Iran excludes two players after playing against Israeli club

11 August 2017:Iranian football players Masoud Shojaie and Ehsan Hajsafi lost their spots on the Iranian national team after playing with their Greek club against Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League qualifiers.


“It is certain that Masoud Shojaei and Ehsan Hajisafi will never be invited to join the national football team, because they violated the red line,” Mohammad Reza Davarzani, Iran’s deputy sports minister, said in an address on national television.

Masoud Shojaie and Ehsan Hajsafi play for Greek team Panionios FC, but only participated in the first leg played in Greece, as they refused to travel to Tel Aviv to play the second leg, despite facing pressure and financial fines.

“Agreeing to play in a game against athletes of a regime that has given humanity nothing other than occupation, murder, aggression and betrayal is disrespectful of the rights of thousands of martyrs and those displaced and affected by the occupying Zionist regime,” Naghavi-Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's foreign policy committee, told the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

According to Ali Kafashian, Iran Football Federation vice president, the two players should have boycotted the game, “even if their contracts with the Greek team would have been terminated," Kafashian stated to Mizan Online News Agency’s website.

Iran has qualified to 2018 World Cup in Russia.