Tag: Kaffashian

Snobish IRIB disputes FFIRI figures in demands for TV rights.

 

In a letter to the football federation , Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has dismissed the football federation demands on the TV rights and offered its own figure.

After demanding a fee equivalent to US$ 68 million from IRIB and the threat by Ali Kaffashian that unless the broadcaster pays up , TV cameras and crews will not be allowed in the stadiums, IRIB where unperturbed and ignored Kaffashian’s threat (then again , nobody takes him seriously , it seems)

The head of IRIB responded to the incumbent football boss reminding him of the lawful state and legal obligations.

“IRIB is the sole service provider of the Radio and Television services and stations in Iran. This right is mandated by the country’s constitution. The football federation in no position to disobey such law. We like to remind you that the IRIB through decades of excellent coverage, has played a major role in popularizing the sport of football in the country , without which the sport would have not reached such a stature” IRIB responded.

“However , as to help the football federation , IRIB is willing to pay the equivalent of US$ 8 million as a token of support.”

In reality , IRIB is saying that it needs not to pay anything to broadcast the football matches, as it is the sole provider. There is no other option for TV coverage unless there is a change of law. Understanding this point and making it quite clear to Kaffashian , the IRIB absolute and unequivocal Monopoly means that it can legally refuse to pay the federation and stop broadcasting football matches.

Everyone knows that suspending TV broadcast of football events will be disastrous for football in Iran, which at the moment is not very popular with the Iranians due to multiple negative events news , strong suspicions of wide spread corruption, under the counter payments, discovery of fake “Military release certificates, and other violation of many other laws by clubs and players.

 

The FFIRI demands and claims and the refusal of IRIB to budge is becoming an annual ritual. FFIRI never acted on its threats to ban the camera crew, and IRIB know that fact pretty well. Being the monopoly , IRIB is pretty confident that it , rather than FFIRI will dictate the conditions, the payments and write the rules.

MBC has signed a 10 years agreement to cover the Saudi Arabian football league. The contract is worth US$ 1 Billion for 10 years. According to AFC analysis, the Saudi league has the second best in Asia while Iran is the fifth. However , in attendance figure , Saudi Arabia is way behind Iran.

Team Melli to meet Korea Rep. in Friendly on November 18th.


As part of the two teams preparation for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, Iran will be hosting Korea Rep in Azadi on November 18th, 2014.

The news was confirmed by a Korean source, however no conformation from the Iranian side has been reported although Kaffashian mentioned some times ago the possibility of a friendly against Korea if Queiroz gives his approval.

Both the teams played in the FIFA World Cup 2014 as Asian representatives and both ending their campaign with  disappointing results, as they were eliminated after finishing the bottom of their respective groups. However , the similarities and the differences in mentality and approach top progress ends there between the two nations.

South Korea is currently without a coach as  Hong Myung-Bo resigned nearly three weeks ago ( July 10th) after the former star player apologized for the team’s poor performance and took full responsibility for it at the World Cup in Brazil. Hong has faced mounting criticism after South Korea were eliminated from the World Cup by finishing last in the four-team Group H.

South Korea were defeated 1-0 by Belgium, 4-2 by Algeria and drew 1-1 with Russia.
No such problem for Iran , of course ,  as a similar result to the Koreans in the World Cup (2 defeats and a draw, last in the group with 1 solitary goal while Korea scored 3 goals) , had exactly the opposite effect on the Iranians. That mediocre result elevated the stature of their coach to even a higher degree of admiration and respect than before. Such admiration for his work is reflected in the new contract, which is the highest ever paid by an Iranian football federation for a coach in the history.

Queiroz giving the Korean coach a piece of his mind.


There is no love lost between the Koreans and Queiroz. The last time these two teams met in Ulsan , Ghoochannejad scored the only goal to assure Iran a direct qualification to the World Cup , while the Koreans waited nervously for the news of the match in Tashkent where Uzbekistan was defeating Qatar 5-1. One goal short of making it , Uzbekistan missed out again while the Koreans qualified. After the match was finished , Queiroz went towards the Korean bench and hell nearly broke loose when the Portuguese coach taunted his counterpart Choi Kang-Hee.


The tension between the two teams started at the coaches level well before kick off as the South Korean coach Choi Kang-Hee  vowed that Queiroz would be watching the World Cup from his home in Portugal. Son Heung-Min, , the South Korean’s player  promised to “make life painful” for Iran and to force their captain to cry “tears of blood”.


