Ali Kaffashian , the President of FFIRI visited Manama , where he met with the AFC President Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifah in what looked like a last gasp attempt by Kaffashian to persuade the AFC of the advantage that his country holds versus the UAE in hosting the next Asian Cup in 2019.

According to the official FFIRI website, Kaffashian has indicated that the AFC has put forward several points which are considered to be detrimental to Iran chances of hosting the next premiere event of Asian football. The absence of proper TV rights rules, sponsorship deals and facilitation and the right of women to enter Iranian stadiums were considered to be negative points against Iran’s hosting of the Asian Cup.

Kaffashian also stated that the AFC has given his federation an ultimatum about TV broadcast rights payment to the Iranian clubs taking part in the Champions League. Unless there is proper and systematic payment to the 4 clubs in the AFC Champions League, the AFC might withdraw the rights of Iranian teams from participation in next season’s competition.

Interestingly enough, the official AFC website, mentioned nothing about such delicate issues of AFC ultimatum nor the negative points against Iran hosting as stated by Kaffashian. The-afc.com merely published a short news clip of the meeting between Kaffashian and Al Khalifa in what looked more like a Political Bureau of former Communist Party of the Soviet Union statement than anything concrete in relation to Iran’s chances hosting of Asian Cup 2019. In the customary exchange of compliments, the President of the AFC noted that Iran’s development programs should be used as a benchmark for other Member Association currently working to improve standards within their own countries, according to the afc.com while Kafashian took time out to praise Shaikh Salman for the progress and development seen during his time as AFC President.

During the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia, there were news leaks that UAE has won the hosting rights for the Asian Cup 2019 and it was the matter of formalities before the decision is officially announced. The visit by Kaffashian seems to be a frantic attempt towards swaying the votes towards Iran.