Tag: Hamid Estili

Affsharian to replace Hamid Estili in Team Melli management.

After the resignation of Hamid Estili from the post of Team Melli Manager, the discussion of choosing his successor was one of the questions and ambiguities on the eve of the national team’s trip to the Austrian camp.

Today, Khodadad Afsharian, a member of the Football Federation’s Board of Directors, introduced Estili’s successor and said: “Bahram Rezaeian is supposed to be the manager of Team Melli. He has already been in the camps and has been paying attention to the national team. This news will be announced soon. He emphasized: I spoke with Mr. Rezaeian.”

He quoted Mehdi Taj as saying that he is the new manager who will accompany Team Melli on its trip to Austria.

The manager of Team Melli resigns.

Hamid Estili has submitted his resignation as the Manager of Iran’s National Team.

Estili’s resignation comes in the aftermath of the sacking of Dragan Skocic which he considered immoral and unethical while the Croat was under contract and busy preparing Team Melli for training camp in Austria. In a post on his social Media Page, Estili announced that he resigned from his post.

lPrEarlier on, Karim Bagheri, another member of Skocic’s technical staff and advisor to the coach, announced his departure from Team Melli coaching team. . Yesterday (Wednesday), Dragan Skocic was officially removed from his post by Mehdi Taj.

Mehdi Taj desperately seeking Queiroz !

Mehdi Taj once again succeeded in winning the majority votes (exactly the same number as his last election!) in the general assembly of the FFIRI to become The President in the 8th election and to manage the affairs of the country’s highest football institution for a period of two and a half years.

His selection fueled the rumor of the termination of Dragan Skocic’s contract as the head coach of the Team Melli once again leaving the Croatian coach in a state of stress and instability while the national team is preparing for the training camp in Austria including two much-needed friendly internationals against Uruguay and Senegal.

Skočić, who seems to take every opportunity to ensure his continuation on the bench of the best team of the Asian ranking and play in the FIFA 2022 World Cup, accommodates every request from the federation officials so that maybe the meeting with the hierarchy at the request of Hamid Estili can bring him closer and closer to this personal goal.


On the other hand, the opposition by some players in the squad such as Ehsan HajSafi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Karim Ansarifard, Mehdi Tarimi, etc., with the continuation of the Croat man on the bench, is still strong leading HajSafi to travel all the way from Athens to Tehran for just a few hours just to cast his vote for Mehdi taj in the elections. Hajsafy’s flight schedule was so tight that he took special permission to cast his vote even before the ballots were open as his return flight departure was tight. He stayed a few hours in Tehran only and that highlighted the desperation of this group against Skočić.

Taj has blatantly shown that he has no interest in Skocic staying. After taking office, the president who returned to the football federation initiated the project of Carlos Queiroz’s return to Iran as a top priority. To ensure all matters and contract details are ironed out, Mehdi Taj had a facetime meeting with the Portuguese coach.

Queiroz was fired from his last post in two managerial/coaching posts. After he left Iran, he took over Colombia in 2019.

In the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifications, Colombia’s performance slipped disastrously, with a 0–3 home loss to Uruguay (its worst ever home loss for 82 years) before being shockingly thrashed 1–6 by Ecuador, and this finally put the end of Carlos Queiroz’s reign as Colombia’s boss.

On 8 September 2021, Queiroz was employed by Egypt FA.

Egypt qualified for the third round of the World Cup qualifications to face Senegal for a spot in the World Cup in Qatar. However, after a 1–0 win in Cairo, and a 1–0 loss in Dakar, Egypt lost in penalties; hence, they failed to reach the final competition. He later agreed with the Egyptian Football Association to terminate his contract by mutual consent.

The failure of Egypt in qualifying for FIFA  World Cup 2022 occurred despite the availability of World Class players  Mohammed Salah of Liverpool in the squad,

In audio and video calls with Mehdi Taj, Queiroz put his demands, terms, and conditions on the table to Mehdi Taj who seems to have accepted Queiroz’s personal and financial terms outright in the same manner that he did the Wilmots contract. but Taj, this time needs not only the approval of the Football Federation’s Board of Directors but also the consent of the high-profile opponents of Portuguese man, and that includes personnel in the corridors of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Queiroz left with only a handful of friends in 2019 after Iran’s drubbing by the Japanese team in the semi-finals of the AFC Asian Cup. That 3-0 loss was the biggest in over thirty years. Many members of the parliament,  the Islamic Council, are not too keen on the return of the vindictive and confrontational coach who does tend to intimidate anyone who opposes him or his ideas.

