‘Embarrassing’ Qatar coaches verbally abused my mother, says Queiroz
An angry Carlos Queiroz accused Qatar's coaching staff of verbally abusing his mother following an explosive end to Iran's 1-0 World Cup qualifier win in Doha on Thursday.
AFP/File / Behrouz Mehri
Iran coach Carlos Queiroz will lead the team in the 2018 World Cup campaign
by David HARDING
The Portuguese coach said members of the Qatar bench made rude remarks in Spanish about his mother and accused his opponents of “a lack of ethics” throughout the match.
“Two staff insulted me in Spanish, I can’t understand it,” he said.
Asked to clarify, he said they had made offensive remarks about his mother.
“People don’t have the right to spend the game insulting and offending other people,” said Queiroz.
“I have never seen this in my life before,” said the former Real Madrid coach.
He added: “One thing I am sure, the coaching staff is not at the level of the Qatar national team.
“The Qatar national team deserves much better.”
He said Qatar’s antics were “embarrassing”.
Queiroz also accused the opposite bench of trying to influence the referee throughout the game, which saw Iran take a giant step towards qualification for the World Cup in Russia next year while Qatar’s hopes virtually vanished.
The two benches clashed at the end of the match, confronting each other and Queiroz was booed from the pitch by home fans.
That bad-tempered ending came after tensions had simmered between the coaching staff prior to the crucial qualifier.
Before the match, Qatar’s coach Jorge Fossati said he was upset by remarks attributed to Queiroz about the number of foreign-born players in the squad.
The remarks were allegedly made when the teams met in Tehran last September when Iran secured a 2-0 victory with goals in the 94th and 96th minutes.
That match too ended with angry clashes after the final whistle between players and officials.
Queiroz however denied making the remarks.
In response to the accusations of abuse, Fossati said he did not believe Queiroz and accused the Portuguese coach of being a “Hollywood artist”.
Talking about the remarks over naturalised players, he said Queiroz had accused the media of being “liars”.
“If he doesn’t take responsibility for what he said (about naturalised players), how can we believe what he says?”
“Mr Queiroz is a good artist,” Fossati told reporters.
He added that Queiroz had not raised the issue when the pair had met immediately after the final whistle.
“He is not the kind of man that I like,” added Fossati.
