Team melli training camp in doubt as soon as it is announced.

Team Melli will hold its first training camp under the leadership of the Croatian head coach in mid-September.

The team faces three important challenges for holding camp with the availability of players, which can overshadow the camp objectives and Team Melli preparation.

Skocic has yet to have a single training session with Team Melli since Covid19 has upset football activities worldwide. The first schedule camp for Dragan Skocic will be overshadowed by more events as FIFA has just announced the postponement of the Qualifiers from October 2020 to yet unannounced dates in 2021.

The Croatian coach will have the opportunity to face the squad for the first time. Circumstances allowing, it will help the head coach to identify the players he needs for 4 crucial and decisive matches in the qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

In this camp, the national team will have arranged two friendly matches, the first match against Uzbekistan will be held on September 9th. The national team will play another match before that, which, according to speculation and information in the Arabic-language media, will be played against either Syria or Palestine, but nothing is certain at this time.

However, two important issues have overshadowed the camp with all the player’s availabilities, which could be a problem for Skocic’s as he may not be able to hold his camp with all the players.

Corona and visa restrictions

Most of the Team Melli squad consists of professional players working outside Iran, mainly in Belgium, Portugal, Qatar, etc., and a few who are playing in Russia, England and Croatia. The hardship that faced Alireza Biranvand in his trip from Iran to Belgium is a bitter reminder, and this issue has raised concerns for most legionnaires that they may have difficulty returning back to their country of work.

Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, Belgium, etc., provide a two-week quarantine for travelers to countries such as Iran to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. For this reason, Iran, like the Iraqi national team, may restrict the participation of the legionnaires to prevent any problems and difficulties for those playing in foreign leagues. The availability of foreign-based players is of course overshadowed by their availability and release by their employers. With the Leagues scheduling in Europe in such a mess, it is highly unlikely if any player is released by their clubs unless they are of now value to their squad, like Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

The AFC Champions League commitment

The AFC Champions League league will start in Qatar with four Iranian representatives competing for the coveted prize. For this reason, these four clubs will keep their players and not release them for Team Melli. Iranian clubs have never won the AFC Champions League title since its new format and are not considered as title contenders this season either, but will be always trying to upset the rivals and be at full strength.

However, in recent days there have been reports that players’ passports have been submitted to the national team’s department for friendly matches with Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Given that the players will have to rest for a few days on their return from the camp in Uzbekistan, the possibility of the players’ absence from the four teams in the camp will be strengthened or at least they will remain with the national team for a shorter period.

Hazfi Cup.

The League Organization Committee announced that it is willing to postpone the final of the “Hazfi Cup” to a later date for the sake of  Team Melli Training Camp in Uzbekistan. However, the organizer’s condition is that there should be a firm decision on the dates and confirmation from Team Melli administrators before a conclusion is made. Hazfi Cup, which is becoming a real farce in Iran’s football with chaotic and ever-changing scheduling, was to be held mid-September.

With all these problems, Team Melli may not be able to hold the camp at all and with the recent postponement announcement by FIFA in regards to the qualifiers, the Team Melli camp might also be postponed, prolonging Skocic attempt to meet Team Melli players for another few months.

World Cup qualifiers postponed again to 2021!

FIFA has issued a statement postponing the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup 2023 for another few months to 2012.

With this further postponement, it is difficult to envisage normal league schedules and international matches to complete by the Winter of 2022 when the Qatar World Cup is scheduled to start, assuming FIFA will not address that.

Team Melli, currently in the 3rd place of the table behind Iraq and Bahrain was scheduled to play Hong Kong on the 8th of October in the return legs.

Following is the FIFA statement:

“In light of the current COVID-19 situation in many countries, FIFA and the Asian Confederation (AFC) have jointly decided that the upcoming qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023, originally scheduled to take place during the international match windows in October and November 2020, will be rescheduled to 2021.

With the aim of protecting the health and safety of all participants, FIFA and the AFC will continue to work together to closely monitor the situation in the region and to identify new dates for the respective qualifying matches. Further details on the new dates for the next round of qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 will be announced in due course.”

Coach comments signal the end for Alireza Jahanbakhsh at Brighton.

