Team Melli squad with a limited number of players has landed in Dubai. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) continues to tighten its restriction on the teams with health measures to ensure the safety of players and officials for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

The squad will start training in the UAE from today (Monday), and according to the AFC health guidelines, all team members must be in the health bubble and are not allowed to leave the hotel. Members of the Iranian national football team will take a corona test twice before the match against the UAE on Thursday in order to be allowed to attend the match. The Confederation’s executive officer also inspects the camp of the two teams on a regular basis sending reports on hygiene and preventive measure of the squads to the World Cup selection committee.

While the training will start as of Monday, most players based in Europe are absent and expected to join in Dubai within the next two days. In contrast to Iran, the UAE has its full quota of players in the training camp.

The list of UAE team includes goalkeepers, Ali Khaseef, Fahd Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani and Mohammed Al Shamsi, and players Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammed Barghash, Abdel Aziz Heikal, Shaheen Abdel Rahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Ahmed Rashid, Ahmed Al Attas and Al Hassan Valid. Youssef Jaber, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ali Salmin, Abdullah Ramadan, Muhammad Abbas, Abdullah Hamad, Majed Rashid, Fabio de Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Muhammad Jumaa, Tahnoon Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Zayed Al Ameri, Ali Mabkhout and Sebastian Tigali

The last time the Iranian national team met UAE was in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia. Only two players from the UAE team that lost to Iran 1-0 are in the current squad. Ali Mabkhout and  Walid Abbas.