The reason for holding the derby in the middle of the week
The reason for holding the derby in the middle of the week
The league organization announced that the derby between Esteghlal and Persepolis is set to be held on Tuesday, while in recent weeks, league matches were held on Thursdays and Fridays.
The scheduling of the crucial derby between Persepolis and Esteghlal at an unconventional time in the middle of the week has raised many questions. However, Sohail Mehdi, the official in charge of organizing the matches, has cited the transfer window and mourning periods as the main reasons for setting this date for the game.
In response to why this date was chosen for the derby, he said that since there are mourning days after that date and we couldn’t hold the game on another date, we wanted it to be on Thursday or Friday, but the conditions for holding it at the end of the week weren’t suitable. On the other hand, we also have to consider the transfer window period while organizing the matches, and this limitation exists.
The official in charge of organizing the Premier League matches responded to concerns that holding one of the most critical league matches in the middle of the week creates significant challenges for the fans of both teams, saying that the criticism is valid, but nothing can be done. For this reason, we chose 5:30 PM because we are in the cold season, and it wasn’t possible to hold the game later than this time. We also couldn’t set it earlier due to work conditions, so we arranged it in a way that they can watch the game. However, the match time can be changed with the approval of the Security Council.
Sohail Mehdi, in response to whether the clubs were informed of the date of December 23rd beforehand, said that nothing was announced to the clubs, and the official derby date is the one that has been announced.