Year: 2014

Effect of TV blackout on Team Melli

With the TV black out of football matches in Iran after the dispute between FFIRI and the official broadcaster IRIB over broadcast rights, no matches was transmitted live last week and it seems that the confrontation between the two parties will prolong even further.

Perhaps many fans will be upset by this blackout, however this could send more of them to watch the matches in the stadium, although only 5000 fans turned out to watch Persepolis in Azadi last game which was blacked out. Amongst the stakeholders who will be hurt by this TV black out is Team Melli coaching staff headed by Carlos Queiroz.

The Portuguese has not been much of a fan of domestic football and does not value the Iranian league much. His appearances in Azadi to watch matches are quite rare and in one or two cases he was even caught off yawing or dozing during the matches. However, Queiroz always claims that his assistants are always collecting videos of the matches for analysis or attend in person to look for new talents.

With the lack of TV coverage, Queiroz assistants need to be hyper active to watch the matches across Iran, something that seems to be out of reach for the coaches in practical terms.

While some critics are alarmed that Queiroz and his team of assistants will be deprived of watching up and coming players for Team Melli, there are others that believe that the TV black out will not affect Team Melli at all as Queiroz will stick to his old guard of tried and trusted players. Those would be the players he took to the World Cup. Inclusion of the new faces for the Portugal camp was just a cosmetic operation as it is hardly improbable that Queiroz will make a major change in his lines up, according to the other camp.

“In Iran, experience and reputation supersedes education and qualifications. “ Afazeli said.

Human Afazeli, who was the Technical Manager of the Omid Team that has miserably failed in Asian Games 2014 Incheon, said that one of the biggest hurdles in Iran, and not just in football, is that the society favors , trusts and accepts people with experience and reputation on those who are educated ,  qualified and professionals in their job.

“This type of mentality will remain a big hurdle against development and progress, since we are not utilizing the competence, scholarship and the qualification that is dearly required to successfully accomplish the tasks. Instead we chose to appoint people with experience and reputation without necessarily having the qualifications for the job. Such appointments lead to a lot of trial and error situations which we are experiencing right now in Iran’s football.  There is no guarantee of success, quality & standards or even continuity”

 As an example, Afazeli mentioned the appointment of Ali Karimi and Mehdi Mahdavikia to National teams’ managerial or coaching positions as proof of such concept that prevails in Iran. Afazeli said “utilizing and taking advantage of the popularity of those ex-Team Melli players would lead to many experts shying away from criticizing such appointments. No one dares to mention any reference to the suitability, qualification and competency of such appointments.”

Afazeli said that both Karimi and Mahdavikia have taken risks. “Without knowing if Ali Karimi is going to be a good coach or not , or even if he has any real intent or interest in coaching , he was dragged into Team Melli coaching team. This could bounce back in his face if the team fails, which is exactly the case with Mahdavikia”

The former assistant coach to Branko Ivankovic in Team Melli and expert match analyst added “The warning bells were there for a long time, but we failed to realize or act. “Group sports are disappearing and so are the spaces for practicing. Football being the main sport has lost quite a large of space and areas to practice and play in our cities. I think in a few years’ time, with the lack of foresight, we might face a real disaster in our football.”

Afazeli said that he put his thoughts forward to Ali Kaffashin in regards to Team Omid (Olympic Team ) failure , but the head of FFIRI had a completely different vision and mentality. Afazeli said that he realized that they are in two different planets which lead him to shake hands with Kaffashian in full respect and resign his position in the federation.

Human Afazeli was the Technical Manager of U-23 team and member of the FFIRI Technical committee. Ali Karimi has been appointed by Carlos Queiroz as assistant coach without any experience or qualification as a coach at any level. Mehdi Mahdavikia has been accompanying youth level teams in the capacity of advisor and mentor without being involved in  technical details. 

Mehrdad Pooladi saved by FIFA !

