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Possibility of an extra Asian team for the World Cup

FIFA has announced an extraordinary executive committee meeting for Saturday morning, the day after the election, where the allocation of World Cup places per continent for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the latter which is being played in Qatar, will be confirmed. UEFA's allocation seems most vulnerable to be cut -- it has 13 spots and with hosts Russia would have 14 in 2018. One scenario would be to say the 13 spots must include Russia's place, with the extra place shared out between CONCACAF and Asia meaning they no longer have to play off. FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb said he would welcome an extra half place for CONCACAF, adding: "I'd love it!", but admitted that UEFA's block vote of eight members on the 25-strong FIFA executive committee posed a problem. He said: "This is where the imbalance is. It's not based on sport, it's not based on merit, it's based on representation. That has created a lot of the problems we have in football today."+ Web , the president of the CONCACAF confederation of countries from the Caribbean, Central and North America, has publicly spoken against the proposal by Prince Ali to increase the World Cup to 36 teams. Webb said: "The World Cup is a jewel of football and, for me, you shouldn't increase the spaces in a World Cup for political reasons. You should increase the spaces in the World Cup because of the development of the game. Are we going to dilute the World Cup to appease various associations? "No, we must have real leadership and courage to stand up and address it.  

Three countries request to play World cup qualifying matches in Iran.

Due to security situation prevailing in their countries, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan have applied to the Iranian football federation and the government to play the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifying home games on Iranian soils. As Team Melli has its own schedule and since the matches are conducted on the same day in each round, complicated scheduling and arrangements have to be carried out in order to accommodate all the three countries request. All these countries are important political allies for Iran and the welcoming rug has been extended by the government, however, the logistics and timing will prevent the availability of the stadiums for 4 teams at the same time. Afghanistan is the first country to think of withdrawing its request to play on Iranian soils although it is the team that has the most fans in Iran. A recent youth tournament attracted over 90,000 Afghan fans in Azadi. Alireza Aghazadeh, the secretary of Afghanistan Football federation has said “The Iranian authorities and federation have been quite accommodating and welcomed our request. We know that Iraq and Syria have requested the same, so we need to be fair and look elsewhere. Syria is in our group which makes it even more complicated playing in Iran. We are looking at Tajikistan and UAE to host our matches.” Afghanistan will be hosting Syria in the first match. As yet, the venue has not been decided.

FFIRI complains to AFC about Turkmenistan venue change.

Ali Kaffashian has confirmed that his administration has lodged a written complaint with the AFC in regards to the venue change of the upcoming match between Turkmenistan and Iran.

The host Turkmenistan, Iran’s neighbor to the north, has moved the venue form the capital city Ashgabat to the third largest city  Daşoguz ,  600 miles north of the capital. This city is right on the boarder of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and farthest away from Iranian boarders.

The move is a ploy by the Turkmen in order to discourage Iranian fans from Khorasan and Golestan from travelling to attend the match and support Team Melli. The two teams will be meeting on 16th June in Group 'D' of the Asian Zone Qualifications round of the FIFA World Cup 2018.

Kaffashian said “We have told AFC that we cannot play at that venue and it has to be changed.” The president of FFIRI did not give any specific reasons for the request nor did he indicate if the AFC has responded to Iran’s request.

Meanwhile, the friendly match against Japan is still on according to Kaffashian. “We will play this game either in Oman or here in Tehran. We shall finalize that in due time.”

Commenting on Team Melli's training camp in Turkey, Kaffashian said it is 50-50. “We have to wait and see on that although our preference is to conduct that camp for the benefit of the team. In any case, there are no friendly matches arranged in Turkey.”

Kaffashian was speaking to reporters before his departure to Zurich to attend FIFA 61st General Assembly Congress.

dashoguz

Solutions for the goalkeeping calamity in Iran.

It is no shame to admit that the recently concluded league season, was one of the worst for the goalkeepers in Iranian teams. Some, like Dariush Esfandiari, even call it a tragedy.

Every single team in the Persian Gulf League suffered goalkeeping headaches, some worse than others. Persepolis lowly rank in the table which is one of its worst in the history is attributed to several factors but it was on the field that the team performed poorly especially at the defense and goalkeepers’ end. Sousha Makani has proven that he is inconsistent, unreliable and a keeper who cannot be trusted when called upon to deliver. On top of those erratic performances Makani is also quite poor in discipline, a player who has created numbers of incidents at the club. He was sacked from the team only to return back after a few kisses. His last match in the league, the Tehran Derby ,  resulted in 3 match suspension for his role in skirmishes at the end of the game.