The Korean fans pelted Queiroz with objects and there were calls to file a complaint against Iran head coach  to FIFA accusing Queiroz of provocation and intimidation. The Korean FA refused to pursue the matter any further , preferring to maintain the cordial relation it has with Iran lasting many decades.
At the end , it was the Korean coach Choi Kang-Hee, who sat home watching the World Cup on his Samsung TV as he resigned his post following the criticism from the Korean media and fans who always demand success and high standards.

“Kaffashian “AFC Asian Cup 2015 is NOT a priority!”

Kaffashian announced that the priority for Queiroz is the FIFA World Cup 2018 not AFC Asian Cup 2015.

The President of FFIRI was talking to Mehrnews on the occasion of the imminent renewal of Carlos Queiroz contract to lead Team Melli for another 4 years.

Ali Kaffashian qualified his statement by saying “we do consider the Asian Cup as an important event but if we did not do well there , it is not the end of the world although it makes our job a bit more difficult for the World Cup in 4 years’ time !”

“We have instructed Querioz to use young players for the AFC Asian Cup so that we can reap the benefit in 4 years’ time in the next world Cup.”

However Kaffashian admitted that if a good result was mot obtained in Asian Cup, the pressure will mount on the Portuguese coach who is set to renew his contract as the highest ever paid foreign coach in the history of Iran. His asking price of US$2.5 million deterred the South African federation who were the favorite to sign him.

IMG_3191

Questioned by Mehrnews about the critical views of Team Melli’s performance and results in Brazil , Kaffashian claimed that the majority of the fans were satisfied by the result.  He then mentioned Brazil loss to Germany by 7-1  to justify an apparent good performance by Team Melli!. We couldn’t relate the two matches together in any way of justifications.

Kaffashian confirmed that the post of Team Melli Manager will now be abolished, at least when Queiroz is around. The role of administration, organization and management of the squad will be all carried out by Queiroz himself.  The Team Melli Manager’s Post has always been present through the history. Indeed, many international football teams have such a post. Queiroz has not agreed to Kaffashian’s choices for this post, which rumored to have included Mehdi Mahdavikia, and instead ruled that he does not need a Manager and will take up such role in addition to being the head coach. Team Manager is a full-time job , including travelling to countries in away matches to arrange accommodations, training facilities arrangements,  supervising and managing logistics , negotiations and meeting with counterpart oppositions and AFC /FIFA representatives for pre-match coordination meetings.

Iran vs nigeria greeting the fans (35 of 36)-3

The reporter asked Kaffashian about the enormousness of Queiroz contract, however the President of FFIRI denied that figure while refusing to mention the actual agreed terms. Kaffashian admitted that Queiroz salary has nearly doubled in the last term but that was really down to the currency exchange rates. “ His last contract figure was initially US$ 1.5 million and the new one is a little bit over that , but not by much.” Kaffashian claimed.

Be it a little over US$1.5 Million as Kaffashian claims or the US$2.5 million the South Africans claimed Queiroz was demanding, it is a huge amount for a federation that always complains about acute shortage of funds. But the real concern is for the fans, as those millions of hard currency dollars , will not guarantee Iran any success in the upcoming AFC Asian Cup in Australia. With Kaffashian already announcing that AFC Cup 2015 is NOT a priority, and Queiroz proverbial moans that he has no quality players that have played in the European Champions League at his disposal, it seems that the stage is set for the fans to add another 4 years to the 39 years they had to wait for a championship trophy by Team Melli. Kaffashian lack of ambition and in the absence of any true pressure on the coach to deliver will be another heart-break for Team Melli fans. They have to be content with nostalgia of Ali Parvin’s pictures lifting the Asian Cup in Azadi in 1976 to satisfy their pride and ego.

Queiroz on the brink of re-signing for Team Melli

 Although Carlos Queiroz is officially under the employment of FFIRI until the end of July when his contract runs out , The jet-setter Portuguese coach has not been seen in Tehran except when he had to meet Kaffashian for contract negotiation. Queiroz , preferring the be in Dubai, continued negotiation with several football federations in pursue of the highest bidder for his services. The only two main contenders who showed real interest were South Africa and Iran , although an unnamed African country has been rumored to be on line as well.

