Coronavirus threatens all Asian football activities!

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Asian soccer leaders on Wednesday postponed two key meetings because of the spread of the Coronavirus.

The Asian Football Confederation was due to hold an executive committee meeting in Bahrain on March 14 ahead of a congress of member nations on April 16 in Kuala Lumpur. The AFC told The Associated Press that both gatherings had been postponed, with no new dates for the meetings given.

Governments have announced more than 20 cases of the virus in both Malaysia and Bahrain.

The virus has already impacted soccer matches on the continent with Asian Champions League games involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG postponed to April-May.

All group and playoff matches in the east zone of the AFC Cup have been delayed until April 7.

Iran is one of the worst-hit countries in West Asia with many countries suspending flight to and from Iran while most have closed the borders. Several league matches were held with spectators while many clubs advocate the postponement of the league until the situation stabilizes and the threat of the virus is minimized.

Sepahan Esfahan, Esteghlal, Persepolis and Shar Khodro are representing Iran in this season’s AFC Champions League.

Team Melli is scheduled to meet Hong Kong in Azadi Stadium on 26th March in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Asian Zone qualifiers.

FFIRI offenses triggers AFC and FIFA actions.

Iran’s Football Federation has been given serious warnings from the two governing bodies.

The disciplinary committee of the AFC has found FFIRI guilty of serious violations and slapped it with a heavy fine of US$130,000. The breach of the Law which amount to cheating in issuing the Professional License to Iranian clubs despite the fact that those clubs did not meet the standards and the bylaws of professional football clubs as specified by AFC and FIFA.

FFIRI has renewed the licenses of Esteghlal, Persepolis, Shahr Khodro and Sepahan Esfahan to enable them to compete in this season’s AFC Champions League, however, those clubs have not met all the requirements. FFIRI failed to apply the law and issued Professional Licences knowingly that there were many areas of shortfall and violations of the international charter of professional clubs.

The fine is suspended for two years by the AFC, however, a repeat of such breach of the law will mean that FFIRI has to pay the full amount in addition to another punitive measure which normally means expulsion of the club from Asian Competitions.

While AFC has been firm against FFIRI, FIFA was in no mood either with its warning to the Iranians that the bylaws of its football federation are in violation of the international standards set by FIFA and no election will be recognized until an amendment to the laws is incorporated.

In a letter to FFIRI, the International Football Federation, while expressing objections to the FFIRI’s statute, called for the postponement of the election of its President.  The election of FFIRI president, vice-Presidents, and executive board members, was supposed to be held on March 5,  The International Football Federation, which has long been examining the status of the Iranian Federation, has emphasized in its letter that the Statute of the Iranian Football Federation has not been approved and should be amended. By sending this letter to the Iranian Football Federation, the March 6 election will be canceled and postponed to another time.

Despite the so-called independence of the FFIRI in Iran, the fact remains that the Government through the ministry of Youth and Sports is the de-facto controlling authority of all sports in Iran particularly football. From appointing of Chairmen to CEO’s and selecting the Coaches of Team Melli, The government has ensured a tight and full control of the sports.

Meanwhile, many observers believe that FFIRI election hardly qualifies to be called that as it is all selection and appointment cleverly disguised as free elections.

Mehdi Taj has resigned his post as President of FFIRI due to ill health.

Iranian assistant coach for Skocic is to be named.

The Croatian Head coach of Team Melli will soon identify his Iranian assistant among five candidates.

Dragan Skočić, has taken over the post after the mediocre tenure of the Belgian Marc Wilmots in which Iran’s qualification for the next round of FIFA World Cup 2022 Asian zone qualifiers is under threat

Skocic will soon be supported by an Iranian assistant coach. There are 5 candidates in the pot for the post;

According to the reports, Karim Bagheri, Moharram Navidkia, Sohrab BakhtiariZadeh, Pirouz Ghorbani, and Vahid Hashemian are the most likely candidates for the job as Skocic aide.

Karim Bagheri: (46 Years) Assistant coach to Perspolis in two separate periods under Golamahammadi and Daei. Bagheri has not achieved FIFA Class certification but has the strongest international background as a player with 87 caps and 50 international goals for Team Melli.