Rahman Ahmadi

Whether it is fair or otherwise, many experts in Iran attribute Tractorsazi’s failure to win the league and poor performance in the AFC Asian Champions league to their goalkeeper Hamed Lak. Frankly, the keeper was dreadful in many crucial games and definitely cost his team some precious points. Putting all the blame on him is open to debate.

Alireza Biranvand
Alireza Biranvand

Alireza Biranvand, young, so promising and so confident when he came through the ranks, was as another huge disappointment for his side, Naft Tehran. Rahman Ahmadi was the no.1  Keeper for Team Melli after the dismissal of Seyed Mehdi Rahmati , but he soon flopped and lost his place in Team Melli while his repeated mistakes with his club Sepahan relegated him to reserve and the bench. Mohsen Frouzan had a torrid time in Esteghlal goal. Many hailed his arrival with the blues but he has shown little to raise the fans’ trust and confidence.

 Dariush Esfandiari , the goalkeeping coach  of Gostarish concurs to the fact that it was a “disastrous “ season for Iranian goalkeepers. His own team suffered quite badly like the rest. Esfandiari has some interesting thoughts on the reasons behind such failures by Iranian keepers.

“Much of the problem with goalkeepers stems from their demeanor, their personality and what is their mindset.   Goalkeeper need to act professionally and be trained by dedicated experts because they are the last wall of defense. If Keepers concede easy goals, the chances of the team winning would be minimized. No team can challenge for honors without a competent keeper.” Dariush Esfandiari commented.

 “There is obvious weakness at foundations level. Professional trainers need to be available for these keepers. Goalkeeper coaches must not be marginalized and not considered as peripherals in the team. I urge the federation to establish a program for the clubs to increase the level of competency and standards of Goalkeepers coaches in Iran. It is as important to do that at foundations levels, all the way to the seniors. I dare to say that it is even more important at foundations. This program has to be run with the aid of qualified professionals”

“We must utilize this opportunity to correct the situation else Iran will be facing a real disaster in this important post in the near future. This season was the alarm bell, it was loud and clear. The federation and clubs have to act to establish a competence program for goalkeepers. We can send Iranian coaches for specialized Goalkeepers coaching workshops. Turkey is a good place to start as they have some advance set ups there.”

Shamsaei refuses to accept Futsal team head coach appointment unless…!

 In less than 24 hours from his appointment as the head coach of the Iranian National Futsal team, Shamsaei has announced that he will not attend to his duty as the head coach unless certain conditions are met.

In an interview with Mehrnews , Shamasei expressed his anger and dismay at being designated as the caretaker Head coach of Team Melli, as stated by the head of the Futsal committee Seyed Reza Efitkhari. “I am not interested in this temporary job. I will only accept the job if it is permanent basis and the term is up the next FIFA Futsal World Cup in 2016.”

“|I am not going to run around and beg for the job, I am still committed to my team Tasisat Daryaei. There are certain condition that must be met for me to accept the job and for the a team to have a good chance of success . If these conditions are not met I am not going to turn it down.”

shamsaee vahid

Despite the fact that Reza Eftikhari claimed that appointment of Shamsaei has the blessing of President of the FFIRI, that seems to be far from the truth. Ali Kaffashian has denied that he gave his blessing to Shamsaei “Yes, we have discussed the appointment of the head coach for Futsal team but no specific names were put forward and I did not endorsed anyone” Ali Kaffashian said in a statement to the press.

On this subject, Vahid Shamsaei commented by saying “It is the full right of Kaffashian to say that my appointment is not finalized. In fact he is right, we have not reached a final agreement.”

Shamsaei admitted to Mehrnews sport reporter that his selection ahead of many more experienced coaches was unreasonable but claimed that he has taken the permission of some veteran coaches and personalities before accepting the job that he is now refusing to take !

In a related matter, Abbas Torabian added more fuel to fire in this embarrassing affair by denying that the Futsal Committee was involved in the selection of Vahid Shamsaei. “We have a system running here everything is by the book. All procedures are defined and responsibilities assigned. The selection of the head coach should have been carried out by this committee. I declare here to everyone, that the futsal committee was not involved in appointing Shamsaei as the head coach.”

The head of the Futsal Technical Committee, refused to confirm that Shamsaei has gone through the selection process and the FFIRI has done the due diligence in this selection. “I was not involved and I wouldn’t know if he went through the process.”

