Published August 24th, 2018 

Team Melli player Saman Ghoddos joined French football team Amiens from the Swedish side Ostersunds FK.

The 24-year-old player has joined the French side Amiens in a five-year contract.

Amiens President Bernard Joannin has confirmed the transfer, L'Equipe reported.

Amiens paid €4 million to sign Ghoddos.

Ghoddos is the first Iranian professional player to play in France Ligue 1. He played in all the three matches in FIFA World Cup 2018, however as a substitute.

Despite a brilliant run in the Europa league with his club including the dead at of mighty Arsenal in Emirates, which attracted the attention of major European clubs,  no serious offers were received for his services and instead Ghoddos elected the lowely French club.

Amiens has lost both of its matches this season and is in the bottom of the table with no points.

Iran lost to South Korea 2 -0 in the second round of the Asian Games 2018 Men football competetion to close a dark chapter in its history.

In the last match of the group, the team leadership instructed their players to throw the match against a weak Myanmar team to avoid meeting the powerful South Koreans in the next round. In a shameful display of football , the young Iranians played an amataurish orchestrated type of football that smelled of collusion and cheating.

As luck or karma would dictate even that loss by two goals against lowely Myanmar, did not save Iran from meeting the Koreans in the elimination rounds. It was a double whammy.

In another embaressing act and instead of admitting culpability and responsibility,  both Iranin administrators of the team, Hamid Estili and Reza Shahroudi in statements to the critical media, blamed the Saudi Arabian team for Iran's fate by accusing them of cheating against North Korea..!!!!!

The sad part is that both Estili and Sharoudi are from generation that has brought pride and glory to Iran's football, but as adminstrators and trainers, they have definately lost the plot.

In what is one of the darkest hours of Iran’s football history, the Olympic Team (Omid) lost to lowly Myanmar in the final match of Group F of the Asian Games 2018. The loss was in full intention and for unashamed purpose.

Myanmar, who had 1 point from a draw with North Korea, scored 2 goals against Iran in the second half and was so close to qualifying if they would have scored a third.

It is not the loss that was alarming, but a performance by 11 footballers full of deception, dishonestly, lack of sportsmanship and fraud. Not a single player in Iran team gave his best, while one of the young men, Mehdi Ghayedi thought he was Lionel Messi for the day by the way he was playing!

This was a profligate, wasteful .and complacent performance by Iran’s football. It was an insult to a nation which adores football and considers the players as heroes.

In this competition, the Asian Games , where Olympic Spirit and values are upheld, athletes should participate and try their best. Olympics seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

Iran football team displayed none of those by purposely seeking to drop the match in order for a better chance of qualification.

It the worst performance in every department, ethics, principles, skills, and effort(complete  lack of it)

In a gamble and orchestrated act by Team Manager Estili and Coach Kranjcar, both of them deserve to be stripped from their titles, the objective was to be lead the team for the ideal result which was to be second and hence avoid the South Korean team in the next round.

As Karma and justice would have it, not only Iran ashamedly lost to Myanmar by deception and cheating , the results of the other game, 3-0 win for North Korea over Saudi Arabia, meant Iran still lead the group while  Estili , Kranjcar and all other player who contributed to this fallacy and purposely lost the match, have be men enough and Face South Korea.

If they lose, they have t to pack their bags with head drops and leave the games and let true Iranian athletes like the wrestlers, weightlifters and the heroes of other sports , win medals with pride.

The Hypocrisy of Hamid Estili ,  describing the result of the North Koreans Saudi match as a collusion and conspiracy, was nothing short of comical and duplicity.

A black day in Iran’s football, indeed

Saudi Arabia and Iran's Olympic teams will be playing their final games on Monday on the hope of NOT topping their group in Asian games 2018. Both teams with identical results will not be too keen to fight to death to win Monday's matches.

Iran's Olympics National Team will meet with Myanmar's in the third and final  match of the group in the Asian Games Men football competition. Zlatcko Krancjar's boys have already won four points and are assured of qualifications with just 1 point. Iran is seeking to win that point against Myanmar, but to top the group , it needs a comprehensive win.

Nevertheless, the conditions at the knockout stage of the tournament are such that the Iranian national team does not have a good path to the finals, as the group's top team should face the second ranked team of Group E South Korea. Even a win against the powerful Koreans will result in Iran Olympics team more that likely to face Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks are leading the group comfortably and in the group stage they have scored six goals against Qatar, one of the best national teams in this age level in Asia.

Even Hamid Estilli, the Team Manager , in a recent interview emphasized that it would be better if the Iranian national team did not win the group and qualify second instead.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are currently in the first and second places because of the same points and goal differences. The Saudi’s ranked based on disciplinary counts that FIFA has introduced in the last World Cup. Saudi  yellow cards counts is lower than Iran.

Saudi Arabia will meet with North Korea with only one point against Myanmar, in their next match,

Because of the six grouping of the tournament, in addition to the leaders of the group, the top four  third place teams in the groups, will also qualify to the next round.