Moharram Navidkia: (37 Years) the least experienced of the lot. Very little coaching experience with Sepahan. Navidkia has a complex sulky character that is not well suited for coaching.  As a player, he scored one goal in 25 caps for Iran.

Sohrab BakhtiariZadeh: (42 years) head coach of Naft Masjed Soleiman in 2016, followed by  Iran U-23 assistant coach between 2018–2019. As a player, he scored 4 goals, including the goal against Angola in the FIFA 2006 World Cup in 37 caps for Iran.

Pirouz Ghorbani: (42 years) It is not clear whether Ghorbani has any coaching experience in his CV. The former Esteghlal player who retired from football in 2015 with Saba Qom, has not been officially appointed in any coaching position. He played 6 matches for Team Melli.

Vahid Hashemian:(43 years) Selected as an assistant to Wilmots based on his knowledge of German which both Wilmots and Hashemian speak fluently. Hashemian has attended several training coaches courses in Germany and achieved German certification.  he managed  SV Halstenbek-Rellingen, for one season then  Niendorfer TSV in 2013. Hasmeian went to his old club Hamburger SV in 2017 to work in the Academy then became U17 Team assistant coach from 2017–2018 and finally with Hamburger SV (U21) in 2018 as an assistant coach before working with Wilmots.

It is clear from their experience that none of the Iranian coaches have the proper qualification and experience to be of value to the Team. The only advantage is communication which is itself a two-edged sword.

Skocic monitors Team Melli players in Belgium

Dragan Skocic headed to Europe for a close look at the Iranian legionaries players. The recently appointed head coach of Team Melli will be attending several matches involving the Iranian players.

This trip to Belgium by Skocic follows his attending of matches of Esteghlal and Persepolis matches in Kuwait and the Emirates in the AFC Champions League last week. Belgium is one of the countries with the most Iranian players in its league. Omid Ebrahimi and Saeed Ezzatollahi play for Eupen, Ali Gholizadeh, Younes Delphi and Kaveh Rezaei for Royal Charleroi and Milad Mohammadi for Gent.

On his trip to Belgium, Skocic first met with Saeed Ezzatollahi and Omid Ebrahimi and spoke with Eupen’s technical staff about the two Iranian players’ performances. Ezzatollah has not played for Eupen for a long time while Ebrahim is a fixed starter for the squad.

The Iranian teams competing in the AFC Champions League had a torrid start with only Sepahan managing a win in a total of 8 matches played by all the 4 Iranian teams. Skocic must have been concerned with such a performance especially since some of the Team Melli players have been less than ideal in those matches.

Lesson learned from AFC Champions League

In one of the worst weeks of Iranian club football, the four teams representing Iran played in the second round of AFC Champions League and managed 1 point from a possible 12 with Persepolis’ draw against the unfancied Sharjah Club of the UAE.

What have we learned from the appearance of Esteghlal, Sepahan, Shar Khodro, and Persepolis in this edition of  AFC Champions League 2020 Week 2:

