Unsettled Nekounam signs a contract extension with Esteghlal.

The negotiations between Javad Nekounam and the UAE club, Al Sharjah has failed as the sides failed to reach an agreement. Esteghlal and Team Melli Captain returned back to Tehran empty handed. The Esteghlal Club CEO , Ali Fathollahzadeh immidiateli claimed  that he has secured Nekounam signature on a contract extenson. The midfield player will extend his contract with the Esteghlal club for another season. This comes in the aftermath of intense disputes between the player and the club which started shortly after the start of the last season.
Esteghlal Club
Esteghlal Club

Nekounam like many other players in the team, were not given their dues which resulted in threats and counter threats. Nekounam was looking for a club other than Esteghlal, but very few clubs in Iran could afford his wage demands. Al Sharjah, a club in UAE that Nekounam has already played for .  had showed a strong interest in Nekounam but were not ready to meet the Iranians’ wages demand nor the requested transfer fee.

While it seems that the matter was coming to an end with Nekounam return from the UAE and failure of his transfer to materialize, Amir Ghalenoei did not hide his displeasure by the commotion that Nekounam has created which has affected the team’s preparation and also affected the morale of other players.  The Esteghlal coach made his views public which prompted Nekounam to react and  threaten to expose Esteghlal club mismanagement and the disregard for contracts and continuous false promises to players.

3 Team Melli players in suspension trouble.

With less than a week remaining for the Persian Gulf League kick off, 3 notable Team Melli players are under the threat of suspensions.

Yaghoub Karimi , Shoja’a Khalilzadeh and Abolghasim Dehnavi are bring investigated by the football federation’s disciplinary committee for what is deemed as an act of deceptions and betrayal.  All the 3 players have signed contracts with Perspolis club and received partial payments , but subsequently , they also signed with Sepahan Esfahan club! Karimi & Khalilzadeh are still training with Sepahan , while Dehnavi  returned back to Perspolis after serving a temporarily suspension by the FFIRI.  All the three players have been named in the latest list by Carlos Queiroz for the training camp in Portugal.

Persian Gulf Cup League

 

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]assanzadeh , the Head of the FFIRI Disciplinary committee, was present in a meeting between Perspolis and Sepahan management in the aftermath of the two major clubs trading accusations and threatening legal action against each other. With the Federation being present as observer, the two clubs decided to end their conflict without involving the legal authorities and the federation. The players who received money after signing the initial contracts will have to return it back and any official complaints will be withdrawn. However , Hassanzadeh insisted that all the players involved will be liable to prosecution for what he labeled as “a blatant violation of confidence and written contract”. The head of the Disciplinary committee, said that such acts of betrayal spoils the good name of football in Iran and leads to conflicts within the relationship amongst individuals, or between individuals and organizations putting the name of football in disrepute.

There was no word on the nature of the punishment , although it is not normally customary for the FFIRI to pass heavy sentences in Iran. The players might be given two or three match suspension plus a nominal fine. Anything beyond that will be extremely unique in Iran’s football.

List of Team Melli players announced

 

Iranian football federation announced the list of more than 40 players who will participate in the training camp of Team Melli. The squad will be shortlisted to 25 players who will joining the next phase of Team Melli camp in Portugal. The camp will be concluded with a friendly match on FIFA Day of  14th August. The opposition for Team Melli is not clear nor was it officially declared. While Kaffashain , the head of FFIRI has mentioned a friendly match with Benfica, other sources have mentioned the national Team of Gabon..

None of the foreign based players are included in the list, however , it quite likely that players such as Dejagah , Ghoochannejad, Masoud Shojaei and Daniel Davari will be joining the squad in Portugal or be available for the match against the African team.

Notable absentees form the list are  Karim Ansarifard, Shehab Gordan, Ali Karimi, MOhammad Nosrati , Pejman Nouri, Mehrdad Pooladi and Gholamreza Rezaei.

 

no Name
 GOLAKEEPER
1 AHMADI, Rahman
2 BIRAVAND, Alireza
3 HAGHIGHI, Alireza
4 MAKANI, Sousha
   
 DEFENDERS
5 BEIGZADEH, Hashim
6 DEHNAVI, Abolghasim
7 ESMAEIL-BEIGI, Vahid
8 FAKHERIDINI, Milad
9 HAJSAFY, Ehsan
10 HAMOUDI, Ali
11 HEYDARI, Khosrow
12 HOSSEINI, Jalal
13 KHALILZADEH, Shojaa
14 KHANZADEH, Mohammadreza
15 MAHINI, Hossein
16 MONTAZERI, Pejman
17 SADEGHI, AmirHossein
   
 MIDFIELD
18 EBRAHIMI, Omid
19 HADDADIFAR, Ghassim
20 HAGHIGHI, Reza
21 JABBARI, Mojtaba
22 MOSALMAN, Mohsen
23 NEKOUNAM, Javad
24 NOURI, Milad
25 NOURI, Mohammad
26 RAHMANI, Bakhtiyar
27 TEYMOURIAN, Andranik
   
 FORWARDS
28 AFSHIN, Arash
29 EBRAHIMI, Mohammad
30 GHARIBI, Milad
31 GHOLAMI, Mohammad
32 GOUDARZI, Shahram
33 HASSANZADEH, Ahmad
34 HATAMI, Farzad
35 KARIMI, Yaghoub
36 KHALATBARY, MohamadReza
37 NAZARI, Mohammad Mehdi
38 OULADI, Mehrdad
39 RAFKHAEI, Jalal
40 SADEGHIAN, Payam
41 SHOJAEI, Mostafa

Andranik Teymourian re-joins Esteghlal.