Torabian has expressed his concern on the way that Shamsaei has been picked. “This is a decision that has been taken in haste and sounds like being emotional. Taking temporary decisions is nothing new here. Many decisions have been taken temporarily around us. Everything is temporary, and now the decision on new interim head coach of futsal team. I do not wish to talk about it any further."

torabian 93

As such, the FFIRI and its administrators, once again put themselves in a very awkward and embarrassing situation. It sounds that Eftikhari has taken an individual decision without referring to the rulebook and by claiming the support of Kaffashian which was denied by the President of FFIRI . Despite this blunder , and there has been so much of it of late , these failures , incompetence and ineptitudes by this administration , are becoming a habit while those committing it in FFIRI are becoming immune from being embarrassed. The person like Reza Eftikhari in this case do not ponder on the humiliation of making blunders and perhaps has a package of excuses and justification ready for launch.

Team Melli training camp in action.

Carlos Queiroz and his training assistants lead a group of 35 players in the latest Team Melli training gathering at Dastegrdi Stadium . east of Tehran. FFIRI has recently named a large list of players who were invited to join the latest training camps. Persepolis and Naft Tehran players are still absent due to the AFC Champions league matches commitment , so are most of the legionnaires. It is expected that the foreign based player to trickle in as the season is coming to end for most of them. Afshin Peyrovani was seen in the camp briefly but there was no Javad Nekounam who has been recently appointed as an assistant coach. Nekounam , has retired from international football but still playing with Osasuna along with Karim Ansarifard. Team Melli will be meeting Uzbekistan in Tashkent for a friendly game in preparation for the first FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifying rounds match against Turkmenistan. TM training May15 876 TM training May15 877 TM training May15 873 TM training May15 884 TM training May15 881 TM training May15 0880    

Vahid Shamsaei appointed as coach of Iran's Futsal Team.

In an unforeseen move, the FFIRI has appointed Vahid Shamsaei as the acting head coach of Iran’s futsal team. Shamsaei, a legendary futsal player in his own right is currently the head coach of league champion side, Tasisat Daryaei FSC.  In a statement carried by the official FFIRI website, the head of the futsal committee Seyed Reza Efitkhari announced “We have thoroughly discussed the current situation in the aftermath of Jesus Candelas resignation from his post. To minimize the impact and for the sake of continuity, we have decided that the best option is to appoint Vahid Shamsaei as caretaker head coach until such time when a final appointment can be reached.” The move seems to be a hasty one brought by the circumstances and shortage of time as Iran futsal team has a busy schedule ahead and involved in several competitions which require prompt action to resolve the coaching responsibilities and appointments. Shamsaei thanks God What seems to be quite odd, however, is the decision by the FFIRI Futsal committee to nominate Shamsaei’s team as the representative of Iran!  This move was most probably demanded by Shamsaei himself as a pre-condition for accepting the job on temporary basis. Shamsaei is free to choose other players from other teams to supplement his own. Tasisat team which will be labeled as Iran’s Team Melli futsal team. Shamsei’s first assignment is to take the team to Portugal on a tour where two games are arranged against the Portuguese national side. Vahid Shamsaei (39 years) is officially the world’s top futsal goal scorer with 82 goals. He started his coaching career while still playing with Dabir Tabriz. In 2014 he transferred to Tasisat Daryaei and won them the title on his first attempt. The 8 times Asian Cup winner had a difficult relation with FFIRI in past few years. Futsal in general is still going through some rough times, with variety of problems. Managerial disputes, league disruption, crowds’ disturbances, claims of corruption and administration problems have marred the progress of futsal in Iran. Iran is hosting the AFC Futsal Club Championship in summer 2015 (30July-07th August) Iran has won the Asian title a record 10 times but lost the last AFC Asian Championship to Japan on Penalty kicks last year).  The other nations that won the tire is Japan on 3 occasions.

The Ayatollah censures women attending sports events in Iran.

Ayatollah Nasser Makarim-Shirazi , one of the Shia Grand Ayatollahs, declared that “there is no need at all for women to attend sport matches in the stadiums and arenas.” The Ayatollah, who was addressing the head of the ethics committee of the Football Federation FFIRI on Tuesday, added” We know that presence of women and men in stadiums will create problems. Moral corruption will spread because it is difficult to control such space..”TM lady fan khorafe 00 “We should not insist on the issue of allowing women in the stadia. We should not be terrorized (…) by Western values and follow whatever they say. We must protect our Islamic values. We must remain independent and we should not do whatever they demand.” Iran Fan girl 12 Makarim-Shirazi added “since these sport events have originated from the west , habits associated with its are also brought to our country. They want to bring their low morality to us with their sport. “ The Grand Ayatollahs, not only does not believe that  the marriage of convenience or “Sigheh”  sometimes referred to as temporary marriage , is not spreading moral corruption and is not an insult to women’s dignity and virtue,  but it is also strongly promoted within the religious hierarchy in Iran. However, the presence of a woman in a sport event is seen as spreading and promoting moral corruption!!! For the record, the Iranian Kimia Alizadeh won Iran’s  first ever medal in the World Taekwondo Championships. The 57kg woman player claimed a bronze medal in the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships in Russia on Monday. 20_08_2014_Taekwondo5_HD Iran and Saudi Arabia share the ignominy of barring women attending sport events.

