Hamid Reza Dehghani described the rumor as baseless and the ‘Sizdah Be-dar lie’, an Iranian tradition according to which people say a lie jokingly.
He added that actually he didn’t get the chance to meet Daei.
The rumor that ricocheted around social media had that Dehghani had told Daei to take off his tie and that Daei, failing to recognize the Iranian ambassador initially, responded by asking Dehghani to shave his face “because this is a football ceremony”.
Daei, along with another Iranian football legend, Mehdi Mahdavikia, was invited to attend the draw ceremony by FIFA.
