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Queiroz contract is renewed ; FFIRI claims !

Abdul Kazem Taleghani, a member of the Football Federation Executive Committee, claimed that Queiroz's contract has been extended to the AFC Asian Cup 2019, and there is hope that the Team Melli head coach's contract will be extended to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Mehdi Taj has long claimed that the federation will continue to co-operate with the Portuguese coach, while foreign media reports indicate the end of the partnership between Queiroz and the Iranian Football Federation. Carlos Queiroz, however, left Tehran to Lisbon without any comments on the subject matter, thus strongly strengthening the speculation about the end of the long partnership with Iranian football.

Abdul Kazem Taleghani, in an interview with ISNA, briefed the news agency about the Executive Committee's meeting of the Football Federation. When asked about Queiroz's contract and the willingness of Queiroz to continue  working with the national team, he said " through Mahdi Taj. we have learned that his (Queiroz) contract has been extended and everything that he (Mehdi Taj) tells us is a proof as far as we are concerned (...). . As far as I know, the contract is valid until the AFC Asian Cup 2019, but I hope it will be extended to 2022 and he will be in the Qatar World Cup."

Taleghani continued "Mahdi Taj is has the full authority in negotiating with Queiroz , and we support his decisions because we trust his judgment bout the national team."

The FFIRI board member was asked when will Queiroz return to Iran  "Mr. Saket is in charge of Team Melli m he is Carlos Queiroz direct boss. Although he has just been on vacation and now needs to rest."

The merry go around or the cat and mouse game between Queiroz and Iran's Football Federation has been on going for years. Queiroz has mastered the politics of Iranian football and has successfully navigated all the crises, much of it were started by himself. His popularity amongst the fans is on the rise and he is fully taking advantage of that. On the rise are also his contractual demands and his fierce attacks on his opponents, mainly but not limited to , Branko Ivankovic.  His demand is very clear, either a 4 years contract extension or he will pack his bags and leave.

Ali Kaffashian investigated by FFIRI Ethics Committee

The former President of FFIRI and the AFC Vice-President was summoned by the Football Federation Ethics Committee.

According to ISNA, the issue of broadcasting rights was refered to to the Ethics Committee after the discovery of some irregularities. This will be the second time that the proceeding is opened in regards to Team Melli's matches in the preliminary qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 against Guam, Turkmenistan, India and Oman in which, the former President of the Football Federation and current vice president has been accountable.

While the TV broadcast rights company MP & SILVA, as a football federation contractor, claims that they have paid $ 79,000  (totaling $ 316,000) to the football federation FFIRI for each of these games, documents of the federation does not reflect this fact and no record exists of the payment!

Accordingly, Ali Kaffashian, the head of the Football Federation's at the time was ordered by the Ethics Committee, to submit these records to the committee.

Blatter & Kaffashian

 In his first appearance at the Ethics Committee, Kaffashian promised to submit the documents, but despite the passage of more than five months from that first hearing, he had not presented any documents yet, so the Ethics Committee ordered him to appear again before the committee on Wednesday to present the documents.

Ali Kaffashian (63 years) was the President of FFIRI for two terms from 1st March 2008 to 7th May 2016. He was succeeded by Mehdi Taj the incumbent President.

Queiroz leaves Tehran without signing contract extension.

Team Melli head coach, Carlos Queiroz left Tehran to Lisbon, without signing a contract extension after the expiry of the current one with FFIRI.

In the media at least, the FFIRI hierarchy have expressed their confidence that the Portuguese coach  will sign on the dotted line to extend his contract until the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019. This would have been a six month extension while Queiroz has been demanding a 4 year contract.

After the highly succesful performance in the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, the second tournament that Queiroz has succeeded to qualify with Iran, it was believed that Queiroz will focus on negotiation with the Football Federation on his contract, but instead, the Team Melli head coach spent most of his time and energy in trash talking and attacking the Persepolis coach in a repeat performance of the last few months. He has also been highly critical of the federation administrators and lack of support for Team Melli from the government.

No official announcement has been published by the FFIRI on the subject

Iran grouped with North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Myanmar in Asian Games football competition.

Jakarta: Iran will face DPR Korea, the 2014 silver medalists,  Saudi Arabia, and Myanmar in Group F of the upcoming Asian Games 2019

Defending champions Korea Republic will have Bahrain, Kyrgyz Republic and Malaysia for company in Group F of men's football at the 2018 Indonesia Asian Games draw in Jakarta on Thursday. Hosts Indonesia, meanwhile, drew Hong Kong, Laos and Chinese Taipei in Group A.

