By Sportswriter Hassan Rouhvand
TEHRAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran international Alireza Jahanbakhsh criticized American brand Nike following his team's 1-0 win against Morocco in their World Cup Group B opener on Friday.
The sportswear company withdrew the Iranian squad's supply of boots earlier this week owing to U.S.-led sanctions against Iran ahead of the tournament in Russia.
"To be honest, we didn't care actually. What they have done is a little bit disrespectful," Jahanbakhsh told Iranian media.
"In my opinion, and we spoke with the other players in the team as we had a meeting about this, politics has nothing to do with sport and with football, such a beautiful game. You don't have to involve this kind of thing with this game," he added.
"That is something that unfortunately this brand did and it's their responsibility to do such a thing, but the image they have projected, at least for 80 million people in Iran, is not a really nice image."
Iran won their opening match after Morocco's Aziz Bouhaddouz scored an own goal shortly before the final whistle to give Carlos Queiroz's team three points and top spot in Group B, after Portugal and Spain played out a 3-3 draw later on Friday.
