Two of the Lebanese national team players that are amongst the team squad in the FIFA world cup 2014 qualifiers were banned for life. Lebanon is in the same group as Iran and has defeated Team Melli 1-0 in the home match in Beirut while losing to Qatar  in Beirut with the same goal margin under under suspicious circumstances where one of the players who has been banned for life , Ramez Dayoub played a poor back pass that led to the only goal in a 1-0 defeat by Qatar..

FIFA has neither commented nor acted on the match or the suspensions by the Lebanese football association. There are also no indication of whether Iran’s Football associations  will lodge a complaint or request an investigation in the match that affects Iran’s chances of qualification to the Finals of the World Cup.

In an the following article and interviews , Lebanon’s German coach with the BBC, Theo Bucj=ker reveals his anger over match fixing by Lebanon players , or at l;east two of them.

Lebanon head coach reveals anger over match fixing

By Steve Crossman BBC World Service

A national team head coach has revealed his torment after two of his players “sold out their country” and were convicted of match-fixing.

Lebanon defender Ramez Dayoub and forward Mahmoud El Ali have been banned for life pending an appeal after being found guilty of the offence by their national association.

The charges relate to incidents in a 2014 World Cup qualification game and a tournament in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where the opposition were gifted a goal and an attempt was made to coerce a team-mate.

For German head coach Theo Bucker, who played for both Borussia Dortmund and Schalke in a 19-year playing career, the news has cast doubt on his own future.

“I’m really mixed up in my way of thinking these days,” he told the BBC’s World Football programme. “I don’t know what the next step is.”

Bucker, 64, first took charge of Lebanon at the turn of the century and returned in 2011. His second stint has proved to be hugely successful, with the nation progressing into the final round of World Cup qualifying for the first time in their history.

The achievement has proved bittersweet, however, as it was in the opening game of that stage that Bucker’s suspicions of foul play were first raised when Dayoub played a poor back pass that led to the only goal in a 1-0 defeat by Qatar.

“We were showing some good action and then suddenly a [Qatar] player has the ball in a one-on-one situation and you get the feeling that something is wrong,” he said. “The guy looked paralysed or something.

“I never came close to the idea that someone could not just sell the game, but sell their country.”
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Europol head Rob Wainwright said his findings were a “big problem for the integrity of football in Europe”.

“Then I checked the video and found that this guy had tried to make the same pass several times, helping the opponent striker to score – this was very suspicious,” he added.

“We didn’t have any proof and I was trying to find an excuse by believing that he couldn’t handle the pressure of such an important game.”

Any thought that he might have been mistaken was rejected in July during a tournament in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia when two Lebanon players tried to persuade their goalkeeper to leave the game. The keeper refused and reported the behaviour.

Both Dayoub and El Ali – who were also fined $15,000 (£10,000) – insist they have done nothing wrong.

“This is a serious allegation,” said Dayeb. “I have no doubt there’s something behind this.

“If I really am guilty of match-fixing, [football’s international governing body] Fifa will investigate and suspend me, not the Lebanese FA.”

A Fifa statement has praised the Middle Eastern nation for the strength of their response.

The suspensions form part of the latest match fixing scandal to come to light in the wake of Europol’s investigation into match fixing, which uncovered suspicious activity relating to 680 matches worldwide.

Tehran : Iran’s U-22 team coach  Coach Alireza Mansourian on Monday announced a list of 35 players that will assemble for the Olympic team training camp in Azadi this week.

Iran’s Olympic squad is set to begin preparations for an International Football Tournament that will commence in Doha on March 21.

Iran will play Morocco (21st March) , host team Qatar (23rd March) and Turkey (25th March) in the event.

The list of players

Ahmad  Abdollahzadeh (Foolad Khuzestan)

Ahmad Arabpour (Sang Ahak)

Ahmad Zendehrouh (Tractorsazi Tabriz)

Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Damash Gilan)

Alireza  Piranvand (Esteghlal)

Amir Abedzadeh (Perspolis)

Bakhtiar Rahmani (Foolad Khuzestan)

Behnam Barzay (Sanat Naft)

Ehsan Pahlavan (Zob Ahan)

Eman Sadeghi (Malvan Anzali)

Farshid Esmaeili (Fajr Sepasi)

Hadi Dehghani (Aluminium Hormozgan)

Kaveh Rezaei   (Saipa Alborz)

Milad  Gharibi (Saipa Alborz)

Mohammad Ziaei (Peykan)

Mohammad-Amin Hajmohammadi (Naft Tehran)

Mohammadreza Khanzadeh (Perspolis)

Mohammad-Vahid Esmaeilbeigi (Mes Kerman)

Mohsen Mosalman (Zob Ahan)

Morteza Pouraliganji (Naft Tehran)

Murteza Tabrizi (Pas Hamedan)

Navid Khoshhava (Saba Qom)

Omid     Alishah (Rah (Zob Ahan)

Peyman Miri (Peykan)

Saeid Gholami (Esteghlal)