The news from Johannesburg today has revealed that the South African Football Federation, has practically pulled out of the race as SAFF is not willing to pay the asking price of the Portuguese coach. The demand of nearly US$ 200,000 a month is four times the pay of the South African National Team’s last coach. SAFF President Danny Jordaan reportedly favors Queiroz, but has vowed not to become entangled in a bidding war.

“If Queiroz is unavailable, there are other candidates,” he told reporters. “We will not become involved in a bidding war.”

A wise man indeed.

That means in effect , that the South Africans have withdrawn from the race to recruit the ex-Real Madrid and Portugal coach, leaving Iran’s FFIRI as the only serious offer on the table.

Queiroz has cleverly managed to up the ante and negotiate his asking price with the Iranians. But , financial terms were not his only victory against Kaffashian and FFIRI management. Queiroz has practically turned down all the conditions that Kaffashian has mandated upon Queiroz in order to renew the contract. Under pressure from his peers and the football league, Kaffashian was forced to impose several conditions and went publicly announcing them to the media.

Queiroz-news-conference

Not only Queiroz refused to be report or even be questioned by the so-called , Technical and Football Development Committee, he also objected to FFIRI nominating a Team Melli Manager as Queiroz wants his candidate to be appointed. The Portuguese coach wants full control of the teams Friendly matches schedules and concession with other teams, and full control of Training camp programs from scheduling to selecting sites and negotiations. There is also no accord on the appointment of two Iranian assistant coaches, as Queiroz insists that he will hand-pick the ones he wishes to work with rather than his accepting his paymasters nominees.

Although Queiroz has not turned out to be a master tactician on the football pitch with Team Melli , not to mention with the other teams he coached, he has proved to be a shrewd negotiator and master of self-promotion. He practically defeated Kaffashian by default, in itself not a major accomplishment , as his opposite number is not known to be a master of anything , but for his clever skills in negotiation , persistence, stubbornness , he does, perhaps, deserves what he originally wanted.

It seems that all that talk by Queiroz about not willing to come back to Iran because the Iranian government is not fully committed to support football, was simply rhetoric and a smoke screen to pressure his paymasters. It seems to have worked well , disregarding the ethical part of the equation , The Portuguese is on his way to sign a brand new lucrative contract worth US2.5 million in hard currency and laughing all the way to the bank.

Good luck to him , if he finally puts pen on paper and signs by the end of the month. On the bright side, Queiroz’s appointment will, hopefully, activate the preparation program for the upcoming AFC Asian 2015 which is 5 months away and Team Melli , as always , is falling behind schedule.

Negotiations with Queiroz are still alive but approaching the decisive round.

While Carlos Queiroz has maintained complete media silence on the progress of negotiation or lack  of it , with FFIRI , Kaffashian has revealed some interesting details of the various conditions that has been included in the new proposed contract with Queiroz.

One of the disputed items of the proposed contract is the role of the Technical committee of the federation. According to the bylaws of the federation , this committee consists of football technical expertise whose role is to supervise and administer technical issues of all national teams at various levels. They are also supposed to have an influence in the selection of the coaches. The “Technical and Football Development Committee’s” in entrusted task is to conduct audits and submit reports and analysis on  the performance of the teams and coaches.

Kaffashian wants to ensure that Queiroz abides by the federation regulation and respects the bylaws by working closely with this committee. Carlos Queiorz wants nothing to do with it and perhaps consider this committee as a stumbling block directly interfering in his job. Queiroz wants the absolute control with no one breathing on his shoulders questioning him.

Another item of dispute is the Iranian assistant coaches. FFIRI wants 2 Iranian coaches working alongside Queiroz for every foreign coach he elects to have. Querioz and Iranian coaches , do not mix well. Three Iranians have already left him due to various reasons. 

According to ISNA , quoting Ali Kaffashian , the Portuguese coach has expressed his dissatisfaction about publishing of the new 7 items of the contracts, despite assurances that the negotiations will be confidential. On the other hand , the government will entertain the idea of financial backing on the condition of a transparent contract with no secret clauses or under the table payments.  

Kaffashian earlier on Friday , claimed that 9 foreign coaches have applied for the vacant Team Melli job. He declined to name them.