To demonstrate how evidently anti-Skoci Mehdi Taj is, In the past week since he won the election, Taj has yet to hold any meeting with Dragan Skocic or Hamid Estili and to demonstrate for all that he is still not convinced and unwilling to see the Croat at the helm of Team Melli.

The new management team of the Football Federation is actively pursuing the dismissal of Skocic, while there is still some strong support for the Croat from other borad directors such as Mirshad Majdi. However, Taj lobby seems to be gaining ground but the number of his supporters is on the rise.

Taj needs the signature of five other members of the board of directors to formalize the contract with Carlos Queiroz. Mehr reporter has been informed that seven of the board members are completely in favor of Queiroz’s return in order to appease Mehdi Taj who has put this issue at the top of his priorities.

The struggle and the politics to determine the head coach of Iran’s national team continues while the 2022 World Cup starts in nearly 75 days. The FIFA Day games schedule also shows that there are only 17 days to hold national team camps in September and November.

Assuming All matters are sorted out, any coach needs to have divine power to turn the fortunes of Team Melli which is suffering from a serious loss of confidence, form, and mental stress from the infighting between the two groups of players within the camp.

Carlos Queiroz, if selected certainly does not have such divine power as he failed to demonstrate any in the 8 years at the helm of Tema Melli. What he has, however, are two vital elements, one of which is to his personal benefit and that is his professionalism in contract negotiation. He had learned the shortfalls of the previous contracts and how easily the FFIRI repeatedly fails to honor the financial terms of contracts.  Taking that into consideration, he is dictating all the terms on a desperate Mehdi taj and that includes contract payments in US dollars deposited in a foreign bank, most possibly in Dubai plus no promises of any success in the FIFA World Cup 2022. Time is too short for proper preparation, and no one can dispute that, can they?

The second attribute is the strong no-nonsense character that he has demonstrated time and time again. He will have no second thought about kicking sulky or indisciplined players such as Taremi out of the squad. There is no such thing as players’ powers in the Queiroz dictionary. The reality is, that Iran’s football needs a decisive character like Queiroz else some immature players will wreck the ship.

Ecuador match in doubt!

When the news of the Team Melli match against Ecuador on 11th June first emerged, teammelli.com checked the authenticity of the news and quickly discovered that Ecuador is already scheduled to play Mali on 12th June! However, as the news was confirmed by the Manager of Team Melli, Hamid Estili on a TV show, we grudgingly published the news.

However, less than three days have passed since the announcement, there is now the possibility of canceling the game with Ecuador and a general change in the plans of Team Melli has been raised.  Most likely, there never was such a game with Ecuador, and someone must have fabricated it while Hamid Estili hastily confirmed it.

“The venue for the Ecuador game has not been determined yet,” Estili claimed today Friday. “If the game is to be played outside of Canada, both teams must meet the conditions. There was even talk of Spain, which was not possible for us and them.”

He also talked about FFIRI’s effort to find a replacement for Ecuador in case of cancellation of this game and said: “We are looking to play with Senegal on June 12th or 14th  at Azadi Stadium if the game with Ecuador does not materialize.”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has supported us with this.

The second Team Melli preparation match is now in doubt thanks to the chronically incompetent management of FFIRI.

 

Ecuador is the second opponent for Team Melli.

According to the Mehr News reporter, Team Melli will play against the Canadian national team in its first preparation match for the FIFA World Cup 2022  on the morning of June 6th in Vancouver. Continued negotiations with other possible opponents for a second match by the Football Federation, resulted in an agreement to play the Ecuadorian national team to be held in Canada. Ecuador coached by Gustavo Alfaro’ is in the first group of the World Cup with the Netherlands, Qatar, and Senegal.

Ecuador’s place in Qatar is under threat due to Chile’s complaint to FIFA over the Byron Castillo who is alleged to be a Colombian national who played for the Ecuador National Team during the qualifiers for FIFA World Cup 2022.

