Superior Iranian travel arrangement!

In this mornings Iranian papers I read that Foold FC who just lost their AFC Champions League match to Uzbek champs Pakhtakor will be flying back home via Istanbul after a 16 hour layover!

Now this may not sound odd to those of you who do not know the map of that part of the world, but for your information, Uzbekistan is to the East of Caspian Sea and North East of Iran. Turkey is to the West of Iran and Istanbul is located in the far West of Turkey!

So can someone tell why instead of flying straight into Tehran, these guys have to fly out of Tashkent at 3:00 am, travel all the way OVER the Caspian and into Istanbul, before flying back East into Tehran?!

It would be as if you flew from Berlin to Amsterdam, by the way of Liverpool!!!!

There are direct flights from Tashkent to Tehran by the way.