The enigma of Mehrdad Pooladi and his failure to sign for a club was revealed at last.

Pooladi , who was Iran’s best player in FIFA World Cup 2014 according to figures and performance statistics, has failed to sign for a club since his contract with Persepolis expired at the end of last season.

It seems that whole problem preventing  Al Shahaniya , who had Pooladi in the top of their shopping list , from signing Team Melli’s left back was the refusal by FFIRI to issue an ITC despite Pooladi being a free agent and out of contract.

In an official statement by FFIRI published in their website, the federation announced that it has received a request from Qatar FA on 20th of September 2014 for the issue of International Transfer. Certificate (ITC) for Mehrdad Pooladi upon the request of  QSL club Al Shahaniya Club of Doha. FFIRI refused to issue the ITC because of Military Service commitment by Pooladi !

As per the FIFA regulation governing the transfer of players, if the original country of issuance failed to produce the ITC without providing a valid reason(s), then after 15 days the player may join his desired team without requiring an ITC while the FA that refused to issue the ITC in the first place has no legal right to that player.

In what seems to be another of those weird twists of the wonderful football administration of Iran, the interference of the football federation in a governmental task is immediately put under scrutiny. The question that would be asked by anyone with an average level of intelligence is, what has FFIRI , an NGO as Kaffashian likes to always brag about, has got to do with the Military service requirement of a player , which is purely government official business?

Time and Time again, FIFA has warned, suspended, sanctioned many of its FA members across the world because of government interference in football. Iran was one such country that was suspended right after the 2006 World Cup as the government forced the head of FA at the time , Mohammad Dadkan to leave his office, citing unsatisfactory results in the FIFA World Cup 2006 !!!

Masoud Shojaei along with Mehrdad Pooladi in the signing ceremony

It seems that FFIRI are not heeding the warnings and have yet to fully comprehend the risks of government interference in any shape, a taboo as far as FIFA is concerned. The government of Iran has the power , the tools , the procedures and the legal means to deal with the players who have escaped the military service, the Football Federation has no right to act as an agent of the government and refuse to issue ITC for a player because Pooladi has an issue with military service. To complicate the matters even more, one must ask, where has the FFIRI been all these years since 2006 when Pooladi started with Peykan Esteghlal, Tractorsazi , Mes Kerman , and now Persepolis? The answer was nicely provided by FFIRI themselves when an official responded to media questions and stated that FFIRI is not to be blamed for the latest problems of fake certificates because it does not have the tools nor the legal power to ascertain the validity of a player’s military service status. That is of course quite a valid point and a genuinely true statement, but refusing to issue an ITC for Pooladi is a direct contradiction to this statement and playing with fire as far as FIFA regulations are concerned. When FFIRI does not have the tools, the information and the legal power, why is it refusing to issue an ITC based on a military matter ?

Mehrdad Pooladi officially joined Al Shahaniya of Qatar Star League (QSL) to join his team Melli teammate Masoud Shojaei as the second Iranian in the team.

The team will be playing against Umm Salal who has Pejman Montazeri in their line up on Thursday. Al Shahaniya is currently two places above the relegation zone of the QSL with 4 points from 5 games.

Asian Icons: Ali Karimi

AFC Player of the Year 2004, Ali Karimi, who recently announced the end of his compelling playing career, kicks-off the first of the-afc.com’s ‘Asian Icons’ series as we build up to the AFC’s 60th Anniversary celebrations in November by profiling the individuals and incidents that have impacted on the Asian game over the years.

The charismatic Karimi will undoubtedly go down as one of Iran’s greatest footballers who, on his day, could dazzle Iranian and Asian football fans with his silky passing, unbelievable imagination and light feet as he orchestrated attacks for club and country.

Standing proudly alongside other Iranian football legends such as former team-mates Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Karim Bagheri, Karimi is third in the all time Team Melli scoring chart with 38 goals from 127 matches in an international career that was not without its tensions as major disagreements between strong personalities were not uncommon in Iranian football over the years.