Hamid Estili, the manager of the Iranian national football team, confirmed the match against Ecuador. Dates and Venue to be confirmed.

Hamid Estili “4 friendly matches are being finalized for Team Melli”

Hamid Estili, the Manager of Team Melli, talked about the latest plans of the Team and the preparation programs before participating in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: “Our most important training camp will be held in June for two weeks. We have planned with Mr. Skocic to play four friendly matches in Qatar. Fortunately, we have a good relationship with Qataris and they have been quite helpful and responsive with us.”

Estili continued: “Mirshad Majedi (acting head of the Football Federation) is fluent in English and communicated well with Mr. Infantino, President of FIFA and the Qatar Federation. The manager of the national football team also referred to negotiations with other countries to play a friendly match on the sidelines of the World Cup draw and added: “We had fruitful talks with several FIFA memeber associations regarding playing friendly matches, unfortunately, we will not be able to play against the European countries in June because they are still involved in their domestic league and cup competition themselves,”

Estili also mentioned that talks for a friendly game against the USA were in advanced stages, but due to the draw which put Iran and USA in the same group, a friendly match is now out of question.put

5 Key players absent against South Korea!

Team Melli’s bad fortunes continue ahead of the top of the table clash with Korea Rep. and Lebanon as five key players of the team will be absent.

An absence could affect the equations of Skocic and the national team. Following the announcement that Saeed Ezatollahi and Sadegh Moharremi, two starters for Team Melli are serving suspensions, it has now been reported that the PCR test of Saman Ghoddos, Mehdi Taremi, and Alireza Jahanbakhsh has been declared positive and these players will most likely not be able to play against Korea Rep. and most probably against Lebanon 5 days later.

The recently appointed team manager Hamid Estili’s has also been diagnosed positive. This is all confirmed by the official FFIRI website

It is now more likely that Skočić will start with a new look team while giving fringe players some game time. In any case, Iran will not have its full team available against the Koreans.

On a positive note, this match seems to be a perfect opportunity for the reserve players to show their worth for Skočić and lay claim for a starting role. These players can show their ability in the match against a powerful South Korean team that has been improving throughout the qualifiers while their golden boy Sun Heung-min is in peak form for Tottenham. Of course, picking replacement players will not be an easy task for the Croat coach looking to defend his undefeated record with Iran. Whatever the case, the composition of Iran’s team against Korea is broken. Skočić has to walk on the edge of the sword and get his team out of this difficult situation. It remains to be seen what Team Melli will do without its key players in the match against South Korea. A positive result, in a form of a draw or a win, will enhance the reputation of Iran globally but most importantly, their place in the FIFA Ranking table, so important for seeding in the Wold Cup Qatar 2022.

Saman Ghoddos out of the squad.

Team Melli midfielder Saman Ghoddos has been diagnosed positive in the latest PCR and hence lost the chance to travel to the Korean capital for the match against the host nation and the following match against Lebanon in Mashad.

In a communique with the FFIRI Brentford, the premiere league club from London has confirmed that Ghoddos will not be available for selection for the upcoming international matches.

Hamid Estili, who has recently been appointed as the new Manager of the Iranian national team, confirmed the news: “Unfortunately, we will not have Ghoddos in these two matches, but we hope that other legionnaires will be able to join the squad and play for Team Melli without any problem”. Saman Ghoddos was a starter and played both the last two matches against UAE and Iraq. His absence gives coach Dragan Skocic some difficulty. Skocic has announced that the result of the game against South Korea is very important to the team.

Team Melli arrived early morning Sunday in Korea and after the PCR test, were immediately sent to quarantine. Many Legionnaire players are yet to join including Azmoun who played for Leverkusen today in a 2-0 away win versus Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. Taremi is also expected to leave for Korea after the match against Boavista. Milad Mohammadi, Ehsan Hajsafi, and Karim Ansari also played for AEK Athens in a 1-0 loss to PAOK in the Greek league.

Déjà vu. Omid Team eliminated!

