Mehdi Mahdavikia , the former star of Iran’s Team Melli was highly critical of the testimonial match and the accompanied ceremony that was arranged in honor of Team Melli players by the Football Federation last Saturday night..

In an interview with Iran Varzeshi newspaper, Mahdavikia who has hanged his boot with Perspolis at the end of last season, said he was absent out of Iran but even if he was , he would not have participated in any form in this debacle.   Mahdavikia said “the whole function and the arrangement prior to it was a disaster. It was poorly and hastily arranged by the federation. “

“Such proposed match between the 1998 team that brought honor and glory to the nation and the current 2013 team that has also qualified to Brazil World Cup , should not have been on at the first place. How can you expect a competition between a bunch of old players who have retired for a long period, some who are coaching and others who have left football all together , playing against a current team that has qualified for the World Cup? ” Mahdavikia added.

“This is an insult to the 1998 team. The match was unfair and ridiculously unbalanced and it made a mockery of the senior players who were supposed to be honored. Thanks to the federation confused and irrational arrangement Instead of honoring Team Melli of 1998, it turned them into a laughing stock!” lamented Mahdavikia who scored Iran’s second goal against USA in Lyon in the 2-1 historic win.

“The poor planning was obvious. The federation should have planned this program month in advance and clearly defining the objectives and contents of this event to the public.  This would have attracted the interest of many spectators and Team Melli fans.  Early planning would have given the chance for many participants to arrange their schedule accordingly. “Mahdavikia added

I would have not played in that match even if I was in Iran

“I already had plans to be in Germany but I would have not played in that match even if I was in Iran. It does not take a genius to predict the outcome of such unfair and unbalanced competition. The five goals, with mercy , in the first half was just the icing on the cake to humiliate the players who were supposed to be honored. The intent of the federation was noble and honorable but the execution was poor and the match idea was absurd.”

Mehdi Mahdavikia was in Germany for talks with SV Hamburg , the club that Iran’s former midfielder has played for a period spanning 8 years. Discussion about a testimonial match, German style, has been going on between the two parties.

Iran’s U17 youth team will be taking part in the 4th China Weifang Hope Cup . The annual International Youth Football Tournament will be held in Weifang city, Shandong Province, China.

Team Melli U17 is grouped with North Korea U17 , Sao Paolo (Brazil) and Chivas (USA).

 

The match schedule is a s follows:

Sunday 28th July 2013            Iran U17 vs North Korea U17 

Monday, 29th July 2013          Iran U17 vs Sao Paolo U17

Wednesday , 31st July 2013   IranU17 vs. Chivas U17

(All time are Iran Summer Time)

 

The tournament is played in 3 groups. the Others group includes, Botafago (Brazil) , Shandong (China), Myanmar U17  and China U17 team , while the third group consists of Porto (Portugal), Laling FC (China). Mongolia U17,and HK Rangers (Hong Kong).

The top three teams plus the best second placed team will qualify for the semi finals of the tournament.

 

In a statement to the official FFIRI website, Ali Doustimeher, the coach of Youth teams said that the U17 team will be flying to China on Thursday for the tournament. ” The team will be coached the newly formed coaching team headed by the experienced youth level coach, Rahim Meerakhoury. The purpose of this tournament is to gain experience at international level and top class opposition. Results are irrelevant at this stage.” Doustimeher added. will

Abbasi , the sports minister said that Mohammad Reza  Khalatbary is not representative of  the government of Iran in any capacity and therefore the government cannot compensate him nor pay any financial penalties if he refuses to honor his contract with the UAE club. The Sport minister was answering question after the testimonial match between the 2014 Team Melli and the 1998.

The question was brought up by a reporter after rumors that Perspolis wants the services of Khalatbary, but cannot afford  to pay the penalties and compensations for Ajman Club ,  and therefore looking for to the government to receive some handouts. Abbasi denied that such arrangement has been discussed and said that the government will not entertain such requests. “Players who sign contracts with professional clubs , do so on personal basis between themselves and the clubs involved. They are the ones who are liable for all what is mentioned in the contract clauses. We have no role to play and cannot force them either way” the Sports minister commented. “ We also cannot compensate them for failure to honor their contract for whatever reasons.”

Apparently , Khalatbary is disillusioned with Ajman Club, and claims that the UAE football federation’s naming their League , Arabian Gulf league, has dampened his enthusiasm to play in that country. Khalatbary was supposed to start training with his club Ajman, but he is still in Iran. The club has given him up to Monday , to join the training camp  in Ajman before taking the appropriate actions..

