TEHRAN - International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) has confirmed Thailand football 5-a-side as Iran’s replacement at the 2020 Paralympic Games.

 Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Japan, Morocco, Spain and Thailand will all go for gold in Tokyo.

Thailand replaced Iran following the return of their slot by the National Paralympic Committee.

Iran’s National Paralympic Committee (NPC) had already announced that it would not send the blind football team to the Paralympics, however the committee later changed its decision but IBSA said the deadline has expired.

 Brazil are the defending champions having reigned supreme throughout the history of tournament. The team are unbeaten since blind football made its Paralympic debut at Athens 2004. They are also the world champions having collected their third successive title in Madrid, Spain, in 2018.

Argentina line-up as the bronze medalists from Rio 2016 having secured their place at the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games in Peru. Their second place finish to Brazil was enough to secure their ticket to Tokyo 2020.

Thailand received the reallocated slot from Iran, who won the silver medal at the Rio 2016, following their fourth place finish at the 2019 Asian Championships.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games opens on 25 August. The football-5-a-side competition will get underway on Aug. 30 with three days of group play. The semi-finals then take place on Sept. 3 with the medal matches on Sept. 5.