Asia Soccer

August 5, 2004
Asian Football Confederations
AFC House, Jalan 1/155B, Bukit Jalil
57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Fax: 603 8994 6168
Email: media@the-afc.com

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to you to express some concerns about 2004 Asian Football Cup in China. In general, the refereeing has not been good. In specific, the referee in the Iran vs. Oman game gave a yellow card to Nosarti, but AFC overruled the referee and increased the punishment by giving Nosarti a four game ban. Moreover, few hours after the game, AFC banned this referee from the remaining games.

FIFA rules are clear about a player attacking an opposing player, on a breakout, from back. This is an automatic red card. The referee in the Iran vs. China game gave a Chinese player a yellow card. AFC did not say or do anything. Euro Sport reported this and another incident in which another Chinese player should have received a red card against an Iranian player, Kameli-mofrad. This is inconsistent treatment and appears biased.

Because Iranian Football Federation has not said anything it does not mean that we the people of Iran are going to keep quiet.

If AFC chooses to remain quiet against Chinese players and one Korean player who made a bad gesture in front of TV, but at the same time chose to punish two Iranian players who had arguments with each other, on behalf of Iranian people, we will do two things:

(1) We will boycott AFC’s sponsors or advertisers and will let them know why.
(2) We will list AFC as an abuser of Iranians in http://www.iran-heritage.org site.

We anticipate your prompt response to this situation.

Sincerely, Dr. Mohammad Ala, Board Member