On the subject of a large number of 1998 World Cup veterans failing to turn up for the testimonial match and event, Abbasi responded to the reporters by saying “You have to ask those who were not absent, not me.” He also explained that “We cannot assure the presence of everyone when we arrange such an event. People might have social, personal or professional commitments that prevent them from attending such event. We wanted to pay tribute for the football players, men and woman who achieved honors for the country. This event was for them.”

The poorly attended (estimated 3000 fans in the 100,000 capacity stadium) event saw the unique presence of woman in Azadi albeit in a glass enclosure!. On close scrutiny, it turned out to be the Women Futsal team members who won the Silver medal in the 4^th Asian Indoor Games a couple of weeks back. They were supposed to be honored by the sport minister, but only their team manager who got close to the tribune, the rest of th e women were kept away to their utmost disgust..

Several reporters complained about the harassment they received from the security at the Azadi gates. There were also wide spread criticism at the poorly managed functions, and the chaotic scenes during the presentation ceremony. The football match itself also ended prematurely with one half played only. It is not clear why the match was abandoned.  All those mishaps, perhaps explains why many top ex-Team Melli player of 1998 team , such as Ali Daei,  Mehdi Mahdavikia, Khodadad Azizi, Ahmedreza Abedzadeh . Karim Bagheri , NaderMohammadkhani and Mohammad Khakpour refused to attend this event for one reason or another.

Foolad Khuzestan midfield player , Bakhtiar Rahmani has confirmed to the Mehr news agency sport reporter that the club has talked to him about a possible transfer to the German Bundesliga.  Rahmani declined to give the name of the club or any other details saying that he is under strict instruction from the club to keep things under wrap until the negotiation is concluded.

The highly talented 21 years old midfielder who has just been named in the latest list of Team Melli, just commented on the transfer talk by saying that he is under the orders of the club. He has signed a 3 years contract with Foolad Khuzestan and it is their decision whether a transfer can go a head or not.

Meanwhile Hossein Ibn Qassim , the spokesman for Foolad Khuzestan club , confirmed that a representative form a German club has visited Ahvaz to look at the Academy and also talk about the transfer of Rahmani. The Foolad spokesman declined to name the club and added that his organization welcomes the opportunity for one of its players to play in one of Europe’s finest leagues. When asked if his own club Foolad will be handicapped by the departure of the highly influential midfielder , Ibn Qassim dismissed such notion and said that the club has quite a handful of players and continues producing talented and quality player from the ranks.

Foolad Khuzestan will be participating in the next season’s AFC Champions League after they managed to grab the 4th place in the table.

 

A testemonial match between two generations of Team Melli was carried out on Saturday eveneing between the current team that qualified for the 2014 World Cup  and the 1998 Team Melli that qualified to France Worlds Cup. The teams were called as 2014 and 1998.

Representing the 1998 team were:

NAKISA, Nima , .ZARRINCHEH, Javad (OSTADASADI, Ali Akbar), SHAHROUDI, Reza, MINAVAND, Mehrdad (DEENMOHAMMADI, Sirous) , SAADAVI, Naim, PEYROVANI, Afshin, ESTILI, Hamidreza, PASHAZADEH, Mehdi, LATIFI, Ali, EBRAHIMI, Omid, HATAMI, Farzad,

Coaches Bijan Zolfagharnasab and Faramarz Zelli.

The currrent Team Melli team was represented by:

AHMADI, Rahman (HAGHIGHI, Alireza)  , HOSSEINI, Jalal , MONTAZERI, Pejman,  HEYDARI, Khosrow (KHANZADEH, Mohammadreza) , MAHINI, Hossein,  HADDADIFAR, Ghassim, HAJSAFY, Ehsan, JABBARI, Mojtaba , NEKOUNAM, Javad, KHALATBARY, MohamadReza, REZAEI, Gholamreza

Coaches: Omid Namazi and Alireza Mansourian.

Zarinchesh and Nekounam were the repected Captains of the two teams.

The match was played in one half only and ended 5-0 for the 2014 Team. In the one sided match , Jabbari, Rezaei , Nekounam, Mahini and Khanzadeh scored the goals.

 

 

 

The negotiations between Javad Nekounam and the UAE club, Al Sharjah has failed as the sides failed to reach an agreement. Esteghlal and Team Melli Captain returned back to Tehran empty handed. The Esteghlal Club CEO , Ali Fathollahzadeh immidiateli claimed  that he has secured Nekounam signature on a contract extenson. The midfield player will extend his contract with the Esteghlal club for another season. This comes in the aftermath of intense disputes between the player and the club which started shortly after the start of the last season.