One of the many difficult transfer decisions for Brighton and Hove Albion to make this summer is the future of Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh has made just three starts in the Premier League for Brighton this season

Jahanbakhsh, 26, has started just three times from his nine appearances in the Premier League under Graham Potter and didn’t once complete a full 90 minutes.

He scored in his first start against Bournemouth last December and also netted a memorable overhead kick when he came off the bench in the following match against Chelsea.

It didn’t however result in a sustained run in the team for a player who joined Brighton for £17m in 2018 from AZ Alkmaar and is contracted until June 2023.

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His other two outings in the starting XI were during the 3-1 loss at Bournemouth and the 1-0 defeat at Everton.

He failed to make the Premier League matchday squad entirely on 19 separate occasions this season and his only run out since the restart was for the final 20 minutes during the 5-0 home loss against Man City.

Jahanbakhsh scored 34 goals from 79 appearances at his previous club AZ Alkmaar and reports from Holland suggest Ajax want to bring the Albion man back to the Eredivisie as a replacement for Chelsea-bound Hakim Ziyech.

In 2017/18 he was the leading goal scorer in the Dutch top-flight with 21 goals and finished joint third with 12 assists. Jahanbakhsh is the first Asian player ever to finish top goalscorer in a top level European league.

“He’ll be frustrated of course because he wants to play and I understand that,” said Albion head coach Potter. “He’s been great around the club, great with me, he gives his best all the time but he’s like any footballer – they want to play more.

“So it’s something we have to think about over the break and do what’s right for him and the club.

“But he’s a good player and he can help us. But again you can understand it from his perspective that he wants to play more regularly than he has.”

The contradictory comments of Brighton coach who barely managed to keep his team in the Premier League is a signal that Jahanbakhsh has no future in the club. However, the player has always insisted that he wants to remain and prove himself. Brighton wants to offload many high-cost players and Alireza Jahanbakhsh is one of them.

Sardar Azmoun Named Top Goal Scorer of Russian Football League

For the second time in history, an Iranian player wins the League Top Scorer in Europe

Sardar Azmoun,  Team Melli and Zenit Saint Petersburg center forward, has finished the 2019/20 season at the Russian Premier League as the top goal scorer after scoring the winner against FC Rostov in the season’s last fixture. Match ended 2-1 for the champion.

Both Azmoun and teammate Artem Dzyuba played 28 games, with both forwards scoring 17 goals, but the Iranian was ahead of the Russian striker by virtue of fewer goals from the penalty spot. Azmoun scored one penalty, whereas Dzyuba scored seven.

In the history of the RPL, Azmoun is the third Zenit player to finish a season as top scorer.
Much was expected of Azmoun when he was snapped up by Rubin Kazan as an 18-year-old, and he has grown to become a superstar of Asian football.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh finished the 2017-18  Dutch Eredivise as the top scorer with 21 goals. Jahanbakhsh becomes the first Asian ever to finish as the highest-scoring player in an Eredivisie campaign.

Now Azmoun is repeating a similar feat by becoming the first Asian player to win the top scorer title in Russia, and the second Iranian player to achieve this honor in a European league.

Azmoun is both the youngest Iranian to score in a Champions League game, as well as the Iranian record-holder for the most goals scored in UEFA Champions League games, having scored 4 goals in the two seasons he has taken part in the tournament. Azmoun has a great chance to add to his tally as Zenit has qualified for next season UEFA Champions League.

Azmoun is now linked to several top European football teams, from AC Milan, Napoli, and Lazio in Italy to Arsenal and West Ham in England. It is reported that Azmoun’s agent has already met this week with Napoli owner discussing players transfers.

Azmoun leads Zenit to the Russian League title.

 Zenit St. Petersburg has won the Russian Premier League title with four games to spare in a season extended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Zenit beat third-place FC Krasnodar 4-2 on Sunday to move 13 points clear of Lokomotiv Moscow, which is second and can win a maximum of 12 more points.

Zenit retained the title it won last year and now matches CSKA Moscow with six overall. Only Spartak Moscow has won more Russian titles with 10.

Team Melli forward Sardar Azmoun gave Zenit the lead with a fifth-minute goal before Daniil Utkin leveled for Krasnodar. A penalty by league top scorer Artyom Dzyuba restored Zenit’s lead but Utkin answered again just after the break for 2-2.