The final round of negotiations between the two parties will be starting in Tehran the next few days.  Failure to reach an agreement , will force Kaffashian to appoint  a local coach for Team Melli. Many local observers believe that FFIRI have been procrastinating in this important  matter and might be caught off guard.  That said , there could have been some secret negotiations to look for an alternative foreign coach to replace Queiroz if the two sides fail to come to terms.

 

 

 

 

    

Kaffashian intends to haggle with Queiroz on his asking price !

Like a true Rug Merchant, Kaffashian announced that he intends to renegotiate the extension of Carlos Queiroz contract but he wants to lower the Portuguese coach asking price.

Kaffashian was referring to the demands by Queiroz and his team of assistant coaches which is estimated to cost the federation a minimum of US$ 4 million per annum just for wages, not including bonuses.

“Both parties have expressed their desire to continue (…) and we are happy to negotiate with Queiroz who gave his new figure for renewal of the contract before the World Cup. However, since his return, he did not come back with a new figure.” Kaffashian said.

“Queiroz has said to us that even if he is offered a higher figure from outside, he prefers to stay with Iran. We, however, cannot afford the figure that he initially demanded and currently working hard to lower it to an affordable figure” Kaffashian added.

Publicly , Queiroz has said that he will not continue working in Iran after his contract expires right after the World Cup because of lack of finances and poor government support. This quote of Querioz has been published by several media outlets, however, Kaffashian is oblivious to that statement by Queiroz or he has a selective hearing syndrome.

A meeting on Saturday between Kaffashian and Querioz to discuss the contract extension did not yield any results. Responding to reporters who asked him about the result of the meeting , Kaffashian said “It was actually a meeting to congratulate Queiroz and not contract Negotiation!”

While it is clear that FFIRI cannot afford the new increased contract fee demand by Queiroz , Kaffashian is hopeful that Goudarzi , the Minister of Sport will come to the aid of his federation and pay the bill. However, the minster has been reluctant to do so. Goudarzi has been quoted publicly that certain condition has to be attached to extension of Queiroz’s contract. While the Minister has said that he has no objection to the FFIRI desire to continue with Queiroz, privately he is not known to be keen on the Portuguese who has bad mouthed the country and created a controversy with his Team Melli kit issue , which the Minister thought was embarrassing for Iran’s image especially before the World Cup.

To add to the prevailing chaos on Queiroz contract negotiation , Kaffashian has introduced a new element in the equation “Of course , we , the management committee, are satisfied with Querioz and agreed to negotiate the extension of his contract . In this sense , we also need to get the views of the federation’s technical committee whose job is to scrutinize and analyze the work of the coaching staff. They are the experts and according to our regulations, they need to approve the coach!”

Asked if the technical committee has submitted any report to the management committee, Kaffashian said “ NO. But we are waiting their analysis report”

Carlos Queiroz himself, remained tight-lipped about his future since his return to Tehran.

Meanwhile , Mehdi Pashazadeh , one of the heroes of World Cup 1998 , was asked about his thoughts on the current status of Team Melli, in an interview by ISNA on the occasion of joining Esteghlal Coaching staff . “We can’t act like some of the rich Arab countries that can afford to recruit the most expensive coaches in the World and then fire them with ease if the results are not satisfactory or if they fail to deliver. We simply cannot follow such strategy; we cannot pay hefty sums for coaches. In regards to Queiroz , and to start with, have we analyze and studied the impact of of Queiroz 3 ½ years’ work with Team Melli ? Has he achieved the objectives and the goals set by the federation? Has his presence added value to the team? In my personal opinion, anyone who claims that Queiroz has improved Iran’s football standard, is not very truthful with himself. If we pay him his new demands, what will we get in return?

The reporter mentions some of the positives of Queiroz , such as building a solid defense and his successful effort in introducing Iranian expatriate players, Pashazadeh said that “ The team was operating defensively for a long time and this same defense he used failed against many teams like Oman and Lebanon. However, the question we need to ask ourselves is , what did this so called solid defense achieved for us us against Bosnia? On the other hand, we have to credit Queiroz for his introduction of players like Dejagah and Ghoochannejad. This was a brilliant piece of work by him that we should appreciate. Both of these players have answered the call of Queiroz because of his name in World Football, but we need to ask ourselves, is this worth paying him US$ 4 million as he demands?

