In a TV interview, Carlos Queiroz, the former head coach of Iran’s national Football team said that the Qatar Football Federation was paying for the costs of Iranian national football team’s preparation and friendly games leading to the Asian Cup.

According to IRNA, in an interview with Fox Sports, Queiroz described the financial situation of the Iranian national team this way: “Qatar paid for everything because Iran didn’t have a dime. I have an unpleasant feeling. I was trying hard to hold the team and the staff together. You can’t pretend like there is no problem. Everyone shares a big problem.”

ISNA also published parts of his previous interview with channel 3 of national TV where he said: “If it wasn’t for Qatar Football Federation, we wouldn’t have anything. We wouldn’t even have this camp (referring to the Aspire training camp before AFC). We wouldn’t have been able to play with Venezuela. They (Qatar football federation) paid for everything, the hotel, the trip, everything. They did it because we didn’t have any money. We didn’t have anything.”

In that interview which was done before the AFC, Queiroz describes the stress and hopelessness of the players and the staff.

This was not the first time that his comments about the conditions of the national team had become controversial. Last month in another interview he said: “When we have basic problems for training, when people have trouble putting food on the table, they allow a (government owned) football club to travel first class to Japan. Who do you think is responsible for this circus?”

Iran’s national football team lost 3-0 to Japan in semifinals. The last time Iran became the Asian football champion was 43 years ago.

Queiroz left Iran on January 29.