Top scorer as Iran finished third at the 2004 AFC Asian Cup, Karimi has also helped Team Melli win the 1998 Asian Games gold, two WAFF Championships and a 2003 AFC/OFC Challenge Cup title in which he scored twice in a 3-0 win over New Zealand and was named MVP.

The Karaj-born attacking midfielder was even more successful at club level and after winning two league titles with Persepolis and two UAE Cups with Al Ahli, Karimi followed in the footsteps of compatriots Bagheri, Daei, and Mahdavikia and made the move to the German Bundesliga.

Karimi, nicknamed ‘the Asian Maradona’ by fans in Iran, won the 2005/06 league and cup double with Bayern Munich before winning his second DFB Cup winner’s medal with Schalke 04 following a brief spell back in Germany in 2011 following a stint in Qatar with Qatar Sports Club and Al Siliya and two seasons back in Iran with Steel Azin.

Karimi-Ali-Kahn-Bayern

After his second stint in Germany Karimi returned to Persepolis for a third stint at the Tehran giants before calling time on an illustrious career that spanned almost two decades at his final club Tractorsazi Tabriz, where he had a final cameo appearance on Asian club football’s biggest stage, the AFC Champions League

Behzadi and Daei guest of honors in AFC 60th anniversary celebrations.

Homayoun Behzadi and Ali Daei have been invited by the Asian Football Confederaion to represent Iran in the 60th anniversary celebrations of the organization.

The AFC was founded in Manila 60 years ago on May 8, 1954. The AFC Annual Awards in November  will provide the perfect platform for the celebrations, AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has stated on several occasions.

Around 500 dignitaries from around the globe will attend this historic event and several AFC Standing Committees will meet on the sidelines of the function. AFC has appointed PFF President Mariano Araneta as the Chairman of the anniversary celebrations committee.

 

Team Melli wins against Benfica

Lisbon: Team Melli , currently on a training camp in Portugal , defeated Benfica reserve team 1-0 in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

The match , played in mid morning , was the second and the last match in the camp . Sardar Azmoun scored Iran’s only goal from a header after a cross from Andranik Teymourian.

The match was conducted in an unusual format. The Games went on for 60 minutes in the first half followed by a break then another 30 minutes . Both sides rotated their complete squad in the match.

First half line up was : Alireza Haghighi (30′ Mohsen Frouzan) , Vourya Ghafouri, PejmanMontazeri, Mehrdad Pooladi , Amir Hossein Sadeghi,Omid Ebrahimi, Sourosh Rafei , Andranik Teymourian ,AliReza Jahanbakhsh , , Masoud Shojaei, SardarAzmoun

In the second half , the team was completely changed as the line-up were the following. Alireza Biranvand , Jalal Hosseini, Khosro Heydari, Hashim Beigzadeh, Ehsan Haj Safi, Vahid Amiri, Ahmad Abdullah Zadeh, , Morteza Pouraliganji ,   Ashkan Dejagah, Karim Ansarifard , Reza Ghoochannejhad

Captain , Javad Nekounam was the only player who did not play due to flu.

 

The team will return back to Tehran from tonight in two groups.

The theater of Team Melli bench.

Javad Nekounam and Farhad Majidi are the latest to be named or nominated by the Portuguese coach of Team Melli as his assistants.

While the idea off adding national or Iranian coaches to Team Melli coaching staff cadre, is always appealing and productive exercise for many reasons. The way that Queiroz is going about it, though, certainly raises many questions about his intents and objectives. The real objective is far from clear; what Queiroz offered was a general statement that boils down to him using the experience of these players in the field.

