Category: News

Uruguay match called off!

After the cancelation of the Canada and Ecuador matches. Uruguay was named as a strong candidate for a friendly but today, it has been announced that Dragan Skočić is against traveling thousands of miles to Latin America to play a friendly match between Iran and Uruguay.

The friendly match between Iran and Uruguay was not singed off due to the opposition of the Head Coach of Team Melli. originally, the Football Federation had planned to travel from Qatar to South America because the Team Melli calendar was void of any matches on FIFA Day, but due to the availability of several well-known African teams, these options are more favorable, which is why Skocic has opposed his team's departure to Uruguay. The Iranian Football Federation is negotiating with several African teams such as Cameroon, Algeria, and Congo to arrange three friendly matches in Qatar. None of these countries have suggested that it will be playing against Iran, though.

Earlier, the FFIRI was also in negotiation for a match against Senegal but nothing came out of that either.

Iran is the only qualified team for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 that has no friendly match on its calender until the World Cup Group C match against England.

Dragan Skočić, drops 5 Esteghlal players from Team Melli camp.

Team Melli head coach, Dragan Skočić, dropped 5 Esteghlal players from the national team training camp today. According to press reports, Skocic removed the names of 5 players after their "no show" for training. Hamid Estili, the manager of the national football team, told ISNA: "These players were supposed to introduce themselves to the national team camp at 5 pm yesterday (Monday) and then get a release to go to the Esteghlal's camp with the permission of the head coach, but they did not do so. They neither turned up nor informed us. They went directly to their club's camp."

The Esteghlal players are : Aref Gholami, Seyed Hossein Hosseini, Mehdi Mehdipour, Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh and Saleh Hardani. It is not clear if this move by Skocic is a long term one, but it seems that these player's chances of making it to the trip to Latin America are quite slim, but more importantly, it will be even a slimmer chance of anyone of them making the final list to the World Cup unless a strong reason is provided by Farhad Majidi, the team's head coach and the Esteghlal management.

Esteghlal has won this seasons League title undefeated. They received the trophy yesterday after the match against Naft Masjed Soleiman.

UPDATE

In the latest development, Esteghlal club swiftly reacted to the dropping of the players by issuing an official apology! The statement read: "Following the recent events which resulted in the expulsion of Esteghlal players selected for Team Melli training camps, we would like to inform the general public that the club has always acted in good faith in interacting with the national football team of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and considers itself obligatory to help the country's representatives. In the recent case, unfortunately, despite the previous announcement of Team Melli's head coach on the importance of the attendance of all players from the first day of the camp, there were discrepancies (..) in the planning of last week's league matches, which caused negligence of our part. The team Melli leader issued a disciplinary action. Esteghlal Club is aware of its role in this incident and accepts its responsibility. Therefore, while supporting and apologizing to Mr. Skocic for interrupting the national team training camp, we ask him to reinstate the 5 dropped  Esteghlal players to the camp. Attending the camp and wearing the national team's sacred shirt is the pride of Esteghlal Club. The club management supports and wishes Mr. Skocic and the Iranian national team all the success in their quest for the World Cup in Qatar, emphasizing our backing for the national team."

Uruguay is possibly the next match!

The Secretary-General of the Football Federation said that the friendly match between Iran and Uruguay is almost finalized.

After the one-sided cancellation of the friendly against Canada, the Football Federation FFIRI under immense pressure and criticism changed its plans for Team Melli as the squad will now travel to Doha, Qatar instead of the original plan in North America. From there The squad will most likely head to South America.

In an interview with Khabar, Hossein Kamranifar, the Secretary-General of tFFIRI announced the negotiation with the Uruguayan Football Federation for a friendly match in at an advanced stage: "We were negotiating until a few minutes ago and we are doing the necessary work to play against Uruguay. This team is 13th in the FIFA rankings, and God willing, we will move forward and play there. An Uruguay friendly has been canceled and will probably be in Uruguay and in Montevideo, the capital," he said of the time and place.

"We are planning to hold this game around June 12th." The secretary-general of the football federation added while also mentioned that they are actively seeking to arrange another friendly match, but did not name the team. Team Melli will leave for Qatar on June 10, and if their plans are finalized, they will probably fly to Uruguay to play with one of the teams that qualified for the World Cup. Uruguay is one of the strongest teams in the World Cup, having qualified for the knockout stages in the past, and is the champion of the first two tournaments of the World Cup. Their most famous players are Edison Cavani and Luis Suárez. The latter will not be available for the match as he is still injured. The current Uruguay squad mostly consists of aging players.