In my opinion, with a sum much less than that, we can employ a local or a foreign coach and spend the rest in the football infrastructure especially at young age levels where the country’s football institutions really needs to support. It is this level that generations of quality players can be built and investments are necessary.”

Are we surprised at Team Melli’s results in the World Cup 2014?

It is all over for Team Melli at the World Cup. Iran exited in a disappointing, heart breaking and less than exciting manner. A deserved goal-less draw and a last minute defeat temporarily made us believe and have faith but then the reality hit everyone quite hard in the last match. Emotions aside, Team Melli got what it deserved nothing more nothing less. If it had made the next round ahead of Bosnia or Nigeria , it would have been an injustice to football in general but most importantly it would have falsely covered the derisory state of the football in Iran .

The teams that made the World Cup finals have worked hard, planned well, played number of competitive practice matches and their federations wasted no resources in trying to support their teams to reflect their nations’ pride.  In contrast Team Melli was an ill-prepared team , run by a federation that had comical and acute lack of resources , trained by a coach who had little confidence in his players, and  a coach who was not versatile enough to change tactics when it was most required. Expecting success under these circumstances is pretty much a wishful thinking.

Despite all that, we have to respect the performance of our players who all gave more than 100%. No one can deny the fact that they tried hard and simply went out of steam. Again, with the training regime of Queiroz who spent the majority of the valuable training camps physically pushing his players to the limit , it would have been a matter of time before they would collapse at some stage. Unfortunately, it was the last match and the one that mattered most where Team Melli players came short. Fatigue was killing them, two weeks in South Africa and another in Austria , with very little rest , they flew to Brazil early for another couple of weeks of tough physical training to prepare for the World Cup.

Iran v Nigeria: Group F - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

In essence, Queiroz was trying to build a top physical shape team in a couple of month while such task requires a whole season of regular regimented training with ample rest periods for recovery to build a strong team. The work of a whole season cannot be done in a couple of months only. Bad practices of players also cannot be undone in such a short period.

Could Queiroz have done much better than this ? or maybe that is his ceiling of his capabilities and could not give any better than that.  After the exit from the last World Cup 2010, Cristiano Ronaldo was asked to give a reason for Portugal exit, he pointed at Querioz, Portugal coach and told the reporter to ask him. What he really meant was that Querioz coaching and game plan failed the team. Looking back at the last few months of his work with Iran Team, CR7 may very well had a valid point.

 

Putting all the blame on the coach is quite unreasonable though, despite the common belief that coaches have to shoulder most of the blames for defeats.  Queiroz and the FFIRI administration did not see eye to eye either and that had negative effect on his work. The Portuguese ruffled a few feathers in Iran by some of the publicity he created  on issues such as the Official kit , Friendly matches , lack of resources and marginalizing of the domestic league. You can safely say that Queiroz does not have many friends in Tehran. His adversaries are aplenty and they come from all corners of football.

The Federation has never been financially strong or organized enough to meet Queiroz’s demands, be it tactical, monetary or logistic. Kaffashian and brazenly for that, never skips a chance for begging money from the government. There is hardly any talk of self-reliance and organizing the federation in a professional way to generate revenue. It is too much of a burden on Kaffashian and his generals, as he prefers the easy way and hand out. So, naturally if there is little money to spend , the expectations should also be limited. 

The irony is that lessons learned from previous failures have hardly been heeded in Iran’s football. The chances are that the status quo will prevail and with it the heart break of one of the finest sets of fans in the world, Team Melli fans.

Iran soccer, short on funds and facing long odds, preps for Argentina in World Cup

The Washington Post

 
BY RICK MAESE June 20 at 3:00 PM  

SAO PAULO, Brazil — There was a slight breeze on an otherwise warm afternoon and just beyond the giant black and white murals of Brazilian soccer legends was a colorful skyline, featuring apartment buildings, lime, peach and sky blue. A trio of players — including an American and a German — bounced a ball back and forth, until the entire team huddled together to begin practice. Back home, the sport has overtaken traditional pastimes such as wrestling and weightlifting in popularity.

“They have unbelievable talent,” a former coach said. “I can really only compare it to Brazil. Kids are playing on the streets, people are passionate about the game. It is their lives. They live with it every day.”

