Tag: Iran

Humiliations and shame.

Controversy, disciplinary actions, sanctions are never very far from Iranian football scenes although thankfully in the past few years, marked improvements have been noticed with less negative news and punitive actions taken against the Iranians.

Iran football at its roots is a bipartisan system based on two teams Persepolis and Esteghlal. Although the accurate figure is impossible to determine, an estimate of more than 90% of the fans in Iran supports one of the two Tehrani teams, has been mentioned. Persepolis probably has more fans than the population of many Asian countries members of AFC .

The whole system is also geared towards the welfare of the two iconic clubs. From journalists, the media, Radio & TV all the way to the Majlis. Sometimes the affairs of the two clubs are topics of discussion in the assembly as if there are no other more pertinent problems to discuss.

The Aura that has been created by the two clubs has also led to corruption, lobbying, and nepotism in a big way thus affecting the livelihood of the many and causing pain and distress to others.  If we have failed to mention it, the owners of the two clubs are none other than the government of the Islamic republic!

Imagine that Manchester City and Manchester United are owned by the same company. To start with, that is a huge conflict of interest, against the spirit of clean competition and something that is not acceptable anywhere in the civilized world. The question that many would ask though, is what is the government doing running a football club or two, in this case?

In Iran’s case, it is simple. Political propaganda and ensuring the big brother keep an eye on the massive force of the youth. Governments do not own and run football clubs, there are much more important businesses to take care of, however, success, winning trophies, and titles would have alleviated the peculiar structure and ownership of the clubs by a long shot. The reality is otherwise as this regime has failed miserably in running the two football teams. Not only they have not won any Champions League titles, but they are also both on the brink of bankruptcy and being sued for millions of dollars in courts for breaches of contracts with their staff, suppliers, and partners.

For over 40 years, not a single Iranian club has won the coveted continental trophy under the Islamic Republic’s control. That is an incredible sign of failure for a proud nation.

If that is not bad enough, the humiliation of both Persepolis and Esteghlal being kicked out of the Asian Champions League due to a countless number of irregularities tops every shame that Iran’s football has been subjected to in the last four decades. This one is the absolute disaster that touches the feeling and the pride of the people and the country. And there is one and one culprit only. The regime of the Islamic Republic has been promising since Khatemi’s days to hand over the clubs to private sectors and failed to do so for decades.

This is the result….the anger and disgust felt by Iranians and Iran football supporters outside the country touch beyond sport, it is an insult that could be quite costly for the regime.

The honorable thing to do for the Islamic Republic is to admit that it is not geared for running football teams and being engaged in their quarrels, hand over the teams to the public and refrain from using these clubs as propaganda tools.

We have been critical of AFC on many occasions, but this time the Asian Football Confederation has done Iran’s football a favor that only the intelligent and the more mature audience would appreciate.

Syrian camp in predicament with key players’ absenteeism.

the Syrian Football Federation announced yesterday that the midfielder  Mohammad Othman has left the Syrian squad in protest after sitting on the bench in the game against Iraq and will not play against Iran. “Ayaz Osman”, another Syrian player, left the camp on the eve of the game with Iraq due to injury. The Federation also added on Friday evening that Omar Kharbin, the key striker of the Syrian national team, will be absent against Iran too, because of injury. The results of medical tests show that the striker needs a week off due to an injury against Iraq. Furthermore, Esra’a Hamawiyah is suspended for receiving his second yellow card of the competition against Iraq, and he will be absent from the Iran game.

But these people are not the only ones absent from Syria against Iran, because “Mohammad Halaq” and “Saad Ahmad”, who were already injured, are not able to accompany Syria against Iran. Four of the six Syrian absentees played against Iran in the first match in Azadi which ended 1-0 for Iran

Team Melli and Syria will face off on Tuesday in the third qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Amman, Jordan. Iran currently leads Group A with 13 points followed by South Korea with 11 points.

Syria Absentees

  1. Mohammad Othman
  2. Ayaz Osman
  3. Omar Kharbin,
  4. Esra’a Hamawiyah
  5. Mohammad Halaq
  6. Saad Ahmad

Gelareh Nazemi The Iranian female futsal referee.

In the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021, Iran is not only being talked about in terms of wonderful goals, being the only Asian team amongst the best 8 in the world, wonder goals by Asghar Hassanzadeh and Mahdi Javid, there is also a lady presence that has enhanced the name of Iran amongst the global audience.

Gelareh Nazemi, the Iranian FIFA futsal referee has been short-listed for the ne3xt round of the competition until the final match. 15 referees are in the list while the rest have to say farewell to Lithuania and depart to their homeland.

