In bizarre twist, Iran loses Olympic qualifier after letter lost

Jun 24, 2011, 20:47 GMT

Tehran - A curious incident has led to the disqualification of the Iranian football team from next year's Olympics in London, the state media reported Friday.

Iran had won its qualification game last week against Iraq in Erbil 1-0 and looked set to be the clear winner in the second game on Thursday in Tehran's Azadi stadium.

But just hours before the game, coach Ali Mansourian and his players were told they had actually lost the game in Erbil 0-3 because Iran had used a suspended player, ISNA news agency reported.

Midfielder Kamal Kamyabinia was suspended after his second yellow card in the previous two games against Kyrgyzstan and was therefore not allowed to play in the game against Iraq.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had informed the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) in March about the suspension, but the AFC letter has reportedly been lost in the FFI.

Although Kamyabinia only played for eight minutes against Iraq, the AFC was still forced to declare the game in favour of Iraq despite the Iranian victory.

'Please just tell me in which country in the world such an important letter is lost and in which country in the world the football federation forgets to inform the coaching team about suspended players,' said Mansourian, who was not the team's coach in the previous games.

He said after the players were informed of the AFC decision, they lost all their motivation and cried for hours at having missed the chance to qualify for the Olympics.

Mansourian still tried to achieve a needed victory Thursday by increasing the number of his strikers, but instead ran into Iraqi counterattacks and lost the home game 0-2, ending Iran's hopes to reach London next year.

The fans in the stadium did not know about the issue before the game, but after they were informed they shouted slogans against the FFI and its president Ali Kafashian.

The last qualification of an Iranian football team at the Olympics was 1976 in Montreal. ISNA news agency quoted Kafashian as saying he would not resign over the incident.

'Resigning now would be escaping from responsibility,' Kafashian said.

FFI spokesman Abbas Torabian told official news agency IRNA that a professional player like Kamyabinia and the coaching team should have both known about the suspension and not blame the FFI.

Former coach of the national Olympic team, Houman Afazeli, harshly attacked the FFI. He said the era of writing letters was over and FFI officials should learn English and get used to new technologies like the internet in order to avoid such an embarrassment.

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