  • After being the top contenders and challengers for trophies in Asia, Iranian clubs are no more than also-ran and will have serious difficulty holding to their quota in the AFC Champions League in the future or even next season.
  • Despite the admirable action by sticking to the local coaches, the Iranian clubs have unfortunately also handicapped themselves as they seem to be behind the rest in terms of tactical strategy, game-plans, changes in plans, options and knowledge of modern coaching.
  • There is an undeniable gap between the best Iranian coaches and the foreign counterparts who are working in this region. This gap in knowledge and competency requires many years to close.
  • The transition from players to successful coaches has never been easy, even if the player was one of the elites. Golmohammadi and Majidi have fared worst in the two matches as head coaches of the two most popular teams in a polarized football of Iran. The results and performances of Persepolis and Esteghlal were extremely disappointing.
  • It is quite rare to experience an Iranian team, be it a club or Team Melli come from behind and win a match. This is indicative of a perennial character weakness of the whole team, players and coaches.
  • Iranian teams DO NOT learn from their experiences and mistakes. They keep repeating the same and losing due to similar weaknesses. The accountability mostly lies in the coaches for not emphasizing these mistakes and their failures to address them in order to not repeat.
  • Protests, objections, shouting and general petulant behavior of the Iranian team have become iconic. It is a regular scene to find an Iranian player or coach protest and shout his head off. This is a serious shortcoming that always affects a player’s performance.
  • Iranian teams and coaches have very little regard to sport psychology and as such, players do not act professionally and do not stick to their tasks especially while they are losing.
  • The current league has failed to produce quality players for Team Melli. The poor standard of the League, the system, coaching and politics/corruption has ensured that the league players focus on issues unrelated while ignoring their tasks and development.
  • Only a handful of Iranian players who took part in the two matches of their team are worth mentioning. Payam Niazmand, Mehdi Ghaedi , Omid Noorafkan and possibly Mehdi Torabi are the only ones that have excelled and could be assets for Team Melli.
  • There is a goalkeeper crisis in Iran. Mehdi Rahmati was a calamity in the two matches for Shahr Khodro and his standing watching while the Uzbek player score should be taught in all football schools. Alireza Beiranvand is unreliable, weak and lacking confidence. His performance is also affected by contractual issues and the desire to leave Persepolis. Hossein Hosseini , despite a few good saves for Esteghlal, is quite inconsistent and shaky at times. The only bright keeper that played well in both matches is Payam Niazmand. The young Sepahan keeper was a pleasure to watch and should be seriously considered for Team Melli instead of Beiranvand.
  • Iran used to produce solid as a rock defender and any hall of fame of Iranian football will have defenders by the dozen as great defenders. Not anymore. It is a mystery why the defenders are deteriorating, but the answers may lie in the ineffectual coaching and guidance from technical directors.
  • The poor standard of Iranian clubs will be directly reflected in Team Melli and threatens its ambition to qualify for the World Cup.

Dragan Skocic’s first Press Conference

The first press conference of the new head coach of the Iranian national football team was held in the presence of the media on Saturday 15th February 2020.

Dragan Skočić, the Croat coach, faced a large group of media personnel, reporters and photographers in a meeting that lasted for more than 100 minutes. Skocic had a happy face and did not seem to be overwhelmed by the large number of reports and the atmosphere. The newly appointed Head Coach of Team Melli answered the questions and posed for the cameras, unwittingly. The Academy Hotel Amphitheater had one of its busiest days in a long time. No one was late, and everyone had made it to the nearby Azadi Stadium on time. Admirably, he accommodated all the reporters and photographers without much complaint.

The reception by media companions was as expected. It was Skocic’s most pressing meeting in Iranian football and now he has to get used to these crowds of reporters. Skocic first began the introductory remarks and responded to the vast majority of questions. At the end of the press conference, the Croat showed to both his backers and opponents that they must believe that Skocic has become the head coach of Team Melli.

Like many of Head Coaches press conferences, this one was mostly predictable. Much of the questions were either routines or had no direct definite answers, on the other hand, Skocic response was either diplomatic or full of positive messages.

Brief Details of the conference will be published separately.

Security of Sport Ministry objected to Daei’s appointment !

Ali Daei has claimed that his nomination for Head Coach post of Team Melli had been rejected by the Ministry of Sports. He was disqualified by the orders of the Ministry’s security department.  “I don’t know what to say when a person like me is denied his right to be a candidate for Team Melli head coach by the security wing of the Sports Ministry !!”

Daei added, ” Of course, I personally know the reasons for this disqualification.”

The head of the Ministry of Youth and Sports’s Security Department denied any inquiries or comments about Ali Daei. The circumstances of Ali Daei’s presence in Iran’s national football team remain controversial, to say the least. From the front runner, Daei found himself disqualified according to ISNA. After Ali Daei announced in an interview with ISNA that the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and specifically the Ministry’s security wing, opposed his presence in Team Melli’s technical staff, the head of the concerned department of the Ministry dismissed the claims. Sameei, told ISNA, “There was no inquiry about Mr. Daei’s security clearance, nor did the security comment.”

The Security department of the Ministry is charged with watching Iranian Athletes activities specifically during their trips abroad and ensuring compliance with the regime policies and Islamic principles like praying and keeping away from undesired athletes from countries such as Israel. It also sanctions each candidate for leadership and membership of boards of all clubs and federations. The Security department has the final say on when and where important matches and sporting events are hosted.