However, if the Iran Olympic team qualifies as second in their group, they will face one of the three teams in Thailand, Qatar or Bangladesh. That is a far cry from facing South Korea who has Heung-Min Son in the squad and are strong contender for the gold medal.

Iran Squad

Number	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Club
1	GK	Mehdi Amini(Captain)	16 May 1996 (22)	Paykan
2	DF	Mohammad Aghajanpour	20 Apr 1997 (21)	Padideh
3	DF	Mohammad Moslemipour	25 May 1997 (21)	Tractor Sazi
4	DF	Mehdi Rahimi	02 May 1999 (19)	Sepahan
5	DF	Alireza Arta	04 Feb 1997 (21)	Mes Kerman
6	MF	Mohammad Soltani Mehr	04 Feb 1999 (19)	Saipa
7	FW	Younes Delfi	02 Oct 2000 (17)	Esteghlal Khuzestan
8	FW	Mohammad Amin Asadi	24 Dec 1998 (19)	Persepolis
9	FW	Mohammad Mehdi Mehdikhani	26 Jul 1997 (21)	Padideh
10	FW	Mohammad Reza Azadi	07 Dec 1999 (18)	Tractor Sazi
11	FW	Mehdi Ghaedi	05 Dec 1998 (19)	Esteghlal
12	GK	Shahab Adeli	19 Jan 1997 (21)	Sepahan
13	DF	Abolfazl Razzaghpour	17 Sep 1997 (20)	Paykan
14	FW	Reza Jabireh	07 Jul 1997 (21)	Sanat Naft Abadan
15	FW	Ahmadreza Ahmadvand	02 Jun 1999 (19)	Esteghlal
16	FW	Amir Roostaei	5 Aug 1997 (21)	Paykan
17	FW	Sina Zamehran	10 Mar 1997 (21)	Padideh
18	DF	Shahin Abbasian	16 Jun 1997 (21)	Persepolis
19	MF	Mohammad Khodabandelou	07 Sep 1999 (18)	Paykan
20	DF	Aref Aghasi	02 Jan 1997 (21)	Foolad

France have climbed to the summit of a much-changed FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in the first edition of the global ladder since a new ranking formula took effect and Les Bleus became world champions.

Iran, regained its top ranking in Asia after a two months break while climbing 4 ranks up in the world at 32.

The formula, which was approved by the FIFA Council in June after a lengthy period of testing, relies on adding/subtracting points won or lost for a game to/from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time period as in the previous version of the Ranking. The changes, of which there are several, include the fact that inactive teams now preserve their point totals, with no devaluation of older games. Points are dropped, however, from losing or drawing against weaker opposition, with the only exception to this rule matches in knockout rounds of major competitions such as the FIFA World Cup™.

The most important thing about the new method is, of course, the table it yields, and in that respect August’s Ranking makes for spectacular reading. France (1st, up 6) provide the headline news, as they have reclaimed pole position for the first time in over 16 years, returning to a spot they last held in May 2002. Just three points, however, separate Les Bleus from Russia 2018 semi-finalists Belgium (2nd, up 1), while World Cup runners-up Croatia (4th, up 16) have equalled their record Ranking position, last reached in June 2013. Other big movers include Uruguay (5th, up 9), England (6th, up 6), Sweden (13th, up 11), and World Cup hosts Russia (49th, up 21).

Naturally, there are losses as well as gains, with previous leaders Germany (15th, down 14) among several sides to suffer for group-stage elimination in Russia. Poland (18th, down 10), Peru (20th, down 9) and Costa Rica and Iceland (joint-32nd, down 9 and 10 respectively) also slipped down the table on the back of disappointing World Cup campaigns.

AFC Top 10 Teams

FIFA Ranking August 2018

Asia	World	Team	Total Points	Previous Points	Change
1	32	IR Iran	1471(1471.19)	708	5
2	43	Australia	1431(1430.71)	718	-7
3	55	Japan	1392(1392.1)	521	6
4	57	Korea Republic	1387(1387.3)	544	0
5	70	Saudi Arabia	1336(1336.16)	465	-3
6	73	Syria	1328(1328)	440	0
7	75	China PR	1320(1320)	423	0
8	77	United Arab Emirates	1312(1312)	418	0
9	79	Lebanon	1304(1304)	411	0
10	84	Oman	1288(1288)	391	0

Much like they will probably do in the majority of their Premier League games this season, Man City have struck first - they have confirmed the signing of Daniel Arzani from Melbourne City.

Arzani , an Australian national of Iranian origin, was so close to play for Team Melli after Carlos Queiroz efforts to attract him. However, Australia picked Arzani for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2018, and Arzani responded to the call.

Despite the deal, it is not expected that Arzani would be playing a major role in the star-studded Man City squad lead by Guardiola. It is also possible that Arzani will be loaned to a lower tier club to get more playing tim , rather than be a peripheral  player in Manchester City.

This season English Premier League will have a  lone Team Melli player as well. Alireza Jahanbakhsh  wil be playing for Brighton. The season begins tomorrow when Manchester United host Leicester City.