Iran
Soccer-Iran cannot participate in World Cup, minister says
Iran cannot participate in the 2026 World Cup after co-host the U.S. launched airstrikes alongside Israel, Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said on Wednesday.
Bahrain have named Croatian Dragan Talajic as manager, the Bahrain Football Association said.
Dragan Talajic © Mena Today
Bahrain have named Croatian Dragan Talajic as manager, the Bahrain Football Association said.
The 58-year-old former goalkeeper, who has managed several clubs in the Middle East, will arrive in Manama this week, the federation added, without giving any details of his contract.
Bahrain exited the Asian Cup in the last 16 with a 3-1 loss to Japan on Jan. 31 and last week terminated the contract of Argentine head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi by mutual consent.
They are second in Group H of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup on three points after two matches. They are three points behind leaders UAE who beat them 2-0 in November.
Bahrain visit Nepal in their next qualifying match on March 21 before the reverse fixture five days later.
The top two teams qualify for the third round.
Reporting by Ahmed El Khashab
Iran cannot participate in the 2026 World Cup after co-host the U.S. launched airstrikes alongside Israel, Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said on Wednesday.
Iran's ongoing conflict with the U.S. and Israel has led to sporting events being postponed in several countries, while competitions elsewhere have been hit by travel disruption, with thousands of flights cancelled in some of the world's busiest transit hubs.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's largest cloud computing provider, has confirmed that two of its data centers in the United Arab Emirates were "directly hit" by drones, disrupting services across parts of the Middle East.
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