Tehran: Iran's football chief has acknowledged "problems" in organising home fixtures in the run-up to the World Cup, apparently related to the Islamic republic's woes with the outside world.
"There has been some behind the scenes pressure to prevent us from going ahead with our plans, but we will go forward with finding matches for our national team," the secretary general of Iran's football federation, Mohammad Reza Pahlavan, told the Mehr news agency.
But he added that "the problem of organising preparatory matches for our national team is over", with Latin American side Costa Rica agreeing to play Iran in Tehran on March 1.
Iran had been slated to play Ukraine on that date, but that side pulled out whilst arguing they prefered a weaker side for a warm-up and saying the flight to Tehran was too long.
The cancellation, however, was viewed by Iranian papers as a political move - with Iran under mounting international pressure over its disputed nuclear programme and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad under fire for his fiery anti-Israeli rhetoric.
Last year Romania also pulled out of a series of fixtures in Tehran two months ago, after Romanian Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu said there were "risks" involved playing in that country.
According to FIFA's timetable set for the qualifying teams, Iran should play four official friendly games.
Iran begins the World Cup against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 with further group games against Portugal and Angola.
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