FIFA World Cup 2018: Iran forward Alireza calls Nike withdrawal 'disrespectful'

Alireza Jahanbakhsh/AFP

Iran forward Alireza Jahanbakhsh has criticized American sports apparel brand Nike which, ahead of the FIFA World Cup, refused to continue supply of boots to his team owing to US-led sanctions against the Asian country. Two days before Iran's opening match against Morocco on Friday, Nike put out a statement, saying its reason of withdrawl was based on US President Donald Trump's call to withdraw from the joint agreement between Iran and the six world powers

Nike's statement caused frustration in the Iranian Football Federation as the firm had previously supplied the Iranian team with boots despite the sanctions, like at the 2014 World Cup. Iran won their opening match after Morocco's Aziz Bouhaddouz scored an own goal shortly before the final whistle to give Carlos Queiroz's team three points and top spot in Group B, after Portugal and Spain played out a 3-3 draw later on Friday, reported Xinhua news agency.

"To be honest, we didn't care actually. What they have done is a little bit disrespectful," Jahanbakhsh told Iranian media. "In my opinion, and we spoke with the other players in the team as we had a meeting about this, politics has nothing to do with sport and with football, such a beautiful game. You don't have to involve this kind of thing with this game," he added.

"That is something that unfortunately this brand did and it's their responsibility to do such a thing, but the image they have projected, at least for 80 million people in Iran, is not a really nice image."

Also Read - FIFA World Cup 2018: Morocco Gift Iran 1-0 Win

Catch up on all the latest T20 news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Except for the change in headline, the story has been provided "AS-IS," "AS AVAILABLE, without any verification or editing from our side. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever