Editorial: Costly Miscommunication

One month prior to Sepahan’s Asian Club Championship return leg tie against Kuruvchi in Uzbekistan, IFF’s International Relation Committee submitted Sepahan squad list to Uzbekistan Football Federation on Feb 19th to issue visas for yellow submarines in time for their return leg tie in Tashkent, on March 19th. However, this being IFF organization we are talking about, in fact IFF faxed Saipa’s squad list instead of Sepahan’s squad causing lengthy delays in yet to receive visas for Sepahan team. The mistake though, ironically was first spotted by Uzbekistan Federation officials, who despite being stranger to our football, noticed “Ali Daei” as the manager of squad list sent by IFF, and they knew by heart Kuruvchi team is not going to face Ali Daei’s team, but Jorvan Vieira’s instead.

Sepahan club officials, famous for their professional organization, did not bear IFF’s negligent responses regarding their visa status and they sent an official representative to Tashkent to follow up with the case and upon arrival, the Sepahan official realized the extent of IFF's blunder and notified Sepahan management immediately.

Imagine for a second if Sepahan officials would not follow up to find out IFF error has caused them visa delays, as the Uzbeks were never going to issue visa for Saipa team instead; If the error would not have been noticed, Sepahan team and crew would have to apply for Uzbekistan visa at the airport, possibly missing their Monday flight to Tashkent and certainly wasting valuable hours which would be spent for team training instead prior to the match; A costly and humiliating blunder, which could cost Iran’s reputable ACL representative dearly.

Enough being said; there are more IFF blunders to follow. Stay tuned.