A nine-year wait for the Persian Gulf Pro League glory could come to an end for Esteghlal supporters if all results go in their favor in today’s fixtures.
Esteghlal, holding a six-point lead over nearest rival Persepolis, will play away to Foolad Khuzestan, fourth in the table, in Ahvaz’s Foolad Arena, hours before its archrival squares off against third-placed Sepahan in the neutral venue of Shahid Soleimani in Sirjan.
Should a victory for the Tehran-based Blues, remarkably unbeaten this season, be followed by a third defeat of the campaign for Persepolis, it will bring the Reds’ five-year dominance over the Iranian league to an end with three games to spare, as the League Organization of the Iranian Football Federation confirmed on Thursday that the champion will be decided by the head-to-head result between the top two if they finish the season level on points.
Esteghlal and Persepolis played to a goalless stalemate at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium – a game in which Esteghlal was designated as the host – earlier in the season, before sharing the points in a 1-1 draw in March’s reverse fixture.
Elsewhere, Naft Masjed Soleyman, third from bottom, will host newly-crowned Hazfi Cup champion Nassaji Mazandaran.
Bottom club Shahr Khodro will face Paykan at home, with Fajr Sepasi also struggling for survival, visiting Havadar in Tehran.
 

The AFC Futsal Asian Cup will get underway in Kuwait on September 25, the Asian football governing body confirmed on Friday.
Sixteen teams will learn their pathway to the glory at the draw ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 26.
The news came as a relief for the sport in Asia after the AFC earlier this week called off the AFC Futsal Club Championship for a third successive year following the UAE’s withdrawal from hosting the event in the summer. Iranian futsal great Vahid Shamsaei, a three-time AFC Futsal Player of the Year, will be looking to steer the country to a record-extending 13th title – third in a row – at the biennial competition, which was canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.Shamsaei replaced ex-manager Mohammad Nazemasharieh in January following a rather disappointing World Cup campaign in Lithuania last September, which ended in a quarterfinal exit for the Asian powerhouse at the hands of Kazakhstan.
In his debut as the national team head coach, Iran made a clean sweep of victories over Maldives, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan in April to ease into the Asian Cup.The AFC also announced that the draw for the qualifiers of the U17 Asian Cup and the U20 Asian Cup, which will take place in 2023 in Bahrain and Uzbekistan respectively, will be held in Kuala Lumpur on May 24.

 

Iranian Saeed Armaghani was appointed as the new head coach of the country’s basketball team.
Armaghani, 60, former coach of the Hungarian club Óbudai Kaszások, replaces Mostafa Hashemi, who parted ways with Iran Basketball Federation after less than nine months in charge.
Armaghani, back on Iran’s bench after a short spell in 2001, will be joined by Mohammad Kassaeipour, Mehran Atashi, and Bosnian Zlatko Jovanovic in his technical staff.
Armaghani will have to lead Iran into early July’s double-header against Kazakhstan and Syria at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers. Iran is second behind Kazakhstan in Group D and has already booked a place for the second round of the qualifiers.

 

Iran will play Canada on June 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia, in a first friendly fixture for the Asian powerhouse ahead of November’s World Cup in Qatar, Iran Football Federation confirmed. Iran will be looking to play a second friendly during the visit to the North American country in the upcoming international break, said the federation.
Iran has been pitted against England, USA, and one of Wales, Scotland, or Ukraine in Group B of the showdown in Qatar.
 

 

Jimmy Butler scored 32 points as he sent Miami Heat into the NBA Eastern Conference finals with a 99-90 victory over Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6.
The Heat reached the conference finals for the second time in three seasons, again with Butler leading the charge. Philly fans – and many inside the 76ers organization – still can’t believe the franchise let Butler get away after the 2019 season, AP reported.
He did not mess around and scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the third quarter when the Heat used a 16-2 run to take control. Butler scored 33 points in Game 3 and 40 in Game 4 and took 29 shots in Game 6.
Joel Embiid, the NBA scoring champion, had no significant help and scored 20 points with 12 rebounds on 7-of-24 shooting for Sixers. Elsewhere, Luka Doncic scored 33 points and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns 113-86 to force a Game 7 in the Western Conference semifinals.
Devin Booker scored 19 points for the Suns but was shut out from 3-point range (0 of 4) while going 6 of 17. Deandre Ayton had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Chris Paul added 13 points.
Reggie Bullock scored 19 points and Jalen Brunson added 18 for Dallas.

 

Rafa Nadal said that everyday training was a challenge and he would take a doctor with him to Roland Garros after the 21-times major winner was once again hampered by a chronic foot injury in his defeat by Denis Shapovalov at the Italian Open on Thursday.
Nadal, who only recently returned from a stress fracture in the ribs, struggled badly at the back end of his match against the Canadian as he went down 1-6 7-5 6-2 in the last-16, Reuters reported.
“I had my foot again with a lot of pain. I am a player living with an injury – it is nothing new. It’s something that is there,” Nadal, a 10-times champion in Rome, told reporters.
Nadal’s preparation heading into the French Open, where he will be bidding for a record-extending 14th title, has been far from ideal after he was also knocked out of last week’s Madrid Open by Carlos Alcaraz at the quarter-finals stage.
“First thing that I need to do is to don’t have pain to practice... it’s true that during the French Open, Roland Garros, I going to have my doctor there with me. That sometimes helps because you can do things,” said Nadal.