Tehran

After the announcement by the FFIRI that the federation has managed to agree terms with a local organization for sponsoring Team Melli to the FIFA World Cup 2014 following successful series of negotiations,  Abbas Torabian stunned the media today by announcing that the deal has fell through because the representative of the sponsors did not turn up for the final meeting !.

According to FFIRI the details and the name of the sponsor would have been announced anytime soon.

The meeting on Sunday was supposed to be the formality where both parties of this sponsorship deal would have signed, sealed and delivered. The absence of the sponsor representative can only mean that the two parties have not agreed terms and conditions, despite what the Federation has led the public and the media to believe. According to Abbas Torabian , who is the head of the marketing division of the FFIRIR, among other posts, the deal was quite lucrative and would have covered all the expenses of Team Melli to the World Cup 2014 without the need of financial aids from the government.

With the failure of this deal, the FFIRI will have to start all over again. The loss of time and revenue will not be good news for Team Melli already suffering from the lack of funds in FFIRI to support its activities and training schedules.

   Commenting on the deal breakdown, Torabian said “We had a fruitful meeting with this sponsors and we even had a meeting last night which lasted until 10 PM. We agreed to meet today (Sunday) for the final time to  conclude and close the deal. However, they did not turn up!”

It is highly unlikely that the version of Torabian is the full truth. FFIRI have not been very transparent about this sponsorship deal and the selection criteria. FFIRI also refused to formally acknowledge if a tender was submitted in order for all interested organizations to bid. Despite the pressure from the media, the FFIRI kept all the news and events about the sponsorship negotiation close to their heart for fear that announcing details of talks might jeopardize the deal.  However, the federation broke the good news a couple of weeks ago, in which they announced that an Iranian organization has been selected as the sponsors of Team Melli for the World Cup after gaining the confidence of the FFIRI. The preference of this, yet unnamed local Iranian organization, was despite the better offers from foreign organizations which would have meant a larger income. The refusal of accepting foreign sponsorship was due to cultural issues, as FFIRI announced, while citing that a signing of a sponsorship deal with the Local organization was imminent.

It was not to be, as the FFIRI is desperate to finds another sponsor soon.