Tabrizi fans victim of the biggest prank!

If that was not the world’s biggest prank , then I don’t know what it.

It all happened early Friday evening in Yadegar Imam Stadium in Tabriz, the home of Tractorsazi team which was playing for the Championship title for the first time in its history. The Tabrizi team needed to win the match against arch rival Naft , themselves needing the 3 points to win the title.

The stadium was over filled to the rim. As usual in Iranian stadiums, there was little regards for safety and regulation. Eyewitnesses in the stadium have mentioned hundreds or thousands of seats that were occupied by two persons. All emergency exits and pathways were occupied by the passionate Tabrizi fans that were ready to enjoy the mother of all celebrations at the end of the game. That would be Tractorsazi’s Persian Gulf League title season 2014/15.

There was a third team involved in the last day title race, and that was Sepahan Esfahan playing at home against Saipa. Sepahan, needed to win but also needed the match in Tabriz between Tractorsazi and Naft Tehran to end in a draw for Sepahan to win the title.

All was going well for Tractorsazi and they were 3-1 up in the second half and well on the way for the celebration of the century. Sepahan two goal advantage against Saipa was meaningless. But then disaster struck.

Team Melli veteran midfielder Andranik Teymourian , the assist provider for the first goal and scorer of  2nd for Tractorsazi  was sent off a couple of minutes after his team’s 3rd goal. The rest was all downhill for the Tabrizi team. Naft scored twice to equalize and make it 3-3 and that was the result after Alireza Faghani blew his whistle at the end of the game.

Millions of TV audiences were astonished by the celebrations that ensued. It was so unreal, illusionary, bordering a joke. Nowhere in the world, have fans celebrated their team becoming second like these fans were doing in Tabriz. A pitch invasion that threatened the safety of the players, huge chanting and celebration for those in the stands who could not join the mass on the pitch , waving flags, scenes of frenzy captured by the Iranian TV was part of this incredible event.

tractorsazi vs. Naft Tehran

To top it all , the local TV commentator, who had no idea why the fans are behaving like that but acted and reasoned that the fans in Tabriz are unique in the world ,  and even celebrate their team losing the style in style !!

There was something that was definitely not right……Surreal , false and comical in all that.

And then the truth was revealed. Someone has played the biggest prank of them all on the unsuspecting Tabrizi fans.

It all started when a few minutes before the end of the match, the Public Address announcement urged the fans to be ready for the celebration. When the match finished, someone has informed the bench of Tractorsazi that the match in Esfahan ended 2-2 while the fact  was Sepahan have won it 2-0.

The euphoria began, the celebrations, while truly incredible and exuberant was all the result of one of the biggest pranks in the history.

The follow up to this incredibly heart breaking episode for the Tabrizi fans, while their rivals had the biggest laugh, was even sillier than the event itself. It goes beyond saying that lying, rumor mongering and fabrication of news is institutional and a way of life in Iran.  At least 80,000 people were in the stadium, many carrying radios and smartphones that have all the information they needed about the match in Esfahan and elsewhere in Iran. How on earth this mass was cheated into believing the lies is itself quite incredible.

One Azerbaijani official claimed that there was a total loss of communication in the stadium, a seriously retarded claim, while others demanded that people responsible for this  are put to trial and severely punished.

faghani red card Teymopurian

Ando Teymourian , in the aftermath of this prank said that Friday was one of his darkest days in football. “Not only the result itself and the loss of the title in the last quarter of the match was heart breaking but the false news that lead the masses in wild celebration and then realizing it was all false, just added a huge insult to the injury. I am really sorry for the fans. I do apologize to every warm blooded Tabrizi fan. This is all I can say.”

59 players are invited to Team Melli summer camp.

