By Mark Baber
January 26 – The sense that the deck might be stacked against Iran in international football received a boost over the weekend as they were knocked out of the Asian Cup by Iraq, after a quarter-final match in which one of their players was sent off in a bizarre decision by the Australian referee, and which featured an Iraqi player who had produced a sample which proved positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine whilst playing for an Iranian club last year.
Following the match, Iranian coach Carlos Queiroz was livid over the performance of the Australian referee Ben Williams asking “Can he sleep tonight?”
Queiroz had previously been fined for accusing the same referee of bias against Iran, and on this occasion Williams sent off defender Mehdrad Pooladi for a second yellow card after the player was pushed to the ground by an Iraqi player, leaving Iran to play with 10 men in a game which eventually went to penalties.
Iranian delegation head Houshang Moghaddas told the press Iran would lodge a formal complaint against Williams and said:”We will complain 100 percent, yes. With documents, with DVDs. This referee must be suspended for life.
“Our team was going to be the champions here. We worked on this team for four years. We brought a very good and ready team. They spoiled it. The referee spoiled it.”
Following the game Iran delayed their departure, awaiting the result of their protest against the fielding of Iraq’s Alaa Abdulzehra who apparently should have been ineligible because he tested positive for methylhexaneamine whilst playing for Tractor Sazi.
Following the positive result the player left the Iranian club to play in Iraq and persistent attempts by the Iranian authorities to ensure the player received a ban apparently fell on deaf ears. FIFA had apparently promised to take action but no ban was imposed.
The AFC considered the issue on Sunday evening but after several hours of talks with Iranian and Iraqi officials issued a statement saying: “The AFC Disciplinary Committee from 2:30pm heard oral evidence from two officials of the I.R. Iran Football Federation, deliberated the matter based on its merits, and decided that the protest was unfounded. The protest was therefore dismissed.”
For his part, Iraqi coach Radhi Shenaishil said: “The objection has been officially closed and the subject is closed from our side. We have nothing to add. The (protest) from the Iran team is something they created and hasn’t affected us at all for tomorrow’s match.” Iraq lost the semi-final 2-0 to Korea.
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