A deeper look into the names that Queiroz has selected instantly raises suspicions of playing the popularity game. Call it the attraction of support of the fans of Persepolis and Esteghlal. Iran is a famous bipolar football nation. The two most popular teams in Iran are Esteghlal and Persepolis and the rest are quite a distance away from the two.  In the absence of a proper statistics to give an accurate figure on the level of support, it is generally believed that a figure of 85% or there about is the level of support for these two Tehrani  team, the other 15% is distributed amongst other clubs such as Tractorzasi Tabriz, Sepahan Esfahan , Foolad Khuzestan and the rest.

It is no secret that Team Melli is going through a soft patch with support dwindling alarmingly.  Fans are not turning up for matches in Azadi. The greatest football venue in Asia which was once feared by the opposing players for the sheer volume of support is becoming a cozy and quiet place for some fans.  (see the dwindling fans o Azadi). Since Queiroz took over, only 41% of Azadi’s capacity has been occupied by fans far cry from the older days where a 100,000 capacity was the norm for Team Melli official matches.

So, what is better than having the icons of the two popular clubs sitting beside Queiroz in a match to attract the fans back to Azadi?

There is other logical reason for an experienced and wily coach like Querioz to select two persons that have just finished their career at footballers on a low note as his assistants to work alongside him. In football, like many other trades and industry, there is something called Qualification and experienced that is the ultimate criteria for selection for a particular job. Neither of the two or even Nekounam are either qualified or experienced as coaches. Queiroz is re-inventing the wheels, it seems, but going at it in the wrong manner.

If selecting an Iranian coach was the real motive, then there are quite a few candidates that are available whose selection would not have made a dent in Queiroz’s reputation. The recently retired (if that is Queiroz’s criteria)  Vahid Hashemian was a glorious opportunity for the Portuguese. He is as accomplished as the players that Queiroz pinned out if not even more, he has plenty of European experience playing at the highest level, and recently completed a German Coaching class, which is recognized globally as one of the best in the business. On top of that , Hashemian already has a coaching experience in the lower tier of the German Bundesliga.

However, Hashemian is not the politically correct candidate. He is not red or blue but a graduate of the school of Pas club. A Great club without any shadow of doubt but nowhere near the popularity of the big two. So , Vahid Hashemian, would have been the perfect candidate to assist Queiroz technically and on man-relation basis, but Queiroz is not after that, it seems. He does not need technical advice. He has a track record of repelling Iranian coaches, so technical interference in his work is not an option if Karimi ever thinks he is wanted.

With all the best intent in the world, Queiroz could regret the selection of Ali Karimi, a controversial and outspoken character. Karimi has never been known for his diplomacy or mild manner. As much as he made fans on the stands, he has made enemies with those he dealt with from coaches to manager and teammates.   It remains to be seen what sort of role Karimi is given. Whether his role in Team Melli will be restricted to distributing and collecting the jerseys of players in the pre-match warm up  or given an active technical role , a highly unlikely option with Queiroz, Karimi’s endurance with Team Melli will be an interesting test.

Unlike some of the Iranian assistants before him like Omid Namazi and Majid Saleh who came and gone with conspicuous silent and fear of talking or revelation of truth, Karimi will be quite vocal ,  fearless and daring if he is upset by something or someone, especially if he feels that he is being manipulated.

 

 

[box title=”

Home matches attendances under Queiroz

” style=”bubbles” box_color=”#eaee3d” title_color=”#0f0d0d” radius=”5″] Team Melli Home matches under Queiroz The Portuguese coach started his reign in Azadi with a friendly against Madagascar. Only 12,000 fans turned out for the match. Subsequently, the attendance for the friendly matches declined rapidly.