Omid Team has been eliminated from the group stages of the AFC Asian U23 Championship and with it the eternal dream of qualification to the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

In the final do and die match against winless China, Omid Team struggled badly and wasted chance after chance to score goals until the 85th minute when a dubious penalty call by the referee allowed Noorafkan to score from the spot-kick. It was one goal too little and too late despite Uzbekistan losing their match against South Korea 2-1.

Uzbekistan qualified as the second of the group with 4 points, same as Iran but with a better goal difference of one goal.

In a match of wasted chances, especially the one that profligate Mehdi Ghaedi wasted while the goal and the net was at his mercy, wide open with the Chinese keeper stranded and nowhere near covering his goal. Ghaedi got the loose ball and with all the time and options available to him, he decides to head the ball into the empty net but he missed by a big margin!

How cruel and how heartbreaking!

This was the final nail in the coffin as the likes of Sayyadmanish, Shojaei, Mehdikhani kept shooting blanks and wasting chance after chance against a Chinese team that had nothing to play for but pride.

At the end of the day, this Omid Team did not deserve to qualify with these players and coaches.  The passive, back-foot approach, the helter-skelter style employed by Hamid Estili once again looked out of date against opponents who embody many of the principles associated with modern football. Estili, never an accomplished coach in the first place had a disadvantage with a bunch of individual players, who did not truly understand the concept teamwork and tactical (not that there was much of that in evidence) discipline, hence that combination turned into what the experts expected, failure of Team Omid.

It was Déjà vu.

That eerie feeling that the fans and media personnel have lived through the situation on numerous spells. The same lame excuses, the same justifications, the same “We were unlucky” and the same “We will do better next time, inshallah!”

44 years since the last Olympics, and by the next cycle, it will be 48 years wait. At this rate, we will be passing the half-century of years since Iran has made the Olympics Games football competition, a feat that nations who are supposedly below Iran in World Football Ranking have achieved many times.

Ultimately, in this current messy organizational structure and management deficiencies in Iran’s football at all levels, fans have to get used to failures after failures. You reap what you sow, nothing more nothing less. Deep-rooted changes have to be implemented and cleansing is done by competent professionals rather than devout loyalists. Success is achieved only by skillful, learned, experienced professional who base their work on systems and processes of modern football management.

Far too many gaps in Estili’s game plan.

There were no surprises in the performance of Omid Team under Hamid Estili against Uzbekistan yesterday.  Even with such a statement, many fans were hoping that the famous players with household names in Omid Team will make a big impact and cover at least part of the team’s weaknesses and gaps.

Players like Omid Noorafkan, Allahyar Sayyadmanish, Mohammad Mohebi are already full internationals who have played and scored for Team Melli while the likes of Mahdi Ghaedi and Reza Shekari are considered valuable players with considerable ability to improve. The former has already registered 8 goals in the Persian Gulf Pro League.

However, except for Omid Noorafkan who is being utilized in defense hence depriving the team of his wonderful vision and Pirlo-like passing, the rest of them were disappointing. Ghaedi huffed and puffed like always but his delivery and final touch remains suspect when his team really requires every effort.

The feeblest performance of the so-called stars was Shekari and Sayyadmanish up in the forward line. Not coordination, no proper communication, little or no significant passing, no awareness of each other position and individualist showmanship that was a big waste for Omid Team.

A smart seasoned coach would have immediately figured out that this combination upfront is not working and would have acted accordingly, but Estili for reasons beyond comprehension failed to notice that.

The Midfield lacked a strong leader such as Noorafkan, who was in the central defensive position. Mohebi was quite disappointing against the Uzbeks despite having a very good season with his team. He missed an open goal and a chance for his team to take the lead.

Omid team never looked like a coherent team with a strategy. Against Korea, we expect the same old tactics, or lack of it, and emphasis on individual performance rather than teamwork. Not that a victory is not possible, but with a year of disappointing performances by Omid Team, it is highly unlikely that Hamid Estili will find a magic wand to fix the things against the powerful and organized Koreans.

Realistically and no matter how high our hopes and expectations are, the chances of a tactically deficient Omid Team qualifying to the next round are on the balance. A win or even a draw against the Koreans will still keep the hopes alive. A defeat will almost mean the end of the road and those abundant and unceasing promises that this team is good enough to make it to Tokyo after 44 years of absence.