🔻Tasnim reports that Esteghlal will play Al-Gharafa in Qatar on 20 Mehr in the second week of the AFC Champions League, while flight restrictions have left the travel schedule of the Blues with uncertainty, and the club officials are still waiting for the Qatari side’s response.

🔹Esteghlal had previously, in a letter to the Asian Football Confederation, requested that it be provided with the possibility of this team traveling directly to Qatar. At the same time, the Esteghlal officials, in correspondence with both Al-Gharafa and the Qatar Football Association, raised their request to carry out a direct flight to this country, but no response has been received so far.

🔹If the possibility of a direct flight is not provided, Esteghlal will face two options for its presence in Qatar. The first option is for the Blues to travel from Tabriz to Istanbul after their match against Tractor on 16 Mehr, and then to leave Istanbul for Qatar. The second option is to travel overland or by air to Basra, Iraq, and then to depart from that city for Qatar; given the existing conditions, the Istanbul route seems more likely.

🔹Meanwhile, Tractor as well—after its match against Esteghlal—will travel first to Istanbul in order to participate in the second week of the AFC Champions League and play against Al-Shamal of Qatar, and then from that city it will travel to Oman.