Paatoop.com - Vahid Jafari is the CEO of Romario Sports: uhlsport’s official Middle East representative/distributor. In the following interview, Mr. Jafari explains the situation between uhlsport and the Iranian Football Federation.

The Iranian Football Federation has announced that they failed to come to terms with uhlsport, can you please tell us about that?

From months prior to this issue becoming public, the federation told us that they wanted to stay with uhlsport. It is important to note that we stayed with Team Melli for several months longer than we were obligated by contract. The fact is that many people created drama, and tried to tarnish the brand; and therefore, uhlsport became discouraged, and decided to cancel the deal.

uhlsport served Iranian football for many years, was this relationship beneficial for your company?

As an Iranian, who is interested in football and my dear country, I never did any of this for my own benefit, nor profit. I am uhlsport’s representative in 10 countries; The money that we lost in Iran was made up by profiting elsewhere.

So there was no financial gain for your company in Iran. Was it difficult to work in Iran? Can you tell us about the challenges?

The biggest problem with doing this business in Iran is the lack of copy-right laws and its enforcement. Once these laws get established and seriously enforced, then Iran will become a profitable market. This is not just a problem for business, but also for sports in Iran. Many brands do not want to enter the Iranian market,  because of copy-right issues. Many of our neighboring countries – with much smaller populations, and less football fanaticism- have contracts with big brands, simply because these brands can feel secure operating in these markets with enforced copy-right laws, and they can therefore have an income in these countries.

Puma decided not to sponsor Iran for the World Cup (2014) for this very reason. However, we decided to terminate our contract because of the drama created by certain people, and the bad press that it created for our brand.

Many people were very impressed by Team Melli’s World Cup kits. Can you tell us how well these kits sold?

We sold about 5000 Team Melli World Cup 2014 jerseys; while bootleggers sold somewhere between 400,000-500,000 knock-offs of our design.

What other markets are you looking to get (more) involved in?

As I mentioned, we are in 10 other countries including: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Tanzania, and Keyna. We have gained much ground in these countries, and more than 40 clubs in these nations are using our brand. We are currently providing kits for Iraq’s Olympic team, and we are negotiating with their national team. We are also continuing our cooperation with Kuwait’s national team, UAE’s beach soccer team, and many more.

Anything else you would like to add?

Besides having the honour to support Team Melli in the World Cup, we also had the honour to provide quality for great clubs such as Esteghlal and Persepolis. Before we entered Iran, many clubs were buying their kits from the existing brands. We created this notion that clubs shouldn’t buy their kits, but should perhaps even be given money to wear a certain brand. And I can say that we have made this a trend in Iran, as it is now common-place.

Last but not least, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to clarify the situation.