Saeid Lotfi (Saba Qom)

Seyed Hossein Hosseini (Esteghlal)

Shahab Karami (Foolad Khuzestan)

Shahriar Shirvand (Foolad Goster)

Vafa Hakhamanesh (Foolad Khuzestan)

Vahid Noormohammadi (Esteghlal)

Yaghoob Karimi (Naft Tehran)

Yousef Vakia  (Foolad Khuzestan)

Tehran

Mehdi Mahdavikia has conducted a workshop for Iran’s U17 team which is currently in camp and training under the supervision of Ali Doustimehr. The Perspolis Captain and ex-Team Melli star is one of the players that Doustimehr introduced to Iran’s football while he was coaching Bank Melli football club. Doustimehr’s objective was to introduce his players to the finer aspects of playing football at the highest level of competition by giving them exposure to how a legend such as Mahdavikia has conducted his own successful career playing at all ages level for Team Melli.

Mehdi Mahdavikia, who has previousely also offered his service and support,   was glad to be in service once again as he conducted the workshop for the young player on Monday.

The ex-Bundesliga star put much emphasis on discipline in and out of the field during the workshop. Mahdavikia also stressed that Iranians , in nature are quite emotional and such emotions sometimes results in below par performances and losses to teams  which are inferior to them. He said that unless we admit to our shortfalls and look for solutiuons to it rather than excuses, our success will be limited. He advised the players to keep control on their emotions before and during the matches and be prepared for adversities all the time.

Mahdavikia touched on many psychological issues in football.

At the request of Doustimer, Mehdi Mahdavikia will offer his morale and professional support and be accompanying the U17 team later this year in the UAE for the FIFA U17 World Cup.

Team Melli U-17 qualified for the finals.

Mehdi Mahdavikia played in the Bundesliga for VfL Bochum,  Hamburger SV and Eintracht Frankfurt before returning to Iran in 2010/11 season playing for Steel Azin then Damash before rteturning to Perspolis last season.

Mehdi Mahdavikia honors include winning the Asian Footballer of the Year in 2003, playing in two World Cups and 3 AFC Asian Cups.

Tehran

Less than 6 month from his appointment as Team Melli the Belgian Bart Caubergh has resigned his post as Physical Trainer or Team Melli.

After several months of dropping ranks, Iran’s Team Melli has gained two places and risen to No. 58 in FIFA ranking.

According to the latest FIFA rankings, Iran popints tally was 543 points, which ranked it at  58th in the world  and 5th  in the AFC behind Japan, Australia, South Korea and Uzbekistan, who are only one spot ahead of Iran.

Spain has been officially declared as the best national football team of February 2013 with 1,590 points.

Spaniards are followed by Germans, who could collect 1,437 points and claim the second position.

Argentina comes next with 1,281 points.

Seyed Hadi Aghili , Team Melli’s central defender , strongly denied the press reports and accusations that he has left Team Melli camp on the eve of the match against Lebanon. Aghili was absent from the team roster in last Wednesday which was the first  match of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers.

Aghili said that he did not leave the Team Melli camp and the hotel without permission , however he declined to go into details and admitted that he should have had the proper authorization before leaving the hotel.

Aghili was speaking from Qatar on the phone in the highly popular “Navad” TV show and stated that he will properly defend himself in person as talking on the phone in a TV show is not the proper means od doing so.

Tehran.

ISNA new agency reported that the date of the match between Kuwait and Iran in the Qualification rounds of AFC Asian Cup 2015 which is supposed to be held in Kuwait Al Kazma Stadium on the 22nd of March 2013 , has been put back to 26th March , four days later than scheduled.

ISNA is quoting kooora.com Arabic website , which in turn is quoting Mohsen Al Enazi , an official in the Kuwait Football federation saying that Kuwait FA received a request from its Iranian counterpart requesting such delay because of Nowrooz Holidays in Iran !!!

This sounds like a highly unusual request by IRIFF  especially since the match is held in Kuwait , which itself celebrates its national day on 25th February.  There was no confirmation from AFC on this. teammelli.com is pursuing the matter for confirmation.

Tehran.

Team Melli and Qatar FC central defender is facing a long term ban after he unceremoniously left the Team Melli camp, without the approval of the management just before the match against Lebanon on Wednesday.

The reason for his departure is unclear although it is suspected to be related to his status as a starter in the team and the preference by Carlos Queiroz for other defender to start the match against Lebanon. Aghili has not been selected for the Team Melli squad in the last few matches. Although he was absent from Team Melli , he refrained to publicly criticize the coach for not selecting him and insisted that he will work harder and play better to regain his place in the national team.

In a statement to the press after the Lebanon match , where Team Melli comprehensively defeated Lebanon 5-0 , Ali Kaffashian , the head of IRIFF indicated that Aghili might be off Team Melli permanently for such a move. He said that such attitude cannot be tolerated with players who are supposed to be at the service of their country regardless to what grievances they have against the federation or Team management personnel.

