Precious hand-woven carpets prepared to be offered as gifts during the 2018 FIFA World Cup event were unveiled during a ceremony held on Saturday in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province.
It took the artists more than six months to weave the seven pieces of carpet, according to Hossein Kazemi-Hamed, master carpet weaver.
"Three rolls of carpets will be offered to captains of football teams which are set to play against Iran and three other rolls will be presented to the Russian Football Union, FIFA World Football Museum and Astan Qods Razavi Central Museum in Mashhad," Kazemi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
He also said one of the carpets will be reserved to be offered in case the national team climbs to the next level of the tournament.
"The football event, scheduled for June 14 to July15, is a great opportunity for us to promote the country's handicrafts and expand the market at international level," said Majid Khodabakhshi, governor general of Tabriz.
Reportedly, the ceremony was supposed to be held on Sunday when the national football team was to set off for Russia, but it was brought forward in order to properly commend the carpet weavers, Khodabakhshi said.
Long-Standing Culture
According to Jack Warner, a former member of FIFA's executive committee from 1983 to 2011, gift giving has been part of FIFA culture in the past 30 years.
Before the draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup was held at State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Mohammad Reza Saket, secretary-general of Iran Football Federation, had presented vitreous enamel works of art to Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, Fatma Samura, the association's secretary-general and Vitaly Mutko, Russia's deputy prime minister for sports, tourism and youth policy.
Iran is drawn in one of the toughest groups with Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Its first match will be against Morocco at Saint Petersburg on June 15.
The national team left for Russia on Sunday.
