Iran Tractor FC is set to travel to Saudi Arabia for a playoff game against Dubai’s Shabab Al-Ahli to qualify for the Asian Champions League Elite quarter-finals against Thailand’s Buriram United.
The Asian Football Confederation held the draw on Wednesday to decide the quarter-finals, a day after announcing that the western zone qualifiers that were postponed due to the Middle East war were rescheduled for April 13-14 in Jeddah.
The Saudi city is also set to host the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals from April 16 to 25, with the hosts planning the dates and hoping for peace in the region.
“We all want to play the match as soon as possible. So we hope that we can finish the match in April, as we planned,” AFC general secretary Windsor John said. “We hope that things will settle down soon.”
Participating clubs have “supported the measures we have put in place to ensure we only play when things are calm”.
Vissel Kobe of Japan – who finished second in the eastern zone – were drawn on Wednesday to play the winner of the play-off between four-time champions Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia and Al-Sadd of the United Arab Emirates.
