ESPN:

Iran's Karim Ansarifard and Alireza Jahanbakhsh had strong words for Nike following their team's 1-0 win against Morocco to open the World Cup.

The shoe company withdrew the squad's supply of boots earlier this week due to global economic sanctions against the Asian country ahead of the tournament in Russia.

"What Nike did to us was very wrong," Ansarifard said after the match: "I don't want to comment too much on it. But I can tell you, as a footballer, we don't compare diplomatic and political problems to sports."

The team's star winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh went further in his criticism of the American brand, saying: "To be honest we didn't care actually. What they have done is a little bit disrespectful.

"In my opinion -- and we spoke with the other players in the team as we had a meeting about this -- politics has nothing to do with sport and with football, such a beautiful game. You don't have to involve this kind of thing with this game.

"That is something that unfortunately this brand did and, well, it's their responsibility to do such a thing but the image they have [projected] at least for 80 million people in Iran is not a really nice image."

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