In an exclusive interview with Tehran Times, the Iranian official talked about the experience of officiating in the men’s competitions:

“It’s a great feeling to be the representative of Iranian futsal – and football– in the World Cup. It was the target that I set for myself after whistling the final match of the 2018 Youth Olympics Women’s Futsal Tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now I am grateful that I’ve been able to make my dreams come true.

“I have officiated in the men’s futsal competitions in the past. It is more difficult than whistling in women’s matches. In terms of physical contact and the game’s speed, you will face more challenges in male competitions.

“Also, as a referee who has worked both in football and futsal, I can say that refereeing in futsal is much more difficult than in football because it’s full of clashes and you have to decide in a fraction of a second!” she said.

Nazemi has also officiated in the AFC Women’s Futsal Championship and the UEFA Women’s Futsal Euro 2019 semi-final contest between Spain and Russia in Portugal.

She explained the difficulty that she has faced on the way to glory: “It is a path that I started 20 years ago. During all these years, I tried with perseverance and motivation to fight all the problems in my path because I believed in my goal. People have often said that women aren’t good referees. I used it as a motivating tool. I’m sure that it will not take 20 years for those who have followed this path after me, and they will reach their goal much sooner. It is because that some of the problems that I faced in my career have been solved over the years. However, the situation is still difficult for the Iranian female referees,” Nazemi concluded.

Practicing sport with the whole cover Islamic outfit is not to the taste of everyone in Iran. In some sports, they really look quite ridiculous and handicapped thus depriving them of their true potentials. Despite the claims of the regime’s propaganda that Islamic outfit is no hindrance to practicing sports, the reality and physics say otherwise . Gelareh Nazemi, however, is the odd one out. In spite of her Hijab and refusing to shake hands with men, a tradition in a sport that has been practiced for centuries, she does look the role and hardly out of place with her uniform

Nazemi is a confident referee who was not intimidated by the occasion and the atmosphere around her In the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021. Selection for the final rounds of the tournament is a sign of approval by world Futsal Governing body FIFA for the quality of her work. Nazemi has done her country proud.

Nazem Al-Sharia happy with the performance of Futsal Team Melli.

In a post-match interview, Seyed Mohammad Nazem Al-Sharia, the Head Coach of Futsal Team Melli commented on the loss to Argentine in the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 and qualification to the Round of 16 as the second team in Group F,

 “The game against Argentina was a good match for us and one of the reasons was that the sensitivity of the Game and stress level was low as we both have already qualified. In this match, we did not go full throttle as we did not need to. It was important for us that no player gets a card and is none get injured.” Nazem Al-Sharia said.

He continued: “The referee disallowed our equalizing goal. The situation of the match would have seen a different outcome if this goal was allowed. With second place in the group, we now have to meet Uzbekistan. In my opinion, Uzbekistan is no different from Paraguay and is even better than this team.”

“The advantage of meeting Uzbekistan is that it is an Asian team and we know this opponent quite well.”  The head coach of the Iranian national futsal team stressed that his team should not underestimate Uzbekistan, noting that Uzbekistan has made a lot of progress in the last few years and has played 18 very good preparation games before the World Cup. They played against Iran, Venezuela, Argentina, and Portugal and participated in the tournament in Thailand. Uzbekistan even camped in Spain.

” I do not want to under or overestimate this team, but we have to be careful.” Nazim al-Sharia emphasized

in response to the question of what is the strength of the Uzbek team that Iran should pay attention to? “Uzbekistan is a tactical team,” he said. “They also work well on free kicks and even score good goals this way.” Nazim al-Sharia added.

Commenting on the goal by Hassanzadeh against World Champions Argentina, he went on to say ” About that “chip” goal of Hassanzadeh, Asghar is a world-class international player. Those who said that the age of the national team players has increased should also watch this goal. This player has experienced four World Cup tournaments and showed how professional and international he is scoring such a unique goal”

Nazim al-Sharia elaborated on the disallowed goal against Argentina: “This goal was disallowed by the new FIFA rules. Alireza Rafieipour was in the defensive wall of the Argentine team when he hit the ball, and this is a foul in itself. Anyway, we had a plan for this freekick, and the players executed it to perfection, except for the foul.”

About the injury list, Nazim al-Sharia commented on the situation of Hossein Tayebi, Iran star striker, and whether he will be able to play against Uzbekistan or not: “Tayebi will be scanned today to see how the player is doing.”

Iran Futsal qualifies for the next round with a win over USA

The Iranian national futsal team defeated the USA futsal team 4-2 in their second match in the 2021 World Cup in Lithuania.

Head Coach Mohammad Nazem Al-Sharia started with Alireza Samimi, Asghar Hassanzadeh, Mohammad Shajari, Mehdi Javid, and Moslim Olad Ghobad in the starting lineup for this match, but only two minutes after the start of the game Alireza Samimi committed an absolutely amateurish blunder by handling the ball outside his area.