The reasons for this decline was put to the low standard of the team and poor selection of opposing teams. Iran selected teams to play which were well below its ranking in FIFA and not to well known for the Tehrani fans. The official matches’ attendance managed to keep some respectable figure with near full capacity in two matches. Those were the FIFA World Cup qualifiers which globally are recognized as the most important competition in the world. [/box]

 

 

Competition Matches Total Attn. Max Capacity Attn %
Friendly 5 49,000 425,000 11.5%
World Cup Qlfy 8 550,100 800000 68.8%
Asian Cup Qlfy 3 72063 300000 24.0%

 

AFC U-19 Championship MD3: Myanmar 0-2 Iran

Yangon: Host nation Myanmar edged into the AFC U-19 Championship quarter-finals as Group A runners-up despite losing 2-0 to already eliminated Iran at Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium on Monday, qualifying courtesy of a better goal difference than Yemen who lost 3-2 to Thailand in the other Group A clash played in Nay Pyi Taw.

Iran rang the changes, making five alterations to the line-up that were eliminated in the 1-0 loss to Yemen on Saturday, and it was the introduction of two of these new faces, Yousef Seyyedi and Sadegh Moharrami, that were key as they netted the goals for the West Asians on the 55th and 82nd minutes.

And although the home side looking nervously northwards towards Nay Pyi Taw, they were able to scrape into the knockout stage by the narrowest of margins with a one goal superior goal difference over Yemen.

“We are happy for our qualification but an easier opponent than Iran will not come,” said Myanmar’s coach Gerd Zeise.

“Our goalkeeper was our man of the match, he was very safe, very good, without him we would have been in trouble.
“On the right hand side we had some problems but who should I substitute? There is no one this is our disease, we have 11 good front line players then it is difficult, very difficult.”

Myanmar attacked from the start and in a manner that was full of energy but occasionally lacked control as displayed when Than Paing took the ball from the sideline and beat two Iran defenders for pace but let the ball get away from him, making it easy for goalkeeper Payam Niazmand to collect.

Iran finished the half strong, though, with a number of opportunities to open the scoring, and on the 36th minute Hossein Mehraban was left alone, unmarked, just outside the penalty area but could only hit the ball high over the crossbar under pressure from Myanmar defenders.

Early in the second half Ali Gholizadeh forced a fine 53rd minute save at the near post from Myanmar’s Myo Min Latt and from the resulting corner the custodian once again intervened to give Nanda Kyaw a chance to clear the ball off the line.

But the danger was only momentarily abated as the ball was played back into the box and Seyyedi finished clinically to put Iran into the lead five minutes before the hour-mark.

The game picked up its tempo from then on, though, and a header from Than Paing from a corner forced Niazmand into sound stop but the next attempted set-piece resulted in an Iran counter that saw Mehraban force yet another accomplished save from Myo Min Latt.

But Myanmar’s hopes of a comeback were quashed eight mintues from time, when the ball bounced free from a melee in the box and towards Moharrami who hit the ball low and hard across Myo Min Latt. The keeper got a glove to the ball but was only able to force it on to the inside of the post to give Iran their second.

Myanmar were then forced to endure a nervy final ten minutes with the news of Thailand’s spectacular comeback against Yemen filtering in, with the significance of the scoreline in Nay Pyi Taw meaning that conceding a third would have resulted in the hosts facing the possibility of elimination from the tournament.

To the relief of the players and their massed ranks of fans, though, they were able to hold out and will now face the winners from Group B on Friday; that opponent to be determined in Tuesday’s matchups.

“I was sure we could qualify with nine points, but it wasn’t to be,” said Iran coach Ali Doustimehr.

“I believe Myanmar have the coach, the players and the tactics to reach the semi-finals.”

Kaffashian “I am stunned and shocked.”

Ali Kaffashian , the head of FFIRI claims that he was absolutely shocked and stunned by Iran’s youth team (U-19) after the loss against Yemen and subsequent elimination from the competition at the group stage.

Iran lost 1-0 to Yemen and 2-1 in the first match against Thailand to remain pointless and hopeless for the next round of AFC Asian U-19 Championship 2014 held in Yangon, Myanmar.

