More than 48,000 tickets have been sold for the Canada match (or 90%) according to IFF official in charge of this issue, Hamd Estili (ex footballer who scored Iran's first goal in the WC98 match against the US). The only tickets not sold are apparently those blocked for fans who want to also purchase Canada's NL match as well, according to the Canadians in this site (Canadian Soccer News). Otherwise almost all tickets allotted for just the Iran match were sold out almost immediately. The source regarding the El Salvador issue is also Hamid Estili, as well as this report by ISNA.
How reliable is this Estili guy? I see over 7K seats available on the Canadian Ticketmaster website, and they can be purchased by anybody, none of them are blocked.
Actually, 48,000+7,000=55,000 (capacity crowd for BC Place). So what you say doesn't contradict but confirms what Estili has said. The reports about those seats being for those who want to also purchase the Caracau (?) NL are based on what I read from Canadians not Estili.
No, over 7K are available in the lower deck, and they are not locked for purchase. Anyone can buy those. The upper deck has over 2K available seats in the Canadian Ticketmaster website. Why is Iranian press hyping up a friendly match with constant claims of tickets being sold off? Reality is far from those claims.
Didn't Argentina cancel on Israel ahead of the last World Cup? Perhaps this game was a compromise to avoid getting sued for breach of contract...
🚨 Gol Bezan Exclusive: Iran had organised a friendly match against El Salvador on June 10th in Toronto but got cancelled due to an advertising issue.Iran Football Federation are trying to find another opponent.— Gol Bezan (@GolBezan) May 16, 2022
Yikes, Iranian media likes to gaslight their fans too much. SLV lacks automatic Canadian visas, and has a Caribbean itinerary planned out before hosting USA in Nations League. No space in their schedule to mess around before their 3rd NL match in June. One must wonder how IRN planned to compensate SLV for a rushed sparring match, when IFF does not have funds to pay for friendlies. Ticketmaster Canada continues to show over 6.3K available seats for CAN vs IRN match. Half the seats in the lower deck (~11K) cannot be purchased to watch this friendly. So, there goes the exaggeration on Iranian press about 48K seats already sold for this match.
Nah, more like pundits with poor arithmetic skills, and notable disrespect for their fans' intelligence.
So, sounds like the government's none too happy about this... Prime Minister Trudeau asked about decision to grant visas to Iranian soccer team to play a friendly against Canada in June.Says it was "choice" made by Sport Canada and Soccer Canada."I don't think it was a very good idea to invite the Iranian soccer team to Canada"— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) May 17, 2022 OTOH, it's not a good look for two of the three 2026 hosts to be so problematic with issuing visas....
I will have to forgo wring what is in my mind about these hypocrites and hope the reception of the Iranian-Canadian community to this match (and one reason why the quick sale of tickets in whatever numbers upset some) speaks to what they think about the comments of the Canadian PM (and Canadian politicians lobbying for Iran's team to be denied visas). Besides hypocrite, terms like gutless and shameless comes to mind...
Ticketmaster Canada shows 100+ tickets available on 44 of 45 sections in the lower deck. Bear in mind, that "100+" means 101 to lower 300s in available seats. https://www.ticketmaster.ca/canada-.../event/11005CABCE25550D?refArtist=K8vZ917GDRf Understandably, the CUW NL match will attract fewer CAN fans, despite its Sunday afternoon scheduling. Ticket scalpers are wetting themselves with glee after each unsubstantiated claim of tickets being sold out, though.
🎙️ "We have reached an agreement to play a friendly with Ecuador. All the conditions have been agreed-upon and the contract will be signed tomorrow." - Hamid EstiliEcuador qualified to #Qatar2022 and finished in fourth-place in the CONMEBOL standings. 🇮🇷🇪🇨 pic.twitter.com/eLe3Kt9eAV— Persian Soccer (@prznsoccer) May 18, 2022
if the ugly hands of politicians don't intrude, Iran's schedule and preparations in June will be as follows:
That friendly against Mali has been cancelled. EVENT UPDATE: The Ecuador vs Mali Soccer Match is cancelled.Credit/Debit purchases made online or at the Box Office will be automatically refunded within 10 business days. Cash purchasers should bring their tickets to the Box Office during normal business hours for a refund. pic.twitter.com/BUy1mJFdiA— Pratt & Whitney Stadium (@PWStadium) May 18, 2022
Looks like Iceland can practice scoring goals vs San Marino on 9th june while Albania can practice doing the same vs Estonia 4 days later on 13th june ...
We are expected to play some friendly 5th june aswell - i'd imagine potential opponent must be from other confederation since from europe there are no available teams (except Israel?) ... There have been rumours us facing some exotic team like Cameroon or St Kitts & Nevis for example but neither isn't confirmed yet therefore ...