The U-23 tournament, which allows each country to field three overage players, will see 24 teams vying for honours.

Group B has Thailand, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh and Qatar, while Group C will see 2014 bronze medalists Iraq, China PR, Timor-Leste and Syria.

Japan were the seeded team in Group D and they were drawn with Vietnam, Pakistan and Nepal.

The top two teams in each group along with the four best 3rd placed teams will advance to the Round of 16.

Men's football will be contested on August 14 to September 1 in Jakarta and Palembang.

Iran failed to qualify from group stage in last tournament in Incheon Games 2014. After winning a record 4 gold medal in football competition, the last of which was in 2002 in Busan, Iran won the bronze in Doha games 2006 and the fourth rank in Guangzhou in 2010. This time, the U23 team is coached by Kranjcar who has a good insight into Iranian football and a good track record with Sepahan Esfahan club.

Sohrab Bakhtiyarizadeh and Reza Shahroudi both ex-Team Melli player assist Kranjcar in training the team whil the Manager is Hamid Estili.    

Asian Game Men Football

All time medal winners

Year Host Final Third Place
Gold Medal Score Silver Medal Bronze Medal Score Fourth Place
1951 details India  New Delhi, India India 1–0 Iran Japan 2–0 Afghanistan
1954 details Philippines Manila, Philippines Republic of China 5–2 South Korea Burma 5–4 Indonesia
1958 details Japan Tokyo, Japan Republic of China 3–2 South Korea Indonesia 4–1 India
1962 details Indonesia Jakarta, Indonesia India 2–1 South Korea Malaya 4–1 South Vietnam
1966 details Thailand Bangkok, Thailand Burma 1–0 Iran Japan 2–0 Singapore
1970 details Thailand Bangkok, Thailand Burma South Korea 0–0 aet1 India 1–0 Japan
1974 details Iran Tehran, Iran Iran 1–0 Israel Malaysia 2–1 North Korea
1978 details Thailand Bangkok, Thailand North Korea South Korea 0–0 aet China PR 1–0 Iraq
1982 details India New Delhi, India Iraq 1–0 Kuwait Saudi Arabia 2–02 North Korea
1986 details South Korea Seoul, South Korea South Korea 2–0 Saudi Arabia Kuwait 5–0 Indonesia
1990 details China Beijing, China Iran 0–0 aet (4–1) pen North Korea South Korea 1–0 Thailand
1994 details Japan Hiroshima, Japan Uzbekistan 4–2 China PR Kuwait 2–1 South Korea
1998 details Thailand Bangkok, Thailand Iran 2–0 Kuwait China PR 3–0 Thailand
2002 details South Korea Busan, South Korea Iran 2–1 Japan South Korea 3–0 Thailand
2006 details Qatar Doha, Qatar Qatar 1–0 Iraq Iran 1–0 aet South Korea
2010 details China Guangzhou, China Japan 1–0 United Arab Emirates South Korea 4–3 Iran
2014 details South Korea Incheon, South Korea South Korea 1–0 aet North Korea Iraq 1–0 Thailand
2018 details Indonesia Jakarta and Palembang,
*Under-23 tournament since 2002.

Faghani ensures Iran's presence in the FIFA World Cup 2018

Alireza Faghani has been awarded his third FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 match.

The top Iranian referee will be in the centre of the action for the match between Argentina and France in round 16 of the competition. Faghani has already refereed two matches in the tournament.

In both his showing , the 40 years old Faghani, who was born on 21 March 1978 in Kashmar, a city near Mashhad, delivered excellent performance in the two difficult matches. Faghani would be refereeing his 4th ex FIFA World Cup winners when the likes of Messi and Pogba meet in Kazan on 30th June.

2018 FIFA World Cup – Russia
Date Match Venue Round
17 June 2018  Germany –  Mexico Moscow Group stage
27 June 2018  Serbia –  Brazil Moscow Group stage
30 June 2018  France –  Argentina Kazan Round of 16

Faghani became a FIFA referee in 2008, only a year after officiating in the top flight league in Iran. soon after Faghani moved up the ladder quite rapidly in Asia. After only one year of international experience Faghani took charge of the 2009 AFC President's Cup Final played between Regar-TadAZ Tursunzoda and Dordoi-Dynamo Naryn which was won 2–0 by the hosts. A year later he was again in charge of a final but this time it was a much more important final in the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup where the winner qualified for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

He was named as the fourth referee for the opening match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup between Brazil and Croatia. He also refereed the 2014 AFC Champions League Final first leg match between Al-Hilal and Western Sydney Wanderers. Faghani was one of the officials of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, refereeing his first match in Group B between Saudi Arabia and China that ended 0–1. Faghani awarded Saudi Arabia a penalty kick but Naif Hazazi missed it.

