TEHRAN -- Iconic Ali Karimi has blasted Iran’s football federation’s (IFF) decision over throw him off the national team following his criticism about the IFF’s management deficiencies.

The Iranian football wizard said, “The national team is not my father’s heritage and is not head coach Ali Daei’s father’s heritage either. The team belongs to the Iranian people and everybody has the right to criticize its problems. Before me, Daei had slammed the federation’s approach, but there was not any negative reaction against him. I criticized the officials in a sensible manner and the big question is why they are angry with me.”
“I don’t know what has happened. Everybody has praised me due to what I’ve said, however, they (IFF) ousted me from the team. I’ll prefer to be out of the national team than to have compromise with them,” Karimi added