“I was really stunned and shocked by what happened to the youth team . After the defeat against Yemen, I could hardly sleep”

Kaffashian said that the federation emphatically has done its utmost best to support this team. “The Youth team (U19) had a total of 260 days of training camp, Whatever the coaching team demanded, we genuinely tried to accommodate and have succeeded to high degree in providing the support. We supported this team to a level which was not possible with other teams. On top of all that , we have spent a total of 1.5 billion toman to prepare this team.”Mahdavikia 11-84

“To enhance our chances for the best representation of the country at this important level of world football, which we always considered as one of our priorities, we selected the best coaching staff available. Ali Doustimeher is acknowledged as the best coach at this level and he has achievements prove his track record. We also selected Rahim Meerakhori , another coach with extensive experience at this level of football, to work alongside Doustimehr. To complete the formula, Mehdi Mahdavikia was also inducted to help the coaches with his vast experience.” Kaffashian added.

“In general, we have covered all the areas and left no gaps. I am simply shocked at this result; I really am speechless why is this happening.  With all the support that this team has received, why did they get such poor result?  was it the players poor physical condition that did not respond well to the conditions? Did the team have technical difficulties? Whatever the reasons, we must find out.” Kaffashian said with a visible sorrow at what have occurred recently to youth level football.

“Don’t be surprised by the changes that will happen in the youth level teams. We have to act , this is simply NOT good enough. We will never switch off the lights in the federation, the financial and logistical support will continue for all age levels teams since the Asian competition is carried out every two years. We will create an absolutely new team and new players will be invited. We shall l waste no time in doing so.”

Kaffashian also announced that Carlos Queiroz will take a much more active role in youth level teams than he ever did previously. “We will establish a progress plan for all age levels football and particularly the U-23 or the Olympic team. We must qualify for the Rio Olympics, Queiroz and Vingada must work out a plan to produce a competent team that is able to qualify for the Olympics. They need to work well to achieve this.”

Kaffashian also said that changes in Management & administrations of of the youth team structures are imminent. He did not mention and changes in personnel at the higher levels of the federation.

Iran has failed to qualify to any FIFA Competitions at youth levels this year. Defeats in the U-14, U-16 and now the U-19 left the football federation and the team in a state of dismay and panic. The U-19 early exit seems to hurt the most as Iran is a five time title holder of this competition, while the Asian games (U-23) exit was as bad considering Iran’s four previous gold medals.

Team Melli starts the Portugal camp with a win.

Team Melli played its first of two test preparation matches this evening and managed to beat the Portuguese First Division club G.D. Estoril Praia of Portugal 2-0.

in post World Cup era , this is the first camp under Carlos Queiroz , based in Lisbon Portugal in preparation for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia  played its first test match , while Benfica will be the next opponent. Benfica will be fielding a depleted team or the reserves for the match against Team Melli next Tuesday.

Sardar Azmoun (50) and AliReza Jahanbakhsh (55) scored team Melli’s goals.
In this match , Queiroz tried to utilize all the players of the camp. That resulted in a rotation of players as each half saw the fielding of completely different lines ups.

Estoril is a small club from Lisbon that has surprised many in Portugal lat season and Qualified to Europa League. There highest profile player is Kléber who is on loan from Porto.

Team Melli line up in  the first half was : Alireza Haghighi, Vourya Ghafouri, Amir Hossein Sadeghi, Hashim Beigzadeh, Ehsan Haj Safi, Javad Nekounam, Omid Ebrahimi, Vahid Amiri, Ashkan Dejagah, Karim Ansarifard , Reza Ghoochannejhad

In the match , all the three goalkeepers available were given playing time. Haghighi played the first 30 minutes, followed by Mohsen Frouzan who also played 30 minutes and finally Alireza Biranvand.

In the second half , the team was completely changed as the line-up were the following.  Mehrdad Pooladi, PejmanMontazeri, Khosro Heydari, Ahmad Abdullah Zadeh,  AndranikTeymourian , Masoud Shojaei,AliReza Jahanbakhsh , SoroushRafiee, SardarAzmoun , Morteza Pouraliganji