FFIRI Announced a list of 59 players that are invited for the three summer camps of Team Melli. This is one of the largest invitation list ever published by FFIRI. FIFA requires 50 initial names for the World Cup qualifying names out of which only 23 are allowed to be included in the team sheet. Not all the players will be available for the first camp due to commitments such as the AFC Champions league, Hazfi Cup finals or the legionnaires clubs commitments. A large number of the U 23 teams members have been named in the list while Mehrdad Pooladi remains the most significant absentee. One of the Queiroz favorite players, Pooladi is unable to play for his country as he is wanted for Military Service without which , he cannot play for Team Melli! Also missing from the list is Javad Nekounam , who has recently announced his retirement from Team Melli , Rahman Ahmadi , the out of favor Sepahan Keeper, Khalatbary , who remains of Queiroz's black list and the two forgotten dual nationality players, Steven Beitashour and Daniel Davari. Despite a large list of new names, it is a safe bet that Queiroz will stick with the same old names with minimal changes for the Qualifying matches of the FIFA World Cup 2018. Most of these players will be making the numbers while the chore of the team will be close to the squad that played in Australia minus Pooladi and Nekounam. There are several promising young players in the squad like Ezzatolahei, Ali Karimi (Sepahan) , Mehdi Sharifi and Hassanzadeh to name a few.  

Team Melli players list for Summer Camp 2015

No.Player's NameCapsGoalsTeam
1ABDOLLAHZADEH, Ahmed0Foolad
2AHMADZADEH, Farshad0Tractorsazi
3AKHBARI, Mohammadreza0Saipa
4ALI-MOHAMMADI Jalal0Saba Qom
5ALISHAH, Omid0Persepolis
6AMIRI, Vahid51Naft Tehran
7ANSARI, Jaber0Gostarish Foolad
8ANSARIFARD, Karim469Osasuna
9AZMOUN, Sardar84Rubin Kazan
10BEIGZADEH, Hashim201Esteghlal
11BIRANVAND, Alireza10Naft Tehran
12CHESHMI , Rozbeh0Saba Qom
13DEJAGAH, Ashkan254Al Arabi
14EBRAHIMI, Omid90Esteghlal
15EZZATOLAHEI , Saeed0Atletico Madrid
16FOROUZAN, Mohsen10Esteghlal
17GHAFOORI, Vourya80Sepahan
18GHANBARI, Mehrdad0Zob Ahan
19GHOOCHANNEJAD, Reza2513Al Wakrah
20HADDADIFAR, Ghassim180Zob Ahan
21HAGHIGHI, Alireza160FC Penafiel
22HAJ-MOHAMMAD, Amin0Naft Tehran
23HAJSAFY, Ehsan674Sepahan
24HASSANZADEH, Masoud0Zob Ahan
25HATAMI, Farzad0Malavan
26HEYDARI, Khosrow550Esteghlal
27HOSSEINI , Syed Hossein0Malavan
28HOSSEINI, Jalal966Al Ahli
29JAHANBAKHSH, AliReza151NEC
30KARIMI, Ali0Sepahan
31KARIMI, Yaghoub64Esteghlal
32KNANI-ZADEGAN, Mohammad Hossein0Malavan
33MAHINI, Hossein230Malavan
34MAJIDI , Maysam0Estghlal Khuzestan
35MAKANI, Sousha30Persepolis
36MAZAHERI, Rasheed0Zob Ahan
37MOHAMMADI , Hadi0Zob Ahan
38MOHAMMADI, Milad0Rah Ahan
39MOHAMMADZADEH, Vahid0Saipa
40MOMENI, Mehdi0Estghlal Khuzestan
41MONTAZERI, Pejman281Umm Salal
42MOTAHARI, Amir Arselan0Naft Tehran
43NARIMAN-JAHAN, Saman0Tractorsazi
44NEJAD-MEHDI , Mohammad0Padideh
45NOORULAHEI, Ahmad0Persepolis
46POURALIGANJI, Morteza61Tianjin Teda
47POURGHAZ, Ezzatollah0Malavan
48RAFIEI, Sourosh40Foolad
49REZAEI, Kaveh0Zob Ahan
50REZAEIAN, Ramin30Rah Ahan
51SADEGHI, AmirHossein201Esteghlal
52SALIMI, Alireza0Foolad
53SHAHABZADEH, Sajjad00Esteghlal
54SHARIFAT, Esmael0Foolad
55SHARIFI, Mehdi20Sepahan
56SHOJAEI, Masoud606Al Shahaniya
57TAROMI , Mehdi0Persepolis
58TEYMOURIAN, Andranik909Tractorsazi
59TORABI, Mehdi0Saipa