Soccer-Iraq coach slates AFC over hotel mix-up

By Nazvi Careem

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Reuters) - Iraq's Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira has slammed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for leaving his weary players stranded for hours without hotel rooms.

Vieira said his players waited for four hours at the Prince Hotel lobby in Kuala Lumpur after arriving from Bangkok on Monday before only eight rooms were made available for 31 people.

Iraq play South Korea on Wednesday in an Asian Cup semi-final and Vieira said their travelling ordeal nullified any advantage they had over the Koreans in terms of an extra day's rest.

"We left Bangkok at 7am, arrived at the hotel at 5pm and then waited four hours for only eight rooms," Vieira, whose team defeated Vietnam 2-0 in the quarter-finals on Saturday, told journalists on Tuesday.

"Then we had to pick up our luggage, we trained at 9pm and my players only had their dinner at 1.30am."

Vieira said the Iraqi team had planned to leave Bangkok on Sunday but stayed an extra day on the AFC's advice.

"The AFC said if we come to Malaysia on Sunday, we would have to stay in another hotel and then move to the Prince Hotel the next day," he said.

"The AFC must realise that this is not a tourist group, we are an international football team. They gave us guarantees but they could not keep those guarantees."