The Iran national football team (Persian: تیم ملی فوتبال مردان ایران‎, romanized: Tīm-e Melli-e Fūtbāl-e Mardān-e Īrān), also known as Team Melli (Persian: تیم ملی‎, romanized: Tīm-e Melli, lit. 'the national team'), represents Iran in international football and is controlled by the Iran Football Federation. From December 2014 until May 2018, the men's national football team of Iran remained the highest-ranked team in Asia, representing the longest continuous period of time a team has been top of the continent in the rankings. Iran is one of the most successful men's national teams in Asia with three Asian Cup championships (1968, 1972, and 1976). Iran's best performance at the Olympics was reaching the quarterfinals in the 1976 Montreal Games. Iran has qualified for the World Cup five times (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, and 2018) but has never advanced past the group stage. They have, however, won two matches in the World Cup, one against the United States in 1998, and their opener against Morocco in 2018.

Azadi Stadium

The Uzbekistan national football team (Uzbek: Oʻzbekiston milliy futbol terma jamoasi) represents Uzbekistan in international football and is controlled by the Uzbekistan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is the most successful national team from Central Asia. Although they have never qualified to the World Cup, the team has qualified to every AFC Asian Cup since post-independence formation. During the 2011 Asian Cup, Uzbekistan reached the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time. Uzbekistan has also competed at other competitions such as the Asian Games, where they won the gold medal in the football tournament in 1994 in Japan, and finishing as the runners-up at the Afro-Asian Cup of Nations in 1995.