Nekounam like many other players in the team, were not given their dues which resulted in threats and counter threats. Nekounam was looking for a club other than Esteghlal, but very few clubs in Iran could afford his wage demands. Al Sharjah, a club in UAE that Nekounam has already played for .  had showed a strong interest in Nekounam but were not ready to meet the Iranians’ wages demand nor the requested transfer fee.

While it seems that the matter was coming to an end with Nekounam return from the UAE and failure of his transfer to materialize, Amir Ghalenoei did not hide his displeasure by the commotion that Nekounam has created which has affected the team’s preparation and also affected the morale of other players.  The Esteghlal coach made his views public which prompted Nekounam to react and  threaten to expose Esteghlal club mismanagement and the disregard for contracts and continuous false promises to players.

With less than a week remaining for the Persian Gulf League kick off, 3 notable Team Melli players are under the threat of suspensions.

Yaghoub Karimi , Shoja’a Khalilzadeh and Abolghasim Dehnavi are bring investigated by the football federation’s disciplinary committee for what is deemed as an act of deceptions and betrayal.  All the 3 players have signed contracts with Perspolis club and received partial payments , but subsequently , they also signed with Sepahan Esfahan club! Karimi & Khalilzadeh are still training with Sepahan , while Dehnavi  returned back to Perspolis after serving a temporarily suspension by the FFIRI.  All the three players have been named in the latest list by Carlos Queiroz for the training camp in Portugal.

 

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]assanzadeh , the Head of the FFIRI Disciplinary committee, was present in a meeting between Perspolis and Sepahan management in the aftermath of the two major clubs trading accusations and threatening legal action against each other. With the Federation being present as observer, the two clubs decided to end their conflict without involving the legal authorities and the federation. The players who received money after signing the initial contracts will have to return it back and any official complaints will be withdrawn. However , Hassanzadeh insisted that all the players involved will be liable to prosecution for what he labeled as “a blatant violation of confidence and written contract”. The head of the Disciplinary committee, said that such acts of betrayal spoils the good name of football in Iran and leads to conflicts within the relationship amongst individuals, or between individuals and organizations putting the name of football in disrepute.

There was no word on the nature of the punishment , although it is not normally customary for the FFIRI to pass heavy sentences in Iran. The players might be given two or three match suspension plus a nominal fine. Anything beyond that will be extremely unique in Iran’s football.

 

Iranian football federation announced the list of more than 40 players who will participate in the training camp of Team Melli. The squad will be shortlisted to 25 players who will joining the next phase of Team Melli camp in Portugal. The camp will be concluded with a friendly match on FIFA Day of  14th August. The opposition for Team Melli is not clear nor was it officially declared. While Kaffashain , the head of FFIRI has mentioned a friendly match with Benfica, other sources have mentioned the national Team of Gabon..

None of the foreign based players are included in the list, however , it quite likely that players such as Dejagah , Ghoochannejad, Masoud Shojaei and Daniel Davari will be joining the squad in Portugal or be available for the match against the African team.

Notable absentees form the list are  Karim Ansarifard, Shehab Gordan, Ali Karimi, MOhammad Nosrati , Pejman Nouri, Mehrdad Pooladi and Gholamreza Rezaei.

 

no	Name
GOLAKEEPER
1	AHMADI, Rahman
2	BIRAVAND, Alireza
3	HAGHIGHI, Alireza
4	MAKANI, Sousha
DEFENDERS
5	BEIGZADEH, Hashim
6	DEHNAVI, Abolghasim
7	ESMAEIL-BEIGI, Vahid
8	FAKHERIDINI, Milad
9	HAJSAFY, Ehsan
10	HAMOUDI, Ali
11	HEYDARI, Khosrow
12	HOSSEINI, Jalal
13	KHALILZADEH, Shojaa
14	KHANZADEH, Mohammadreza
15	MAHINI, Hossein
16	MONTAZERI, Pejman
17	SADEGHI, AmirHossein
MIDFIELD
18	EBRAHIMI, Omid
19	HADDADIFAR, Ghassim
20	HAGHIGHI, Reza
21	JABBARI, Mojtaba
22	MOSALMAN, Mohsen
23	NEKOUNAM, Javad
24	NOURI, Milad
25	NOURI, Mohammad
26	RAHMANI, Bakhtiyar
27	TEYMOURIAN, Andranik
FORWARDS
28	AFSHIN, Arash
29	EBRAHIMI, Mohammad
30	GHARIBI, Milad
31	GHOLAMI, Mohammad
32	GOUDARZI, Shahram
33	HASSANZADEH, Ahmad
34	HATAMI, Farzad
35	KARIMI, Yaghoub
36	KHALATBARY, MohamadReza
37	NAZARI, Mohammad Mehdi
38	OULADI, Mehrdad
39	RAFKHAEI, Jalal
40	SADEGHIAN, Payam
41	SHOJAEI, Mostafa