After a review by Var, he was shown the red card to send a shock wave in the team. After this incident, while Iran was playing with one player less, the American scored the first goal. That was a second shock within a few minutes of each other. However, to their credit, Team Melli player soon returned to normal and managed to score the equalizer by Farhad Tavakoli.

Mehdi Javid, and Ahmad Esmailpour scored 2 more goals to end the first half with a 3-1 margin.

In the second half, Iran struggled to score. Despite their slick and fast passing, the players failed at the last hurdles due to profligacy and wastefulness. On the other hand, the United States determined to put the humiliating result against Argentine behind them, matched Iran, and were handled the attacks very well. The goalkeeper was the star of the team.

With ball after ball failing to find the net the United States scored its second goal in the final minutes and made the Iranians quite nervous. In the final minutes of the Americans’ power play, Iran scored the fourth goal by Saeed Abbasi to end the game in their favor with a score of 4: 2 and to secure their qualification to the next stage with 6 points.

Despite the win, the performance, discipline, and attitude of the players were far from polished. The TV Mic picked up Nazim Al Shariaa telling his player at a time out “This is what happens when you do not listen.” He then went on to explain what he told them beforehand and how the players failed to apply his plan.

The final match against Argentina will be on who heads the group. Team Melli needs a huge upgrade to match Argentina, the World Champions and if they have any real aspiration to repeat or better the performance of the 2016 Futsal World Cup, they indeed need a whole lot of improvement in every department, specifically the mental attitude strength and discipline.

Iran regains top Asian FIFA ranking

With the continuous victories of Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Iran regained its top ranking in Asia which Japan has occupied since Marc Wilmots took over Team Melli.

With 11538 points, Iran sets at the top and climbed 4 places up in the FIFA ranking issued by the world governing body on Thursday 16th September 2021.

In the AFC Ranking, both Iran and Australia managed a 16 points increase as a result of their perfect third-round performances in the Qualifiers.

Under the Croat Dragan Skocic, Team Melli has won all its games a perfect 100% record.

 

RanK
Team
Total Points
Previous Points
+/-
22
IR Iran
 Iran
1538.08
 1522.04 16.04
26
Japan
 Japan
1520.46
 1529.45 -8.99
32
Australia
 Australia
1493.99
 1477.21 16.78
36
Korea Republic
 Korea Republic
1479.41
 1474.96 4.45
43
Qatar
 Qatar
1445.83
 1455.23 -9.40

 

Iran sets behind Senegal (20th) and Peru (21st) while renowned teams such as Chile, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, and Austria are behind in the ranking.

FIFA World Ranking

20
Senegal
 Senegal
1555.37
 1545.38 9.99
21
Peru
 Peru
1548.78
 1543.16 5.62
22
IR Iran
 IR Iran
1538.08
 1522.04 16.04
23
Chile
 Chile
1536.53
 1557.81 -21.28
24
Poland
 Poland
1531.82
 1516.27 15.55
25
Tunisia
 Tunisia
1526.87
 1515.3 11.57

 

A deserved 3-0 win for Team Melli vs. Iraq

Three beautiful goals, 3 precious points, and one hell of a polished performance were the result of Team Melli’s game against Iraq on Tuesday evening. Iran beat Iraq 3-0 on Matchday 2 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 to lead the table with maximum points.

Team Melli opened the scoring as early as the third minute from a brilliant piece of play started by one of the match stars Omid Noorafkan. From the left flank, Noorafkam sent a perfectly weighted ball to Taremi who was acting as a wing. Without much hassle, Taremi crossed to the onrushing  Alireza Jahanbkash. Team Melli Captain headed a powerful ball into the goal with Iraq keeper Fahad Taleb could only parry into his own net.

In the minutes after the goal, Iraq took control of the game with surprising ease, however, none of their efforts was towards the goal as Beiravand had the quietest period. But that ball possession for Iraq did not last long as Team Melli took control of the midfield quite logically with Noorollahi and Amiri playing a vital role. Iraq lost Bashar Resan midway through the half due to injury.

Sardar Azmoun could have made the score 2-0 after a perfect diagonal pass from Noorollahi, another star of the match, from the right. Azmoun met the ball and released a powerful low shot, this time however Fahad Taleb was ready for it and saved brilliantly.

The start of the second saw Iraq put the ball into the net as early as the 2nd minute to return the compliment, but the goal was ruled offside by the linesman and the VAR confirmed the right decision has been taken by the Chinese referee.

From then on, both teams battled for the ball, especially in the midfield. Iran looked like the more organized side, with some neat passing and swift counterattacks. The enthusiastic Iraqi’s looked naive in defending and from a ball that was just going dead for an outside throw, Azmoun controlled it and despite two markers, he sent a superb ball all the way to the box where Taremi was lurking. The Porto striker brilliantly controlled the ball, ran a meter or two, and slotted the ball between the onrushing Iraq keeper’s legs, it was 2-0.