Only this group isn’t Brazilian. In fact, Iran’s national team is uniformly regarded as one of the worst in this World Cup. It has little funding and even less stability. Many oddsmakers slapped Iran with the longest odds of any of the 32 teams in the tournament, as high as 1,500-to-1 — on par with or a hair worse than Costa Rica and Honduras.

It’s a ragtag bunch featuring a Portuguese head coach and an American assistant, goalkeeping coach Dan Gaspar. Fourteen of the 23 players play in Iran, while others come from leagues in Kuwait and Qatar, as well as two from the English Premier League and one from Major League Soccer.

Iran was once anointed a charter member of the “Axis of Evil” by President George W. Bush, but on the pitch, international politics are checked at the door. As are egos.

Despite its long list of woes, Iran enters today’s showdown against a powerful Argentine team with a point in hand, tied for second in Group F despite an opening match that brought rounds of jeers from the stands. Iran tied Nigeria, 0-0, on Monday, relying on a conservative strategy that packs players on the defensive end and barely acknowledges the goal on the opposite end. Iran had just three shots on goal in the game.

“We’re known for our defending,” said defender Steven Beitashour, who was born in San Jose to Iranian parents and plays professionally with Vancouver of MLS. “We might not have 20 chances like some other teams. We might just have three, four, five chances.”

It’s a strategy for the desperate, but Iranian players and coaches make no illusions about who they are. They’re the top-ranked Asian team in the World Cup field (No. 43 in the latest FIFA rankings) and lost only twice in their qualifying run. They don’t allow many chances but they don’t take many either.

“You have to judge our players not as players from Liverpool, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona or Corinthians,” Iran Coach Carlos Queiroz said, “but as players that play in an amateur league.”

Queiroz’s is the biggest name on the roster. He had stints on the coaching staff at Manchester United and Real Madrid and was once considered a contender to lead the U.S. men’s team. Iran is the third team the 61-year old Queiroz has brought to the World Cup, but this experience has been markedly different than coaching South Africa (2002) or Portugal (2010). Even before Iran takes the field Saturday against Argentina, Queiroz has already decided he’ll be coaching somewhere else four years from now.

“They don’t have enough governmental support,” he told the Portuguese newspaper Publico this week, “and, it seems clear to me, they’ll stop having effective interest, because of a lack of finances, in maintaining the work done at the national team level.”


BRAZIL MAP: 2014 World Cup venues (Laris Karklis/The Washington Post;The Washington Post/Source: FIFA, ESPN)

Funding has been a constant source of frustration, and the federation says it has been unable to collect money from foreign-based sponsors due to international sanctions. Those sanctions have also forced the soccer team to compete in a bubble of sorts, as it has been unable to schedule quality international competition in recent years and become isolated from much of the soccer world.

The team had to cancel a training camp in Portugal before the tournament, plus a friendly match against Ghana, because of budget constraints. Media reports before the tournament suggested the team ordered cut-rate uniforms, instructing players to wash them in cold water to avoid shrinking and, in a break from tradition, to refrain from exchanging tops with opposing players. Team officials deny this, however.

Regardless, the list of needs is long: a better domestic league, proper pitches, better facilities, qualified coaches and, in every area, more money.

Resources have apparently not kept pace with a growing passion back home. This is only Iran’s fourth World Cup. It has managed just one win in 10 games on the sport’s biggest stage — memorably topping the U.S. team, 2-1, in 1998. In Tehran, the celebration spilled over into the streets when Iran formally qualified for this World Cup, and thousands of fans are traveling with the team in Brazil.

“I don’t believe this will change football in Iran, in general,” Namazi said. “In order for it to change, they need to really invest in infrastructure, youth academies, coaches, training, educating the fans, new stadiums, new pitches. There’s a lot that needs to be done.”

Kaffashian “negotiotion with Queiroz has stopped”

Ali Kaffashian , the President of the FFIRI , briefed the Iranian press in Brazil about his activities in the last few days during the FIFA World Cup 2014. Kaffashian said “At first , we attended AFC Extraordinary Congress meeting in Sao Paulo. Many items were discussed such as the nomination for the vice president. Currently it is by appointment , but the general assembly approved the election by majority. We have voted for that.” The other major issue as far as we are concerned is the establishment of another regional zone in Asia which Iran will be part of.” in-principle’ creation of a ‘Central AFC’ Zone was approved at Monday’s Congress that will see the current South & Central Zone split into two.”