According to the schedule of Uruguay, the team had two matches arranged for FIFA Day, first against Mexico on 3rd June and then three days later against USA. Press reports in Uruguay have mentioned that its football federation is considering Iran, as a possible rival of Uruguay on June 11th. Jamaica, the original opponent withdrew from the match.

03/06/22 FRI Mexico 05 : 00 Uruguay
06/06/22 FRI United States 00 : 00 Uruguay

Heavy fines for withdrawing announced by AFC.

The draw for the AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2022 hosted by Kuwait in October was held yesterday and the 16 teams in the competition identified their opponents as follows: Group A Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand, and Oman Group B Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan Group C Iran, Lebanon, Chinese Taipei, and Indonesia Group D Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, After the draw, the Asian Football Confederation AFC threatened any team that withdraws from the competition 30 days before the Asian Cup will be fined the amount of 25 thousand dollars and banned from the next edition of the championship. Withdrawal from the Nations Cup less than 30 days before the start of the Games will result in a $ 30,000 to $ 40,000 fine for the teams. But the heaviest fines include teams that withdraw at the start of the competition. The AFC has imposed a $ 75,000 fine in this case, according to the Saudi newspaper Al-Eqtisadiya. Compensation for financial losses and other disciplinary offenses may also be waiting for the wrong teams. Iran is the defending champion and favorite to lift the title again.

Same old excuses repeated at FFIRI

According to Mehrnews, the cancellation of the friendly game of Team Melli against Canada has caused numerous criticism of Iran's football federation (FFIRI) for not finalizing other friendly matches or considering other options. Meanwhile, the directors of communication of the FFIRI claimed that they had held talks with several associations, but in the end, due to various problems, these negotiations were fruitless.

Mohammad Javad Payendeh, Football Federation Public Relations Manager, said: "We negotiated with the Republic of Ireland, who declared their initial agreement, but later said that they could not assemble the players!.  Another association that did not qualify for the World Cup wanted us to bear all costs for a friendly match including transportation and accommodation which would have been close to $ 1.5 million."  He added: "We negotiated with the major associations of teams from North America, South America, and Africa that did not qualify for the World Cup.  Among these countries, especially the Africans, there were some encouraging responses initially, and we are trying to hold two games on "Fifa day".

Payandeh, who spoke to the "Stadium" Radio program, said that Mexico and Ecuador also wanted to play a friendly match with Iran: "The two countries offered to play in the United States, but the conditions for traveling to the United States are much more difficult for us than It was Canada"

For decades, such excuses have been passed to the fans. It comes from the same textbook regardless of which administration or who heads FFIRI. The end results were either downright failures or poor preparation. Queiroz suffered intensely from this federation however, he was proactive and realized the incompetency of the people in the Seoul Street building.  He, through personal contact and his network, managed to negotiate quite a few friendly matches during his tenure.

Dragan Skocic bemoans the surreal status of Team Melli

Dragan Skocic, finally reacted to the unsatisfactory state of the team's preparation, as well as the cancellation of the Iran-Canada friendly match on FIFA day, by issuing a statement. In this message, Skocic criticized the federation and its officials, who these days are more concerned with lobbying and holding the federation assembly than with the national team and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

in the message on social media, Skocic said: "It seems that the rift between the executive members of the federation,  and holding of the Football Federation Assembly has taken a priority over more important issues such as Team Melli readiness for the World Cup, the preparations, and meeting the technical and logistical needs of the team. Those are no more the first priority of the relevant authorities. In the current surreal situation, the professional and ethical duty of the coaching staff and players is to do whatever they can with all their might to maintain their greatest asset of the national team, which is the passion and the hopes of the Team Melli fans right across the world. It is the sacred right of every Iranian to know more about the national team, especially what has passed and will pass on this valuable time from the beginning of the World Cup qualifiers until today. The Croat coach ended his message by saying "That is why I will talk about this in detail in the next few days at a press conference."

The Soccer Politics.

Why are we not surprised by the news that Canada has canceled the friendly match against Iran in Vancouver?

Competition-wise, it was an excellent test for Team Melli against a strong Canada team with similarities in style and physique to the Americans whom Iran would meet in Doha in the World Cup. In fact, despite the constant criticism that we have against the administration of the FFIRI, which remains quite poor regardless, pulling off such a friendly game was indeed a coup!

It was a long shot but somehow it was arranged to the credit of the FFIRI.

