Team Melli arrived in Austria and proceeded to Sankt Pölten to prepare for the friendly match against Chile on the 26th of March.
The squad that landed in Vienna on Saturday consisted of all the local players active in the Persian Gulf League. The 13 players will be gradually joined by 9 other Team Melli members playing abroad, mainly in Qatar’s QSL.
As reported earlier, Carlos Queiroz was not able to accompany the squad as he was stopped from boarding the flight and leaving Iran because of pending income Tax issues. The Portuguese coach has finally been given the go ahead after intervention by high profile Ministry of Finance clearance despite the fact that it was Nowrooz holidays. Queiroz left Tehran towards Austria on a Lufthansa flight in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Commenting on the latest developments, the 62 years old Portuguese coach said that he felt humiliated at being stopped at the airport and prevented from leaving Iran for reasons that is none of his fault. “It is the duty of the federation to sort out the taxes. They should have cleared the payment as it has nothing to do with me. I did not commit any wrongdoing. Their failure to conduct their job resulted in a very embarrassing and humiliating moments for me on top of preventing me from doing my own job. ” Querioz stated.
Queiroz refused to justify his insistence on holding on to Azmoun and Jahanbakhsh for Team Melli while Omid Team is embarking on a vital series of qualifying matches. “I don’t understand your question.” He told a reporter “ I have already been transparent enough about this issue and said what I needed to say. You are all aware what Kaffashian has done in this regard and as such there seems to be a big difference in opinion between us and therefore continuing under the circumstances is not conceivable.”
Queiroz denied that he had any prior plans to leave Iran or any job offers, thus refuting Kaffashian’s claims earlier that the Portuguese coach was being difficult and raising many issues and excuses. “It is the circumstances that were dictated on me in the corridors of the federation that made me take this decision. I was kind of forced to resign!” Queiroz said.
Kaffashian has made it quite clear that he and his administration had no issues with Queiroz’s performance and the renewal of his contract was agreed by the Executive and the Technical committees of the FFIRI.
“One day Kaffashian praises and commends my work while the next day, the Secretary-General says the complete opposite. How can one work under such circumstances?” Quieroz justifying his refusal to work with the federation.