Azmoun soon scored Zenit’s third goal of the game and Alexei Sutormin extended the lead to secure the win.

Zenit has won all four of its games since the Russian league resumed last month amid the coronavirus pandemic. The season was suspended in mid-March and resumed June with only a limited number of spectators allowed in the stadiums.
Azmoun has scored 13 goals this season for the champions 12 of them in the league. He is currently ranked third in the top scorers’ list which is lead by his teammate Artem Dzyuba with 21 goals.

Alireza Beiranvand to Antwerp

In the winter transfer window this season, Alireza Beiranvand signed a three-year contract with the Belgian side Antwerp, The Team Melli and Persepolis club goalkeeper was supposed to start his term in Belgium by today 1st July 2022, however, the COVID19 endemic and travel restrictions have postponed Beiranvands joining the team.

Beiranvand face difficulties attending Antwerp’s medical tests earlier due to the restrictions imposed.

The Team Melli goalkeeper, who had twice booked a ticket to travel to Belgium, stayed in Tehran due to flight restrictions. Persepolis Club also wanted to continue negotiations with their Belgian counterpart to keep Beiranvand until the end of the current season of the Persian Gulf league, but Antwerp in an official response to Persepolis Club’s letter called for Beiranvand’s presence in Belgium and did not allow him to continue his activities with Persepolis. Therefore, Beiranvand will not be able to participate in Persepolis training from today to wait for the flight to Belgium.

The latest announcement by the EU countries included a list of countries that are allowed to travel. Iran is not on the list hence Beiranvand needs to wait that much longer.

FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers may be held behind closed doors.

With COVID19 still prevalent, Team Melli is likely to play the rest of FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers behind closed doors.

After months of uncertainty following of the postponement of the qualifiers, the schedule for the second round of the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers in the Asian Zone was announced, and Iran will play four crucial matches in October and November this year. However, the venues have not yet been announced yet by the World Football Governing body and AFC, and it is unclear whether the games will be hosted by the home team as standard, and whether spectators will be allowed entry into the venues. There is a possibility that the rest of the qualifiers will be played in a third country behind closed doors.

This possibility of action by FIFA and AFC is due to the continuing outbreak of coronavirus in different countries of the world. Corona is currently on the rise in some countries, and experts predict that the spread of the disease will worsen in the fall, and health protocols need to be implemented more vigorously. In this regard, the head of the UEFA Medical Committee announced that all national games will be held in the fall without spectators and that fans will not be able to return to the stadiums at the moment.

Such ruling by the Europeans could also be implemented in Asia which would practically deny the Iranian fans from attending matches in Azadi.

 * Effect of behind closed door games on Team Melli Chances.

Is this ban complicating Team Melli’s chances of qualifying? Although FIFA will announce its decisions after consulting with local confederations, it is clear that some Asian countries are less prepared than the Europeans and developed countries in terms of health protocols. As a result, due to the Iranian Premier League games being played behind closed doors, the AFC may not allow Iran to host spectators in the fall, and the national team will be forced to face its rivals without the support of the fans. Iranian fans have been a hallmark of Team Melli’s success throughout the years.

The players and managers have bee counting of home advantage in their remaining games specifically against Bahrain and Iraq, the two contenders of this group.

Due to the fact that Team Melli has played three away games, the matched in Tehran without the presence of spectators will be slightly in favor of the rivals. Currently, Iran is in third place in its group due to poor results of the previous round and the loss against Bahrain and Iraq under former coach Marc Wilmots. Iram has 4 points less than its two group leaders, namely Iraq and Bahrain.

Accordingly, the schedule of the Iranian national football team’s return matches was announced as follows:

Iran – Hong Kong (Thursday, October 8)

Cambodia – Iran (Tuesday, October 13)

Iran – Bahrain (Thursday, November 12)

Iran – Iraq (Tuesday, November 17)

Ali Kaffashian back in FFIRI post

The former president and current first vice-president of the football federation FFIRI finally showed up at his workplace after months of absence due to administrative suspension.