BUT…on the political side, it was a time bomb. Ultimately, politics won as it always does. Not very dissimilar to what we are experiencing against Russian football and athletes, except Russia claimed to be an aggressor in a war, while Iran has no such claims against it and has always been a target and a victim. Never mind the rhetoric of the self-proclaimed bearers of Human Rights, regimes like Canada cannot survive being independent of the American policies and Zionist influence hence Canada vs. Iran was always under threat. Iran playing right next door to the Americans would be a victory for the enemy and the Americans won't like it. The US government would not allow that satisfaction for the Iranians.  Why would the Prime Minister of Canada intervene in a football match, doesn’t the man have more important things to do like running a country?

Trudeau simply did not want to upset his masters in Washington, the game was not going to happen, period. No doubt, Soccer Canada will come up with a bunch of excuses for canceling the game, but in reality, it is nothing but succumbing to political pressure no more no less.

In any case, this one-sided cancelation once again highlights the plight of Iran’s football lack of skilled and professional management. The FFIRI is in serious need of a competent cadre of highly experienced management personnel who have the skills, aptitude, and intelligence to run such an important organization in the country. Of course, we do realize that the government will never cease to interfere by pushing its own agents into the administration with all kinds of tricks, but there is still a great need to find a solution for this dilemma cum incompetency that is hindering the natural development of football in Iran.

Now that the Canada match is off, and that never officially confirmed match against Ecuador was also off, Iran has to scramble in the dustbin to find an opponent for the upcoming FIFA Day. It might even have to pay those pathetic Albanians after all to save Iran’s blushes and arrange a friendly game somewhere, possibly Doha.

In the end, it is no one except the FFIRI’s fault, no matter how many excuses they would come up with for Team Melli to be deprived of a strong opponent with only a few months left to the World Cup.

Futsal : Draw sets stage for Kuwait 2022

Kuala Lumpur: Reigning champions Iran were drawn in Group C of the AFC Futsal Asian Cup™ Kuwait 2022 on Thursday.
The 12-time winners will face Lebanon, Chinese Taipei, and Indonesia in the September 27 to October 8, 2022 Finals, to be hosted by Kuwait for the first time.

AFC Futsal Asian Cup Kuwait 2022 Official Draw Highlights

Kuwait will be making their 12th appearance in the tournament and will aim to impress in front of home support when they face Iraq, 16-time ASEAN champions Thailand and debutants Oman in Group A.
Bahrain will face the Central Asian trio of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan in Group C.
Japan, the only other team to lift the continental trophy, was drawn in Group D with Vietnam, the Korea Republic, and Saudi Arabia for company.
Draw Group A: Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand, Oman
Group B: Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Group C: Iran, Lebanon, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia
Group D: Japan, Vietnam, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia

Canada-Iran soccer friendly at Vancouver's BC Place cancelled

Canada Soccer has canceled a planned friendly with Iran in the face of growing criticism. In a one-paragraph statement, the governing body gave no reason for the cancellation of the scheduled June 5 game at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver. But the idea of hosting the Iranian team, ranked 21st in the world, has drawn fire since it was first announced.
At issue is whether Canada should be hosting Iran given the Canadians who died on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 when it was shot down on Jan. 8, 2020, minutes after taking off from Tehran, by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. The Canadian government says 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were among the 176 people killed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the game “wasn't a very good idea,” pointing the finger at Canada Soccer. Conservative MPs added their voice to the protest on Wednesday. In a statement, the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims called for Canada Soccer “to cancel the game immediately.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2022.

Omid Team Squad announced

The FFIRI website announced that Mehdi MahdaviKia, the head coach of the Omid team, announced the final names of the U23 squad to participate in the Iraq training camp and the U-23 championship in Uzbekistan. After replacing Reza Kakhsaz and Parsa Jafari. The two goalkeepers of Peykan and Zobahan instead of Sina Saeedifar and Alireza Rezaei, the goalkeepers of Esteghlal, announced the following: Amir Ali Sadeghi (Esteghlal) Yasin Salmani, Arya Yousefi (Sepahan) Alireza Bavieh, Mohammad Amin Hezbavi (Foolad Khuzestan) Reza Kakhsaz , Erfan Shahriari Khalaji, Saman Fallah Vernami (Peykan) Parsa Jafari, Milad Kerr, Mohammad Hossein Eslami, Mohammad Khodabandeh Lou (Zobahan) Payam Parsa, Ahmad Shariatzadeh, Mohammad Hossein Zavari (Naft Abadan) Mohammad Ghorbani (Nasiji Mazandaran) Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi, Mehdi Hashemnejad (Naft Masjed Soleyman) Amir Jafari Siglani (Shahr Khodro) Ali Javad Kalmarzi Sabet (Roda JC Netherlands) Yadegar Rostami (playing in the Polish league) Bilal Arazi, Ali Pilaram (South Pars) Alireza Khodaei (Saipa)