Kalnawi: If we had thought that the flight was canceled because of political problems, we would not have arrived in Basra.
Head coach of the national football team:
Before we talk about technical problems, I want to remind you that our flight was supposed to be from Tehran to Basra, but we were informed that a direct flight is not possible. 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.
We believe that the people of Iran and Iraq have many cultural and religious characteristics. We want the people of our country and the countries of the region, especially a country like Iraq, to live together with authority and peace, away from war and other issues. 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.
Regarding technical issues, I hope this tournament can help 4 teams. Football is a means of enjoyment and bringing people together. The result is win and lose, but the first philosophy is to bring countries together. We made many changes in this tournament 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.
These games can be examined from one point of view; Given the postponement of the Asian Nations Cup, this will give younger players a chance to build our team for the next Nations Cup and World Cup.
These games must have a technical philosophy. 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.