Saudi Al-Hilal FC selects Muscat to host matches against Iranian clubs
Saudi Arabian professional football team al-Hilal has picked Oman as the neutral venue to host the forthcoming matches against Iranian clubs at the group stage of the 2017 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League.
According to a report published by the Arabic-language al-Kooora sports news website, officials at the Riyadh-based squad made the decision on Sunday on the basis that Muscat has already played host to a number of encounters between Iranian and Saudi soccer clubs, and the fact that al-Hilal enjoys enormous popularity in Oman.
Al Hilal Saudi Football Club is expected to notify AFC authorities of the choice in a letter addressed to them.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Pro League professional football club Persepolis will play al-Hilal and Qatari Al Rayyan sports club in Group D of the 2017 AFC Champions League.
The competitions, which will be the 36th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament, will begin on January 24, and will wrap up on November 25 next year.
The winners of the tournament will qualify as the AFC representative for the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Iran in January following Tehran's strong condemnation of the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
The move followed demonstrations held in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad by angry protesters censuring the Al Saud family for the killing of the top cleric as part of a crackdown on Shias mostly residing in the kingdom's Eastern Province.
Some people mounted the walls of the consulate in Mashhad while incendiary devices were hurled at the embassy in Tehran.
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