Tehran
Perspolis management is on the defensive.
Three major events involving Perspolis football club, forced the management of the club into reaction. By the issue of a communique , Perspolis club is hoping to clear its stance , respond to criticism from various sides against it and finally to defend both the coach Ali Daei and the CEO Mohammad Rouyanian.
The catalyst was the events of Sepahan vs. Perspolis match in the league, a match where Perspolis lost 2-0. The whole fracas started in the first few minutes of the match in Esfahan, when the referee awarded Sepahan a penalty and handed Maysam Hosseini the defender who committed the foul, a red card for kicking a Sepahan player. Apparently before that kicking incident, there was a scuffle with pushing and pulling between Hosseini and Sepahan and Team Melli defender Shojaa Khalilzadeh. Perspolis claim that the foul was initially committed by Khalilzadeh and he should have been yellow carded. Neither the referee nor the linesman did notice the original alleged foul due to the large number of players in the Perspolis box. However, what Ghahremani saw was a clear kick by Hosseini , which was confirmed by the TV camera. Daei hit the roof when he saw his defender being dismissed, but that was nothing compared to his reaction in the post-match press conference. Daei accused the referee of corruption and bias, claiming that he knew that Ghahremani will lean towards Sepahan from the night before. Based on those serious allegations, FFIRI investigated the whole affair demanding evidence and material witness from Perspolis. Yesterday, the verdict was out, at least provisionally. FFIRI disciplinary committee suspended the referee and his two assistants plus two Perspolis personal, but for events that were not directly related to the Sepahan match.
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The second event came during and after Perspolis match against Saba in the city of Qom. There is no love lost between Saba coach Mohammad Mayeli-Kohan and Perspolis coach Ali Daei. Their long running feud is a well-covered general knowledge in Iran as both take each opportunity to have a go at each other , although the records shows that Mayeli-Kohan more often than not , is the provoker of these tongue slashing .
Before the match, Mayeli-Kohan has expressed his concern about Ali Daei’s tactics and the methods he is employing to influence referees. Without naming Daei, Saba coach said that attacking referees in the media, accusing them of corruption without producing evidence and tarnishing their image will automatically generate fear factor in the referees and as such, they will feel immense pressure and would be very careful not to upset a team that has clout, influence and support.
Like a well written scenario, the fears and concerns of Mayeli-Kohan of Daei’s methods on influencing the referee materialized during the match. Mayeli-Kohan who was sitting on the bench and did operate in the technical area unlike Daei who was constantly standing and guiding his team, suddenly rushed madly towards the touchline. What triggered that was Daei’s protest against one of the referee’s decision which Mayeli-Kohan took an exception to and thought of it as a classical Daei pressure tactics to influence the referee, which he already warned about before the match started. The two coaches nearly clashed and had to be separated with Mayeli-Kohan seemingly quite graphical and enraged while pointing angry fingers at Daei and the referee.
In the post-match conference and the following days, the two coaches exchanged all sort of accusations reaching a level of mediocrity that has been rarely seen in Iran’s football. Like always, the opinions were divided about whose fault is this one now. Mayeli-Kohan camp also accused Daei of siphoning money and appointing a family member (his brother, Mohammad Daei) without proper football coaching credentials , as an assistant coach in Perspolis. That was probably the last straw for Daei who embarked on an unprecedented verbal attack on his longtime foe. The media, especially those who always seek sensationalism in Iran had a field day quoting the two sides in their publications and fueling the fight.
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Then came that famous Carlos Queiroz squad list , when the Portuguese coach of Team Melli included the name of Mehrdad Pooladi in his list, a player who has not played a single game this season and another Perspolis Defender , Hossein Mahini , who has lost his starting place in the team.
Inclusion of these two , not only alienated many players and coaches across the country, it resulted in noises heard from CEO’s of other clubs, some of whom issued statements against Perspolis and the methods they operate to gain unfair advantage.
With all these affairs backfiring at Perspolis and certainly losing ground and support of many fans including senior ex-players who were perplexed by Perspolis antics, the Club issued the communique explaining their stance in an attempt to calm the situation and the negative vibes against them.
It was a poor attempt by Perspolis, as much of what was mentioned in the communique was biased one sided opinions rather than facts (like their claim that the referee deprived them of 4 penalty kicks in one match !!!).
The long written press release then went into berating of Mayeli-Kohan for his verbal attacks on the club and its coach. Perspolis refuted Mayeli-Kohan claims that several players are on a one billion toman (Approx. US$ 403,000) contract. The communique also refused to announce Daei’s contract details and the sum he is receiving and any other players contracts details claiming that several Iranian clubs have more expensive players than Perspolis .”If these clubs are ready to reveal the figures, then we will do it as well” , mentioned the statement that was not apparently signed by the CEO .