Iran football friendly without spectators as water pipe bursts

DPA – For the first time in Iranian football history, the country's national team plays a game without spectators, ISNA news agency reported Tuesday. The Iranian Football Federation (FFI) said in a statement Tuesday that due to a burst water pipe in Tehran's Azadi stadium, the friendly game between Iran and Costa Rica would be held without spectators.

The FFI statement, carried by ISNA news agency, said that due to the broken water pipe, the stadium's lavatories were unusable and therefore Wednesday's game against Costa Rica (1130 GMT) would be held without spectators.

Due to an unprecedented wave of cold weather and heavy snowfalls throughout Iran, including the capital Tehran, several games of the Iranian premier and first leagues had to be cancelled due to snow-covered pitches.

Also the game between Iran and Mali earlier this month on the southern Kish island had to be cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

The Azadi stadium in Tehran, which has a capacity of 100,000 and is the main venue for international games, has been unusable for more than a week but the technical problems could not be fixed in time for the Costa Rica game.

The stadium must however be fully ready by next Wednesday when Iran plays its first World Cup qualification game against Syria.