The third goal came late in the game with Iraqi players tiring, this time Karim Ansarifard, a late substitute did another Azmoun trick but from the opposite side, the ball reached Ali Ghlozadeh, himself a late substitute. The Chareloi midfielder received the ball well and dribbled Dhargam Ismael, his marker in one smooth move and easily slotted home past Fahad Taleb.

It wasn’t that difficult after all. Team Melli did not leave much for the critics. All the players did their job well, Although Aref Aghasi was short of experience and confidence being his debut match at an important match, he defended well and managed some shy incursions forward, too.

The two outstanding players were Noorollahi and Omid Noorafkan. The central defenders were solid as a rock and very little passed them. Amiri was a menace to the Iraqi and must be given a special mention.

Iran now leads the table with six points and a goal difference of +4 ahead of second-ranked team South Korea.

Iraq, Iran set for titanic clash

the-afc.com

Doha: Iraq and Iran are looking to continue their unbeaten start to the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar Group A when they lock horns in Doha on Tuesday.

On head coach Dick Advocaat’s competitive debut at the helm, Iraq held Korea Republic to a goalless draw in Seoul with the Dutchman content with ceding possession and looking to hit on the counter.

Meanwhile, their neighbors Iran produced the only win of the group on the opening day when captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh’s deflected shot settled in the Syrians’ net, with Team Melli going into Matchday Two leading Group A with three points, two ahead of the four sides that drew in the previous round of matches.

The two teams have a lot of history between them, that being most recently the doubleheader in the previous round of the Asian Qualifiers: The Lions of Mesopotamia recorded a 2-1 home win, with the return leg settled by Sardar Azmoun at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran.

Azmoun will be welcomed back into the fold, having missed out on his side’s opening match through suspension, while head coach Dragan Skočić continues his recovery from COVID-19, having left assistant Marijo Tot to lead the team in the previous game.

“We saw how Japan was defeated at home by Oman and Korea Republic and Iraq drew in Seoul,” said Tot.

“This shows that the teams are close and winning requires hard work. All of our players did well against Syria, and I would also like to thank all our technical and support staff at the national team.”

Iraq’s Advocaat vowed to take a different approach against Iran, after being content with defending for large swathes of their previous game and only bringing on offensive support in the form of Justin Meram and Mohanad Ali later in the game.

“We played really well defensively in the last game,” said Advocaat

“We will play a lot more offensively in the next game, which will be an extremely important one for us. We only started preparing for the games two weeks ago and half of our squad consists of new players.”

Tuesday’s fixture will be the sixth between the two sides in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, with Iran having won three to Iraq’s two.

It will also be the second time they face off in Doha in the Qualifiers, with the late Ahmed Radhi and Alaa Kadhim having led Iraq to a 2-1 win in the Road to USA 1994.

Iraq v Iran
Venue: Khalifa International Stadium (Doha)
Kickoff: Tuesday, 21:00 (UTC+3)

IRAN IRAQ
W W W W W X W W L X
02. Sep.21 : Iran 1 – 0  Syria 02.Sep.21 : Korea R. 0 – 0 Iraq
15. Jun.21 : Iran 1 – 0  Iraq 15. Jun.21 : Iran 1 – 0  Iraq
11. Jun.21 : Cambodia 10 – 0  Iran 11. Jun.21 : Hong Kong 0 – 1  Iraq
07. Jun.21 : Iran 3 – 0  Bahrain 07. Jun.21 : Iraq 4 – 1  Cambodia
03. Jun.21 : Iran 3 – 1  Hong Kong 24.May.21 : Iraq 0 0 Tajikistan
09/02 • Home
Iran
10
Syrian Arab Republic
06/15 • Home
Iran
10
Iraq
06/11 • Away
Cambodia
010
Iran
06/07 • Home
Iran
30
Bahrain
06/03 • Home
Iran
31
Hong Kong, China
09/02 • Away
Republic Of Korea
00
Iraq
06/15 • Away
Iran
10
Iraq
06/11 • Away
Hong Kong, China
01
Iraq
06/07 • Home
Iraq
41
Cambodia
05/24 • Home
Iraq
00
Tajikistan

Ma Ning to referee Iraq-Iran match

The Chinese referee Ma Ning has been assigned to referee the Iraq-Iran match scheduled to be played in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday 7th September 2021 in Matchday 2 of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Asian Qualifiers.

the 42 years old Ma Ning has been a FIFA referee since 2011 while in 2019 the Chinese Football Association hired him as a full-time professional referee.

The match which will be without spectators is the second for both teams and will start at 21:00 local time (22:30 Iran Time)

Iran leads the group with three points while Iraq has one point after a respectable draw away to South Korea.