Esteghlal's Dig at Tractor Over Ceremonial Flight Makes News / Our Difference from Some Clubs

The head of the Esteghlal Football Organization provided explanations regarding the controversy over the team's flight to Doha on a ceremonial aircraft.

The direct flight of the Esteghlal team members to Doha with a special plane for the ceremonies of senior government officials has created many margins in the virtual and media space. While the blue-clad players took a direct flight to Qatar, the members of Traktor and Golghar faced numerous flight restrictions to travel to Oman and experienced a long and tiring journey.

The difference between the trip of Esteghlal for its Asian match with the trip of Tractor and Golgohar has brought protests from Tabrizi and Sirjani clubs. The officials of Tractor and Golgohar expressed strong complaints about the issue of why the special plane for government ceremonies was given to Esteghlal and they were deprived of this issue, and in the last case, the owner of Tractor, Mohammad Reza Zenozi, criticized this issue in a controversial interview.

In such a situation, Saeed Fattahi, the head of the Esteghlal Football Organization, who personally made many follow-ups for the Blue Moshan to fly to Doha with a direct flight and was in the process of things, provides explanations in this regard.

Fatahi told our reporter about this: "If you remember, in the conversation I had with the media during the celebration of the 81st anniversary of independence, I explained that we have planned two to three different plans for the trip to Qatar. "We have been pursuing this trip for a long time, and even though we had the issue of a direct flight to Qatar in mind and were following it up, we had moved forward with the next plans as well."

He continued: "For the direct flight, we first announced a private airline to Qatar, which they did not accept, then we talked to a government airline and sent its documents, which was still not accepted by the Qataris." Further, the authorities of Qatar and Al-Gharafa Club informed us that only special flights for the Islamic Republic of Iran can come directly to Doha, and for this reason, we conducted several consultations and follow-ups, and we should thank the respected personnel and management of the Islamic Republic of Iran Airlines for their cooperation.

The head of the Esteghlal Football Organization pointed out that until the day before the trip to Qatar, they were disappointed with the direct flight and said: "We had even booked the tickets from Tehran to Najaf for the team and we were supposed to go to Doha from there. Until the day before the trip, we didn't know if we could go to Qatar by direct flight or not, but we followed up and tried until the last moment and finally we were able to travel directly to Doha."

Fatahi stressed about the protest of Tractor and Golgohar officials that the aircraft of the government and the presidency was given to Esteghlal and they took several flights and went to Oman on a long journey.

The head of Esteghlal Football Organization added: "What does lack of planning and incorrect management of other teams have to do with Esteghlal when friends come and complain?" They themselves could not plan properly for their team's trip and even though they knew about the flight restrictions, they did not have a proper management, then they complain to us, who have been following this issue for a long time and consulted. We worked for two weeks and God helped us to be able to take the team to the second Asian Games in good conditions and bring it back. Thank God we returned from Qatar with full hands and made our fans happy."

In response to the question whether Esteghlal traveled to Qatar with the president's special plane, Fatahi said: "No, it was one of the planes of the Islamic Republic that transports government officials."