Football officials fired after failure in Olympic qualification

MNA – TEHRAN, Iran’s three top football officials were fired for dereliction of duty on Sunday as the national squad suffered an early exit from the Olympic qualification race.

The officials were involved in a curious incident in which Iran football Olympic team failed to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Iran beat Iraq 1-0 in the first leg of the Olympic qualifiers on June 19 in Arbil but the coaches were informed just hours before the start of the second leg that Iraqi team had been awarded a 3-0 victory since Iran used a suspended player in the match.

Iran had to beat Iraq in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium 4-0 to reserve a seat in the next stage but the disheartened Persians lost 2-0 to their neighbors.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had already informed the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) about the suspension, but the AFC letter to the FFI was weirdly lost.

In the session held at the Iran Football Federation on Sunday, Ali Kaffashian, head of the football federation, sacked Fereydoon Moeini, the head of the national team management committee, Asghar Hajiloo, supervisor of Iran’s Olympic team, and Davoud Parhizgar, member of staff over their lack of concern.