All athletes need security clearance before representing Iran home or abroad. This practice started decades ago to prevent opposition and terrorist organizations such as MKO from infiltrating Iranian teams and squads.

ALi Daei lost his job because he would not allow the President into the dressing room.

Hossein Kazemi recalled what happened during the match between Team Melli and Saudi Arabia in the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifiers at Azadi Stadium.

 

Ali Daei was the head coach of the team. Iran was leading by a Masoud Shojaei goal in the first half. At half-time, he was informed that the then President (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) wanted to enter the dressing room for an inspirational chat with the players and coaching staff, which is a highly unusual request under the circumstances.

Due to the sensitivity of the game and its importance for Iran’s qualification to the next round, Ali Daei, who saw this interruption as negative and might lead the players to lose focus, rejected Ahmadinejad’s request and preferred if it was done after the final whistle.

Hossein Kazemi, who was playing in the midfield in that match said: “We lost the game after the Saudi’s came from behind and scored two goals. It was our only loss under Daei, yet Ali Daei was dismissed from his post that same evening.”

Iran failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2010 held in South Africa.

Kaveh Rezaei scores a hat trick for SC Charleroi

Kaveh Rezaei became only the second Iranian player to score a hat trick in one of the European Leagues. SC Charleroi was able to count on Kaveh Rezaei with a prolific performance scored a hat-trick on 45 + 4th, 70th, 79th  versus Zulte Waregem (4-0) on Saturday. the Team Melli striker was the orchestrator of the biggest victory of his team this season against Zulte Waregem.

The first goal scored by Rezaei was assisted by compatriot Ali Gholizadeh. Rezaei, who is on loan from Clube Brugge, has now scored 11 goals for his club SC Charleroi.

Mehdi Taremi was the first Iranian to score a hat trick in the Portuguese league, Kaveh joins Taremi in this elite group.

The Croatian Legacy.

Croatian football coach Dragan Skocic (51) has been named Iran’s new coach, the football association announced there.

Rijeka’s Dragan Skocic has replaced Belgian Marco Wilmots on the bench of Iran following two consecutive defeats in qualifying for the FIFA 2022 World Cup against Bahrain (0-1) and Iraq (1-2).

According to the Iranian state news agency IRNA, Skocic has agreed to sign with the Iranian Football Federation until the end of the second round of the FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifications, or by June this year.

Another Croat on Iran bench

Skocic followed in the footsteps of Tomislav Ivic , Stanko Poklepovic , Miroslav Blazevic and Branko Ivankovic , all of whom managed the Iranian football team quite successfully.

“It is certainly an honor to be in the company of other great Croatian coaches. Croats are highly respected in Iran, so I’m really happy that I got the opportunity to be the coach of Iran, a great football nation,” says Skočić in an interview with HRT’s Ivan Dorian Molnar .

Skočić has been working in Iran since 2013 and has led four clubs, Malavan, Foolad, Knooneh be Knooneh and Sanat Naft.

“With three of the four teams I led, I made the greatest successes in their history. I think this was one logical sequence. I came up with something very tangible, and that is the position of the Iranian national team coach,” he added, noting that this is actually his biggest career challenge.

Iran “hunts” Bahrain and Iraq

Iran is currently ranked third in Group C of the second qualifying round with six points from four appearances.

Iraq tops with 11 points from five duels, the second is Bahrain with nine points from five appearances as well, with Hong Kong with five points and Cambodia with one point, and both teams also played five matches each.

The winners of all eight groups and the four best runner-up teams will compete in the third qualifying round.

Anton ‘Toni’ Usnik
Mladen Zganjer

“There will be a battle, the key matches are with Bahrain and Iraq. Both games are played in Tehran in front of a full stadium that seats 100,000 people. We have a lot of looks, I hope we pass the group. The key matches will be against my friend Srecko Katanec (current Iraq coach.). It will be interesting,” Skocic adds, pointing out that expectations are high, that everyone wants Iran to qualify for the FIFA World Cup  2022, and especially after a great performance at the last edition in Russia, where they almost passed the group with Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

Skocic’s assistants will be Mladen Zganjer, former U-21 national team coach and Toni Usnik, who worked at the Slovenian national team headquarters.