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ZIFA’S negotiations with their Iranian counterparts for an international friendly between Zimbabwe and 2014 World Cup finalists Iran, has sparked controversy, which has sucked in FIFA.

The world football governing body stepped in and scrap an international friendly tie between Zimbabwe and Iran, which the Iranians say was scheduled for Tehran today, because FIFA said the proposed game violated their rules.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, broke the story on Wednesday last week and it has since been picked up by various publications, around the world, with screaming headlines that FIFA have “banned” the tie from going ahead as scheduled.

ZIFA told The Herald, recently, that they had organised a friendly match for the Warriors against Iran in South Africa, next month.

ZIFA said the Iranians indicated that they would cover the costs of the flights and accommodation for the Young Warriors delegation to Johannesburg for the scheduled international friendly on December 19.

Young Warriors’ coach, Callisto Pasuwa, even welcomed the proposed match against the Asians.

“Iran also comes with a different style of play and experience and it will be good to see how we will apply ourselves against them,” Pasuwa told The Herald two weeks ago.

However, the Iranians and the media in that country say the deal was for an international friendly to be played in Tehran today, leading the Iran Football Federation officials to submit a request to FIFA for a greenlight for them to host the match.

Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, the secretary-general of Iran Football Federation told Tasmin news agency that Zimbabwe had accepted to come to Tehran to play a friendly international with Iran.

The reports claimed the ZIFA officials agreed to send the Warriors to Iran to play an international friendly in Tehran, as a replacement for Kenya, who pulled out of a scheduled match against the Asians after having demanded $50 000 in cash and travel costs associated with the trip to Tehran.

But the world football governing body scrapped the game saying the match would be a violation of FIFA rules which stipulate that there should be, at least, three days rest for the players between two international matches being played on different continents.

FIFA advised the Iranian Football Federation officials that they had already given a greenlight for Zimbabwe to play Morocco, in Agadir, in an international friendly on Saturday, and granting a permission for the Warriors to play another game, on a different continent four days earlier, would be a violation of the Zurich organisation’s rules.

“FIFA has announced that Iran national football team cannot play a friendly against Zimbabwe on November 12, an official with Iran Football Federation Omid Jamali said Wednesday,” IRNA said in its report filed last Wednesday.

The news agency quoted Jamali saying that after negotiations with their ZIFA counterparts, on holding the match, they sent the required documentation to FIFA.

“Based on FIFA rules, the teams have to rest at least three days between any two games in two different continents and duration of their flights have to be no more than five hours,” Jamali told IRNA.

“After preliminary talks for a friendly game between Iran and Zimbabwe, we sent the required forms to FIFA, seeking their permission when we were told that Zimbabwe had earlier registered another friendly game in Morocco with the country’s national team.”

Jamali told IRNA that Zimbabwe’s game against Morocco was scheduled for November 16 and, based on FIFA rules, the country cannot play another friendly against Iran on November 12.

Concern has been raised within the ZIFA board over the way the national team friendly matches are being arranged with some board members saying they only read about the games in the media and accusing chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze of single-handedly arranging the matches without their blessing.

Meanwhile, the friendly international between the Young Warriors and Morocco, set for Saturday, could be a victim of the fallout between the North African country and CAF after the Moroccans were stripped of the right to host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and thrown out of the tournament.

The decision to strip Morocco of the right to host the tourney was taken during a six-hour meeting of the CAF executive committee at its Cairo headquarters. Morocco has said since early October that its call for a postponement was “dictated by health reasons of the most dangerous kind, linked to the serious risk of the spread of the deadly Ebola pandemic”.

CAF called on the Moroccans to change their minds, but decided at yesterday’s meeting that the response they had been given “clearly indicates that the Royal Moroccan Football Federation reiterated its refusal to hold the competition on the dates indicated.

“Therefore, having firmly and unanimously notified on November 3 its decision to keep the competition on the dates indicated, the Executive Committee confirmed that the Orange Africa Cup of Nations 2015 will not take place in Morocco.”

A senior CAF source speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity later said up to three countries, including Angola and Gabon, could be in the running to replace Morocco.

Among those countries which are reportedly not interested in replacing Morocco at such short notice are South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and Ghana, while there has been no public response from reigning champions Nigeria.

The CAF executive committee confirmed that qualification matches for the tournament will continue as planned on November 14-15. — Sports Reporter/AFP.