In a separate statement today , Esmael Hassanzadeh , the head of the disciplinary committee of the IRIFF has said that his committee has not yet received an official request to investigate Aghili’s misdemeanor. He explained that there are certain procedures to be adhered to and both parties need to give their own version of events before a final judgment would be issued.

Hassanzadeh , said that the normal ruling in cases of players refusing to train or take part in the Team Melli matches upon the request of the coach , may result in a life ban on the activity of that player at domestic level. Asked whether such domestic ban will affect a affect a footballer playing outside Iran such as Hadi Aghili, Hassanzadeh confirmed that the ban is domestic only as the IRIFF has no jurisdiction on other countries, however he said that if a player is banned in his own country then obliviously the football federation will not issue the ITC that is required by international football regulation to allow him playing in a foreign country. In the case a footballer already playing abroad and his ITC has been issued , such as the case with Hadi Aghili playing for Qatar FC,  there is no such restriction to play for a foreign club.

Hadi Aghili has played for Iran 69 times and scored 10 goals in his career for Team Melli. The number of goals he scored as a defender puts him at the top list of defenders scoring list for Team Melli.

Tehran – Azadi Stadium

Team Melli defeated Lebanon 5-0 in Azadi Stadium in the opening match of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 Qualifiers Group B. The result was a swift revenge for the match in Beirut where Iran lost the match 1-0 in the WC Qualifiers.

Javad Nekounam scored a hat trick while Ghoochanejad helped himself with a brace. in a match that  Team Melli controlled from the start of the match . The domination continued through the match except for short periods in both halves.

The European based players , played a major role in this victory with Ashkan Dejagah playing a mjor role in the match by assisting in three goals , two assists resulted in penalties scored by Captain Javad Nekounam , while the third was from his defense splitting and immaculate pass to Ghoochanejad. Masoud Shojaei assisted in Nekounam’s third goal with wonderful work on the right flank.

IRAN  vs, LEBANON    5 :0

AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifying rounds –

Group B

Azadi Stadium – Tehran

Scorers:

Reza GHOOCHANEJAD (25)
Javad NEKOUNAM (pen.) (45)
Javad NEKOUNAM (pen.) (60)
Reza GHOOCHANEJAD (61)
Javad NEKOUNAM (80)

 IRAN: Rahman AHMADI: Pejman MONTAZERI [68′ Mohammad NOSRATI], Mehrdad POOLADI, Jalal HOSSEINI, Khosrow HEYDARI, Andranik TEYMOURIAN,  Javad NEKOUNAM, Mojtaba JABBARI [ 71′ Yaghoub KARIMI] , Masoud SHOJAEI,   Reza GHOOCHANEJAD ,  Ashkan DEJAGAH  ( 78′  Mehrdad OULADI )

Yellow Cards: Pejman MONTAZERI (19)

The-AFC.com report

Tehran: Captain Javad Nekonam scored a hat-trick as three-time champions Iran opened their AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifying campaign in style with a 5-0 win over 10-man Lebanon in Tehran on Wednesday.

Standard Liege’s Reza Ghoochannejhad also netted twice at Azadi Stadium to open his international account as Iran gained revenge over Lebanon having lost last year’s FIFA World Cup qualifier 1-0 in Beirut.

With two teams from each group securing automatic qualification for the 2015 finals in Australia, Kuwait – who entertain Iran at the end of March- join Iran at the top of Group B after beating Thailand 3-1 in Bangkok.

“I appreciate the effort from my players; they kept fighting and never gave up. We were able to highlight the gap between Iranian and Lebanese football,” said Iran coach Carlos Queiroz.

“After we lost at home to Uzbekistan we needed to do something to relieve the pressure and we were able to beat Lebanon 5-0 which will alleviate the negative atmosphere.

“I opted to substitute Ashkan Dejagah and Reza Ghoochannejhad for two less experienced players as we had already achieved the result and I wanted to give the opportunity to some of the young players.”

Iran had to wait until midway through the first half to open the scoring as Mojtaba Jabari fed Ghoochannejhad for the Belgium-based striker to fire past Lebanon goalkeeper Abbas Hassan for his first international goal.

Anderanik Teymourian and Fulham midfielder Ashkan Dejagah both went close for Iran as the half progressed, with Hassan Maatouk creating Lebanon’s first real opportunity after 31 minutes.

But in first half stoppage time Iran finally doubled their lead as Nekonam converted from the penalty spot.

And Iran’s third arrived just after the hour mark as Nekonam again netted from 12 yards after Nour Mansour had been sent-off after picking up a second yellow card for a foul on the lively Dejagah inside the penalty area.

Ghoochannejhad’s second international goal extended the lead soon after as the striker converted from close range before Nekonam’s deflected strike with 10 minutes remaining sealed the win and his hat-trick.

“We didn’t travel here to win, a single point from the tie would have been enough, but the way the game played out caught me off guard,” said Lebanon coach Theo Bucker.

“We lost concentration after both penalties and we were unable to get it back.”