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Turkish commentator axed from World Cup after ‘unacceptable’ Iran-New Zealand mix-up
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- Turkish commentator axed from World Cup after ‘unacceptable’ Iran-New Zealand mix-up
A Turkish state broadcaster has removed a commentator from its World Cup coverage after he mistakenly identified the Iran and New Zealand teams during a live broadcast.
TRT confirmed late on Tuesday that the commentator, named by Turkish media as Murat Ekrem Çimen, had been withdrawn from the US World Cup broadcast team pending an investigation. He will not continue to comment on matches throughout the tournament.
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Reports in Turkish media indicate that Mr Çimen referred to Iran 's attacks as New Zealand 's and vice-versa during the opening minutes of the broadcast.
TRT described the error as "unacceptable" under its broadcasting standards.
"We apologise to our viewers and the public for this error," the broadcaster stated. "It is unacceptable for TRT that someone with over 30 years of experience in sports broadcasting would make such a mistake."
Iran earned a point from Monday's game (Getty)
The Group G match on Monday night ended in a 2-2 draw, with Iran twice coming from behind to rescue a point from their opening game.
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Elijah Just put New Zealand in front twice, but his goals were cancelled out by strikes from Ramin Rezaeian and Mohammad Mohebi.
Iran faced a disrupted build-up to the tournament amid the nation's ongoing conflict with the US, who are co-hosting the World Cup.
Iran moved their training base to Mexico ahead of the World Cup, with the squad flying into the US for each of their three group matches.
Following Monday's match against New Zealand, Iran head coach Amir Ghalenoei said his team is the "most oppressed" at the World Cup.
"We've spent so much time commuting in the air," he said.
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"They didn't even give us time to recover after the game today. They said we had to leave immediately.
"It's very important for us to have time for recovery and yet we were asked to return to Tijuana and we are really troubled by that.
"We do not know why they are returning us. I think it's very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us, decisions are made elsewhere, we were supposed to arrive two nights before the game and we were not permitted, we were supposed to stay tonight and return tomorrow lunchtime but I have no idea why, and they haven't told us.
"Our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup."
