Iran sends formal complaint to BBC for World Cup comments on-air

The BBC has received an official complaint from the Iranian Football Federation following comments made by Jurgen Klinsmann on their World Cup coverage in Qatar.

The former German football professional was invited as an expert to the BBC live airing of the match where he said that Iranian players manipulated the referee during Friday's 2-0 win over Wales. He said this style of play was part of their culture and that Iran manager Carlos Queiroz was the right manager to bring it to the pitch.

Queiroz, himself a former Manchester United assistant manager, called the German out on social media on November 26, calling the comments a "disgrace to football" on his official Twitter account.

His post to Klinsmann partially read, "Even not knowing me personally, you question my character with a typical prejudiced judgment of superiority.No matter how much I can respect what you did inside the pitch, those remarks about Iran Culture, Iran National Team and my Players are a disgrace to Football. Nobody can hurt our integrity if it is not at our level, of course".

The Iranian football association reacted in a lengthy statement to FIFA, calling for Klinsmann to resign from his position as a FIFA Technical Study Group member and invited him to the team's training camp in Doha once he has done so.

According to the Mirror, Klinsmann responded to this incident by calling it a misunderstanding. 

"There was stuff really taken out of context. I will try to give him a call and calm things down,” the former Tottenham striker said. All I described was their emotional way of doing things, which is actually admirable in a certain way. The whole bench lives the game. They’re jumping up and down and Carlos is a very emotional coach, he’s constantly on the sidelines trying to give his players all his energy and direction", the German defended himself. 

Dear Jurgen;

You took the initiative to call me Carlos, so I believe it is proper to call you Jurgen. Right?

Even not knowing me personally, you question my character with a typical prejudiced judgment of superiority.
(...) pic.twitter.com/JAq0l7Yp6n

— Carlos Queiroz (@Carlos_Queiroz) November 26, 2022