He reached a significant milestone when he was awarded the refereeing of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup Final, between South Korea and Australia. Faghani was the referee in the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup Final between Club Atlético River Plate and FC Barcelona. Perhaps even more important milestone  was the 2016 Olympic football final match between host Brazil and Germany.

Faghani was referee in six matches of the 2017 Liga 1 in Indonesia and two matches of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. In the semi final match between Portugal and Chile he caused controversy by not calling a penalty on Chile's favor, refusing to use the recently implemented Video assistant referee.

Mahdavikia "I Am quite hopeful that Team Melli will qualify. We must restrain Ronaldo."

The former Iranian Team Melli player who traveled to Russia to watch Iran and Spain play, commented favorably on the team's performance and said: "So far, we have been very good and I hope like all the people of Iran, that we do qualify for the next round this time.”

Mahdi MahdaviKia, speaking to Mehr correspondent, said: "We have bagged three points with the win against Morocco and we still stand a chance of qualification, all depending on the last round. The vital match was the one against Morocco, which, thankfully, we won.”

He said: "We have defended absolutely from the beginning of the match. This cannot be denied and from the perspective of those who follow international football, it was a 9 man defense. But after conceding the goal where we needed to attack, we went ahead and played an admirable game. In fact, we showed that there is potential in the offensive line and we can create dangerous attacking moves.”

The former midfielder was positive and confident about Portugal game: "We will hopefully win that game. It is a hard task to achieve, but it is not beyond us. We can do it”

MahdaviKia spoke about the widely covered criticism of the national team's defensive style: "Many say they play defensively, it is a legitimate strategy, but in the second half of the game with Spain we have also displayed the potential for attack. We excelled up front when we needed to"

The former midfielder of Team  Melli who scored Iran’s goal against the United States in the 1998 World Cup in France also commented on the criticism directed at Sardar Azmoun’s performance: "There are critics everywhere in the world. Those who criticize must know what role the coach wanted him to play. Some players seem to perform below expectations, but the same player on the pitch would have done an excellent job of what the coach has asked him to do. I think all Team Melli players played well and surpassed expectations. This is the quality that we have at the moment, we can’t ask for something that is beyond their capabilities.”

MahdaviKia commented on Cristiano Ronaldo's facing Iranian defense “Portugal's biggest strength is this player who has scored 4 goals for Portugal , in fact all their goals. But it is football, and a team is a set of players it is a team game. For example, you see, Messi cannot do everything by himself, he needs his teammates support. If we need to win then we have to restrain Ronaldo so we can qualify by achieving the desired result.”

Iran and Portugal will face each other FIFA Russian World Cup on Monday. With two players missing from Portugal training session today.

Portuguese players Joao Moutinho and Raphael Guerreiro both missed the team training session today.

According to the news, Moutinho is suffering from cold while Guerreiro has a knock on one of his legs and therefore were absent and did not attend Portuguese training..

Taj "8 preparation matches will be arranged for Asian Cup 2019"

The Football Federation's President has mentioned that Team Melli head coach is demanding 8 games to prepare his team for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup to be held in the UAE in January.

Mehdi Taj, who had recently recovered from a stroke, said: "I feel that the best thing that the Football Federation could do is to extend the contract of Carlos Queiroz and equip the building Peck that had been available to IFMPK for some time," . The building was a strong support for the national team. Also, Team Melli jersey is of the highest quality available in the market. Another thing we succeeded to do was to charter a special plane for Team Melli travels before and during the World Cup. The Football Federation did not care about the side issues that are commonplace around the world, and it only focused on the best preparation of the national team. In this regard, all the clubs and football teams helped, and this resulted in the good display of Team Melli at the World Cup in Russia. We hope to see another excellent performance from the team in the third game.”

Commenting on his meeting with Soltanifar , Taj said "We had a meeting with the Minister of Sports and Youth, the subject of which was the planning for the third game,"

“To know what needs to be done and how to best prepare. We must also analyze and review all possible scenarios , results and outcomes on equal basis. The second round of negotiations with the minister was the Asian Cup. We need to have a training camp in the UAE, and eight preparation games to be arranged as recommended by Queiroz prior to the tournament. We are planning on this issue today and we have the support of the Ministry of Sports and Youth. I hope we can pass through the Asian Cup with full marks”.

