May 16-2014
Iran’s national soccer team is complaining publicly that it is being given socks that shrink and shoes that are too small.
Coach Carlos Queiroz is leading the chants of disgust, backed up by a number of the players.
The row has worsened tensions between Queiroz and the Iranian Football Federation over chaotic preparations for the World Cup finals, which start June 12 in Brazil.
The Portuguese coach said, “Before crucial games against Qatar and South Korea, which were played in extreme conditions of humidity, the equipment delivered was not proper. This could have put Iran out of the World Cup.”
Queiroz spoke out just before the team left Tehran Tuesday for a three-week training camp in Austria, where it will play friendlies with the national teams of Belarus, Montenegro and Angola.
Queiroz lambasted the federation for failing to provide proper shoes or enough clothing.
“If you give shoes sized 34 to somebody that wears size 44 he cannot walk five meters,” said Queiroz, only partly joking about the predicament his players find themselves in.
“If you have one tracksuit per player morning and afternoon it cannot be good,” added Queiroz.
Several players joined Queiroz in grumbling about the equipment.
“They give us large size socks and after two days and being washed they shrink to a small size,” said striker Karim Ansarifard at the press event.
The team has a contract with the German equipment maker Uhlsport. But Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari, whose former club Sepahan, used Uhlsport equipment of the “best quality,” suggested the club wasn’t getting real Uhlsport supplies. “The gear that we have now, we really don’t know what it is,” he said.
Sports Minister Mahmud Gudarzi downplayed the team’s equipment problems. “We are really tired of talking about this. I don’t understand why everyone is defending it. When there is something wrong, we should admit that there is a problem,” he was quoted as saying.
Asked about that, Queiroz responded, “The minister is not well-informed.”
Before the team went to Austria, it held a camp in South Africa, where it played friendlies against four professional teams, defeating two, tying another and losing to the fourth.
Meanwhile, FIFA announced the slogans that had been picked through a fan poll run by automaker Hyundai. This has produced widespread derision.
Many of the slogans are inane, and some can be viewed as offensive. For example, the team from Cote d’Ivoire was given the slogan, “Elephants charging toward Brazil.”
Iran’s slogan is “Honor of Persia,” which also happens to be the name of a computer wargame.
The United States got, “United by team; driven by passion,” while Argentina’s slogan is, “Not just a team, we are a country.”
And Russia will come into Brazil, if not Ukraine and Georgia, with the slogan, “No one can catch us.”