Kaffashian, once again came out firmly in support of UHLSport and their kit for Team Melli, refuting any claims by the head coach Carlos Queiroz and his players that the quality of the kit is sub-standard.

Answering reporters questions on Thursday from Khorasan where Kaffashian is in an official assignment, The head of the football federation, also claimed that Queiroz’s problem with UHLSport is due to the fact that He (Queiroz) was expecting a commission from the German company, which was not agreed by UHLSport!

Kaffashian is the second Iranian official  . following the Minster of Sports Goudarzi , who has mentioned in public Queiroz’s commission demand while the Portuguese coach has remained silent so far although has hinted before that his attorney will be doing the talking soon. .

The story does not end there either. It becomes rather comical  or  amateurish or downright denigrating, depending on one’s  mood at the time of reading this.

With world media attention directed at the story of Iran’s substandard kit provided by a German company , quoting the sarcastic remarks of Kaffashian that Team Melli players should not use cold water while washing their jersey as they need to re-use it for the next match (at least we hope it was a sarcastic remark, as it definitely was not funny),  UHLSport management was right to get very concerned. The German Kit provider for Team Melli decided to do an investigation of their own. They sent a team to Vienna, where Team Melli is camping to check first hand on the complaints by the Iranians , which definitely does the company’s reputation little good.

And what a surprise, shock or a joke when the men form UHLSport discover that a batch of non-UHLSport produced kit was mixed with genuine ones sent by the German company!  (see the official press release below) So, it seems that Queiroz and his players were right after all.  How did this happen?  Mr. Kaffashian had an explanation, and whichever way you look at it , it is seriously a depressing one.

Kaffashian claims that when Team Melli was  about to embark on the South Africa camp , only 3 colors were sent from Germany, but due to the request of the team for two different or additional colors, those were provided by the UHLSport agent in Dubai which apparently was of an inferior quality!

We are not sure if we understand Kaffashian correctly but tens of questions comes right to mind on the logic and the reasoning of his account of the story. It is simply flawed. Whichever way one looks at it. By all accounts , it signals the existence of a dismal management, lack of supervision, organization failures, poor communication, lack of accountability amongst many other fiascoes that has been the hallmark of this administration for ages.

The only thing that Kaffashian has said that we agree upon, although in essence that would amount to a cover up and concealing of facts, is his request to the media yesterday to keep a cap on the Team Melli kit issues. Obviously that is a self-serving request as he does not want more fingers pointed at him for his feeble control of the situation and fear of even more tales of exposure.   However , this very embarrassing and humiliating tales need to be put to bed

2nd Press Release from UHLSport

.20140520 uhlsport Pressemitteilung II_IRAN_DE_INT_210x297_RZ