 “The proposal, which was submitted by the football federation of Iran, will see the Islamic Republic and Tajikistan grouped with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in a Central Zone which shall be recognized in the AFC Statutes. In this case , we (Iran) can have a member in the executive committee the AFC”

“The AFC will host an Extraordinary Congress in the period prior to the elective Congress in 2015 to determine the number of seats assigned to each zone on the Executive Committee.”

” The location of the headquarters will be in Tehran” Kaffashian added.

   

 “The second meeting was the FIFA general Assembly meeting where several major issues were discussed including the removing the age limit on FIFA Presidency. The assembly approved that no age limit should be attached to the candidate” “FIFA Also approved a US$ 750,000 payment to its members. We have arranged with the Islamic Republic of Iran Embassy in Brazil to transfer the funds to Tehran. We will have no problem with the sanctions for the transfer.”

“FIFA also discussed the balance sheet which is quite healthy and much better than ours ( giggling). FIFA made a lot of profit and hence the payments to members are much better this years. After that meeting they took us to watch the opening ceremony of the World Cup , without eating lunch (…) which was quite difficult on me !”

“Eventually after all these engagement , we went to see Team Melli and the Iranian reporters, which was a nice break.”

Asked about Queiroz future with Iran , Kaffashian said “The negotiation with him has stopped, Queiroz wanted to clarify and finalize his situation way before the world cup. We did not give him a definite answer and that is because of several issues one of which was the results in the World Cup. Another one was the financial problems we were facing. If we do not get monetary support from somewhere , we will definitely have a problem. However , we have not reached a final decision on Queiroz although we think he is the best candidate. To get someone in the standard of Queiroz is going to be costly. The majority here are against the appointment of a local Iran coach for Team Melli.”

Ali Kaffashian , the nice man that he is with a permanent smile on his face, is known to providing the media with inaccurate , sarcastic , conflicting and sometime speculative statements.  While AFC has not yet decided where the Headquarter of the Central Asian Federation will be located, Kaffashian has already said it is in Tehran!  As for the money transfer, regardless to where the money is originated be it Brasilia or Timbuktu , the transfer will have to pass through New York Financial and banking system where the US government has a tight control and can stop such transaction like they have done a million times before despite their knowledge that the funds transfer is for an NGO like the football federation.

As for Queiroz, Kaffashian continues his conflicting and inconsistent statements. He has claimed on several occasions that FFIRI has negotiated with Portuguese coach on contract extension, while Queiroz himself categorically denied it. Kaffashian even mentioned that Queiroz has set his price and he (Kaffashian) managed to reduce it to an acceptable figure!. The head of FFIRI moves the goalpost now by mentioning that the extension of contract with Queiroz is dependent on Iran’s result in the World Cup , which was never an issue for renewal of Queiroz contract until now!  With all the conditions and difficulties he laid , Kaffashian is adamant that Queiroz is the only candidate for FFIRI at the moment!

Team Melli departs to Brazil.

Team Melli has departed Tehran at the early hours of the morning destination Brazil. After a short reception in the CIP lounge of Imam Khomeni Airport, where the Minister of Youth & Sport was present and wished the players and the squad the best of luck, the squad left to Brazil.

Reporters were initially not allowed into the CIP lounge despite invitations to attend a brief news conference before the squad departure. With the arrival of the Minster of Sports Goudarzi , who was informed about the reporters being denied access, and on his instructions, the security authorities of the airport allowed the media enter the lounge.

The manager of Team Melli, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi , did not fly with the squad. This is the second time that the person who should be leading and supervising the squad, ensuring the comfort and  proper facilitation of all the requirements , has not accompanied the team! Mohammad Nabi has cited personal issues as the reason for not accompanying the team.

Last night, the football federation arranged a small farewell party for the squad in Azadi Sport Complex arena. The farewell party was attended by many dignitaries including the Minster of sport who urged the team to be strong and fight to soldiers to defend the honor of the country.

 Kaffashian who was also present at the airport to bid the team farewell , will be joining the squad in Brazil on Sunday as the head the delegation .

Also missing from the flight to Brazil was Markar Aghajanian who has flown ahead to analyze the Nigeria game against USA.

Before playing the first match against Nigeria in Group F at Arena da Baixada  on the 16th June, Team Melli will have a final preparation game against Trinidad and Tobago behind closed doors in Brazil camp.

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