Team Melli midfield player , Andranik “Ando” Teymourian has a signed a one- year conditional contract with Esteghlal club of Tehran. Last season , Andranik played for the lowly Al Khraitiyat club in the Qatar professional league,  his contract was not renewed at the end of the season. However, Teymourian’s agent , his own brother Serjik a former Esteghlal player,  is still engaged in negotiations with an unnamed Qatari club for the possibility of signing a deal. In case of the success of that negotiation, Teymourian will return back to Doha and his contract with Estgehlal will be rendered void.

This conditional release clause was agreed by Estghlal’s CEO, Ali Fathollazadeh , who boasted about his ability to lure back Teymourian to his club while taking a swipe against the critics who have accused him of financial mismanagement. The beleaguered boss of Esteghlal said that the financial terms that that Teymourian is currently is negotiating with the Qatari club , cannot be matched by Esteghlal in financial terms.  He also said that “it will be cruel for the club to stand against Ando’s  with such a lucrative offer. If it materializes , we will release him to join the Qatari team and cancel this contract which he just signed with us.”

The club is notorious for deferring payments to the players and staff. Many players are still owed money, and cases have been escalated to the courts. Only a few days back Hanif Omaranzadeh , who finally received his check for last season , complained that the Esteghal check he was given has bounced back and the bank has returned it. While there was another interesting case , when Fatholahzadeh offered, Amir Hossein Sadeghi , Omaranzadeh’s partner in defense,  his own Lexus car , because the club has could not afford to pay him the money owed!!  It is not cl;ear whether Sadeghi will keep the car or return it to Fathollazadeh when the player eventually receives the money from the club.

There is also another twist in Teymourian’s case as  there are still some outstanding payment which is due to the player from the time he played for Estghlal.

On another note, Esteghlal has sent the list of 25 players that will be taking part in Esteghlal’s match in the AFC quarter finals match against the Thai team. The name includes Javad Nekounam who has negotiated a contract with Sharjah club.

Both the top Tehran clubs, Perspolis and Estghlal have chronic cash problems. Perspolis have been deducted points by FIFA a few years back for failure to pay its players and might face a similar situation if the prolong case with several foreign players and coaches are not concluded.

More rumors emrged about the transfer of two of Team Melli players.

“Al Ittihad ” newspaper of Abu Dhabi and “Al Raya” of Qatar have both reported that Javad Nekounam is in serious negotiation with Al Sharjah club of the UAE league. The club has initially started contact with the unsettled Nekounam back in May , however , it is believed that the high salary demand by the Team Melli Captain, has dampened the enthusiasm of the Emarati club.  Sharjah already has 3 foreign players and looking to complete their allowed quota by adding the services of Nekounam, who played for Sharjah before his transfer to the La Liga club, Osasuna.

If Nekounam joins Sharjah , he will be the 2nd Team Melli player to join a UAE league club for next season , after Khalatbary’s transfer to Ajman Club. This is despite the claims by the Iranian FFIRI officials of banning transfers to the UAE after its federation changed the name of their professional league of UAE to “Arabian Gulf League.”

Javad Nekounam is one of many Esteghlal players who have been ill-treated by the club management with its failure to respect the contracts. The cash strapped league title holder has been a bad payer as many players have complained that they have not received their wages. Esteghlal is one of many clubs currently on the black list of FFIRI because of financial irregularities and the claims against it by many ex-players and staff.

Meanwhile , Nekounam’s long time teammate in Osasuna, Masoud Shojaei–Soleimani is also in the transfer market news.

 

The La Liga club , Real Valladolid has resumed negotiations with the former Osasuna Iranian Player , Masoud Shojaei , to acquire his services for the next season. The problem remains the player’s salary demand in which Real Valladolid is negotiating to reduce.  The strong point of the negotiations is that the player intends to continue his career as a player in the top division in Spanish. Shojaei has offers from  Arab leagues, but prefers to remain in Spain . Valladolid aims to get Shojaei to supplement the Spanish midfielder  Oscar Javier González Marcos “Oscar” , allowing the Spaniard some rest before start of the next season , given the problems he has to regain fitness after injury caused the end of  last season .