Even passports are given to foreign players to play in other countries. Palestine is a very good team, they have many legionnaires and we played with them in the 2023 Asian Cup.
Due to the postponement of the Nations Cup, we changed our plans and went in the direction of giving more pitch to the youngsters. We have taken this opportunity to include younger players in the new list so that these games will greatly help these youngsters.
If one day we can't play in Iran, we can choose Basra because we didn't feel strange from the first day we arrived.