Carlos Queiroz has indicated that he does not wish to continue with Iran after the World Cup 2018. His main grievances with the federation are lack of proper preparation and lack of quality facilities for the team. Queiroz has been given many false promises by the head of the FFIRI, both the current one, Taj and the former Kaffashian.

It remains to be seen if Queiroz will fall in the trap again and extend his contract or pack his bags and leave calling it a day with FFIRI.

Iran is in Group D of the AFC Asian Cup 2019 alongside Iraq, Vietnam and Yemen.

We are proud of you.

Editorial

It was arguably the best performance that an Iranian team has displayed in a World Cup, perhaps only challenged by that glorious win against USA in Lyon in 1998.

Carlos Queiroz displayed a masterclass in coaching a young team against the icons of world football. Spain. The land of Real Madrid and Barcelona, the World Champions, European champions and the richest country in football.

Like him or hate him, Carlos Queiroz is a genius and has no fear of any team in the world including the best of them. When his team defends, it is a bastion, a fortress which was only broken by a fortuitous goal. When the teams intend to attack, like they did after conceding the goal, they are real threats.

Vahid Amiri’s bamboozling of Gerard Pique and leaving him for dead, after he slipped the ball between the legs of the Barcelona defender, perhaps highlighted the ability and the skill of the Team Melli players.

The disallowed goal by Saeid Ezatolahi, which was rightly called by the help of the VAR, was a huge disappointment and heartbreaking moment especially after the wild celebrations, however what followed and the chances that the Team Melli boys created, endeared this young and brave team. There was no shame in losing so narrowly to the mighty Spaniards, no shame at all. It was a performance full of grit and passion. It was a winning performance, but shame about the result. Iran deserved better.

Kudos to Team Melli players for a fine performance that will linger in the memories of the fan and critics for long time to come. Kudos to Carlos Queiroz, a brave man by all meanings of the word, for putting confidence in a 22 years old rookie with 3 caps in the center of defense in a World Cup match against a title contender and a World Cup champion. And the icing on the cake was the excellent performance of the boy, Majid Hosseini, who delivered and hardly put a foot wrong.

Regardless to the result versus Portugal, which the fans of course dearly like to see a repeat performance, the team and the coach have already done us proud.

Billboard in support of Team Melli changed to include women

A billboard in Iran which supported the nation's World Cup team has been replaced after it was criticised for not featuring any women.

The previous billboard, in Tehran, showed men of different ethnicitiescelebrating around a trophy.

It has been replaced with a different design in which several women are visible standing side-by-side with men.

A line next to the image reads in Persian: "Together we are champions: one nation, one heartbeat."

The original billboard caused uproar, with the front page of the Qanun newspaper carrying an image with the caption 'We lose without women'.

Social media users in Iran criticised what they saw as implied gender discrimination by excluding women from the picture.

Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, women have not been allowed inside sporting venues.

In April, several women disguised themselves as men so they could watch their team, Persepolis, play rivals Sepidrood at the Azadi stadium in Tehran.

The authorities have cancelled a plan to allow women to watch the national team's World Cup matches on a big screen in Tehran's Azadi Stadium.

The Iranian females athletes have won many medals in different sports including Asian & Olympics Games. The latest achievement was the Iran female futsal team which won the continental crown after beating japan in the final.

Last minute narrow win for Iran in the World Cup vs Morocco.

An own goal in the 95th minute saw Iran beat Morocco 1-0 on Friday in Group B play at the 2018 World Cup. In the opener for both teams, the match looked destined for a draw in what was an entertaining and open game, but Aziz Bouhaddouz came on in the second half, tried to defend a late set piece and headed it into his own net:

It was a heartbreaking for Morocco as they were more active and solid during the match but also wasteful in front of goal and paid for it in the end.  Team Melli on the other hand was slightly nervous and could not display its normal smooth flowing football.

Sardar Azmoun wasted a golden chance to put Iran when he was sent through by the dynamo Omid Ebrahimi. Azmoun had only the keeper to beat but his shot was easily saved by the advancing Munir in the Morocco goals.

And as a result, Morocco are likely to be eliminated from the World Cup with Spain and Portugal still left on the slate. Meanwhile, Iran has its second win in World Cup history, and first since beating the United States in 1998. One more win over either Spain or Portugal and they'll likely be through to the knockout stage for the first time ever.

The Moroccans could not penetrate the defence although there were a few close calls. When they did from long-range , Biranvand with full stretch save d the day for Team Melli.

It was a historic day for Masoud Shojaei. He is the only player who has played for Iran in 3 different World Cups , 2006, 2014 and 2018