According to ISNA, Ali Kaffashian, the first vice-president of the football federation, appeared at the federation’s headquarters this morning (Saturday) after months of absence. This is due to the reduction of his ban. According to the current statute, he can claim to be the Head of the federation, which is not to the liking of many board members of the.FFIRI

Kaffashian has so far failed to attend board meetings to determine his return to the Football Federation. He could not meet with Baharvand, the second vice-president and current Head of the federation, due to Baharvand’s presence in the league organization. Ali Kafashian’s return to the federation comes as he implicitly opposes the opposition of some members of the board with his return, saying he is not interested in returning if there many oppositions.

Maryam Shojaei to be honored.

Maryam Shojaei, who mounted a campaign — first anonymously and later publicly — that led to Iran allowing women to attend men’s soccer matches, is being honored with the Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award, ESPN announced Tuesday.

The award is part of the Sports Humanitarian Awards, which typically are handed out during the week of the ESPYS. This year, the awards will be given out on various ESPN programs.

 

Women had been banned from watching men’s games since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, with only a few exceptions made for small groups on rare occasions. Shojaei, whose brother Masoud Shojaei is the captain of the men’s national team, initially criticized the ban on social media anonymously. She then started a five-year battle to allow women to see matches live in her country.

Shojaei, attended the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2015, displaying a banner but keeping her identity hidden. By 2018, she had helped create the #NoBan4Women petition, and she went to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Russia, where her banners were confiscated but she revealed her identity.

She kept pushing FIFA to uphold its policies against gender discrimination, and eventually, the soccer governing body sent a delegation to Iran, which resulted in women being allowed to attend men’s international matches.

In October 2019, women were allowed to watch the Iranian men’s national team beat Cambodia 14-0 in Tehran in a World Cup qualifier. The initial lot of 3,500 tickets for women sold out almost immediately, and an additional 1,100 were released — about 5% of the total tickets in the stadium.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has urged Iranian authorities to open up stadiums to women for domestic league games, not just World Cup qualifiers.

“This is a very positive step forward, and one which FIFA, and especially Iranian girls and women, have been eagerly waiting for,” FIFA said in a statement in October 2019. “The passion, joy and enthusiasm they showed today was remarkable to see and encourages us even more to continue the path we have started. History teaches us that progress comes in stages and this is just the beginning of a journey.

“Consequently, FIFA now looks more than ever towards a future when ALL girls and women wishing to attend football matches in Iran will be free to do so, and in a safe environment.

“There can be no stopping or turning back now.”

The ESPYS will be televised on ESPN on June 21 at 9 p.m. ET. The Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award is sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Arsenal ‘closing in’ on transfer of Sardar Azmoun with the help of former Gunner Andrey Arshavin

  • 15 Jun 2020, 10:44

ARSENAL are reportedly in negotiations with Zenit Saint Petersburg over a deal to bring Sardar Azmoun to the Emirates.

Dubbed the “Iranian Lionel Messi”, the 25-year-old has previously attracted the interest of Liverpool as well as Celtic, and now the Gunners are said to be in for the forward.

Andrey Arshavin could help Arsenal sign Zenit Saint Petersburg striker Sardar Azmoun
Andrey Arshavin could help Arsenal sign Zenit Saint Petersburg striker Sardar Azmoun

According to Area Napoli, the North London giants have made contact with former fan favourite Andrey Arshavin over a move to sign Azmoun.

Arshavin is currently in charge of transfers at the Russian side, and it has been claimed that Arteta is hoping his friendship with his former team-mate could lead to the potential signing.

It has been stated that further talks between the two are planned as Arteta looks to sign a striker in the upcoming transfer window.

The report also adds that Arsenal are weighing up whether Azmoun would suit the Premier League.

Should they decide to press ahead with a move, Arshavin could help fast-track negotiations between the two clubs.

Along with Arsenal, it has been said that West Ham and Leicester are keeping tabs on the striker while the Italian club Napoli have been asking question recently but decided that the player is too expensive for the club budget.

Azmoun is a remarkable player by any standards. He is the only Iranian player who has yet to play a single minute for any Iranian club in the league. While still in the youth team of Sepahan Esfahan and on the brink of making his full debut in the Persian Gulf League, the Russian club Rubin Kazan offered Sepahan a relatively substantial amount to get his services.

Azmoun has scored 32 goals in 50 international for Team Melli. A remarkable feat for the youngster. He has already scored in the European Club competitions. Azmoun is a great header of the ball too, the type that the English football take a pride in.