Team Melli midfield player , Andranik “Ando” Teymourian has a signed a one- year conditional contract with Esteghlal club of Tehran. Last season , Andranik played for the lowly Al Khraitiyat club in the Qatar professional league,  his contract was not renewed at the end of the season. However, Teymourian’s agent , his own brother Serjik a former Esteghlal player,  is still engaged in negotiations with an unnamed Qatari club for the possibility of signing a deal. In case of the success of that negotiation, Teymourian will return back to Doha and his contract with Estgehlal will be rendered void.

This conditional release clause was agreed by Estghlal’s CEO, Ali Fathollazadeh , who boasted about his ability to lure back Teymourian to his club while taking a swipe against the critics who have accused him of financial mismanagement. The beleaguered boss of Esteghlal said that the financial terms that that Teymourian is currently is negotiating with the Qatari club , cannot be matched by Esteghlal in financial terms.  He also said that “it will be cruel for the club to stand against Ando’s  with such a lucrative offer. If it materializes , we will release him to join the Qatari team and cancel this contract which he just signed with us.”

Ando celebrating TeamMelli victory against South Korea in Ulsan.
Ando celebrating TeamMelli victory against South Korea in Ulsan.

The club is notorious for deferring payments to the players and staff. Many players are still owed money, and cases have been escalated to the courts. Only a few days back Hanif Omaranzadeh , who finally received his check for last season , complained that the Esteghal check he was given has bounced back and the bank has returned it. While there was another interesting case , when Fatholahzadeh offered, Amir Hossein Sadeghi , Omaranzadeh’s partner in defense,  his own Lexus car , because the club has could not afford to pay him the money owed!!  It is not cl;ear whether Sadeghi will keep the car or return it to Fathollazadeh when the player eventually receives the money from the club.

There is also another twist in Teymourian’s case as  there are still some outstanding payment which is due to the player from the time he played for Estghlal.

On another note, Esteghlal has sent the list of 25 players that will be taking part in Esteghlal’s match in the AFC quarter finals match against the Thai team. The name includes Javad Nekounam who has negotiated a contract with Sharjah club.

Both the top Tehran clubs, Perspolis and Estghlal have chronic cash problems. Perspolis have been deducted points by FIFA a few years back for failure to pay its players and might face a similar situation if the prolong case with several foreign players and coaches are not concluded.

More rumors on Team Melli players’ transfer.

More rumors emrged about the transfer of two of Team Melli players.

“Al Ittihad ” newspaper of Abu Dhabi and “Al Raya” of Qatar have both reported that Javad Nekounam is in serious negotiation with Al Sharjah club of the UAE league. The club has initially started contact with the unsettled Nekounam back in May , however , it is believed that the high salary demand by the Team Melli Captain, has dampened the enthusiasm of the Emarati club.  Sharjah already has 3 foreign players and looking to complete their allowed quota by adding the services of Nekounam, who played for Sharjah before his transfer to the La Liga club, Osasuna.

If Nekounam joins Sharjah , he will be the 2nd Team Melli player to join a UAE league club for next season , after Khalatbary’s transfer to Ajman Club. This is despite the claims by the Iranian FFIRI officials of banning transfers to the UAE after its federation changed the name of their professional league of UAE to “Arabian Gulf League.”

Javad Nekounam is one of many Esteghlal players who have been ill-treated by the club management with its failure to respect the contracts. The cash strapped league title holder has been a bad payer as many players have complained that they have not received their wages. Esteghlal is one of many clubs currently on the black list of FFIRI because of financial irregularities and the claims against it by many ex-players and staff.

Meanwhile , Nekounam’s long time teammate in Osasuna, Masoud Shojaei–Soleimani is also in the transfer market news.

 

The La Liga club , Real Valladolid has resumed negotiations with the former Osasuna Iranian Player , Masoud Shojaei , to acquire his services for the next season. The problem remains the player’s salary demand in which Real Valladolid is negotiating to reduce.  The strong point of the negotiations is that the player intends to continue his career as a player in the top division in Spanish. Shojaei has offers from  Arab leagues, but prefers to remain in Spain . Valladolid aims to get Shojaei to supplement the Spanish midfielder  Oscar Javier González Marcos “Oscar” , allowing the Spaniard some rest before start of the next season , given the problems he has to regain fitness after injury caused the end of  last season .

Dejagah recovers from injury.

 

Fulham’s Iranian midfielder Ashkan Dejagah made his return from injury on Sunday as the premier league team defeated C.S. Cartagines in a friendly match.

Dejagah came off the bench in the 45th minute and replaced Damien Duff.
Ashkan Dejagah finished last season on a bitter note.  The Fulham winger had to pre-maturely end his season due to ankle surgery.  This not only put an end to his Premier League campaign, but also sidelined him for 3 crucial World Cup Qualifiers for Iran.  Fulham saw a dip in form after losing Dejagah, but Iran managed to secure 3 straight wins and book a ticket to Brazil.

The upcoming season will certainly be one of the most important in Dejagah’s playing career, both at the club and national level.  Arguably Fulham’s best player last year (aside from Berbatov), Ashkan will be looking to help his side earn at least a top ten finish and even push for a Europa spot.  As for Iran, Carlos Quieroz’s squad is not just happy to be there.  Iran is going to Brazil with the aim of competing hard and showcasing their talents on a global scale.  The inclusion of Dejagah in the starting 11 makes for a national team that is not to be taken lightly.

Ashkan Dejagah in Fulham jersey
Ashkan Dejagah in Fulham jersey

Although it took Dejagah some time to adjust to English football last season after arriving from Wolfsburg, he soon became one of the sparks of offense for an often flustered Fulham forward line.  His ankle injury came at a time when he was playing fast paced attacking football and combining well with Dimitar Berbatov.  Based on his play before his setback, it seems logical that Dejagah will be Martin Jol’s first choice right winger if deemed fully fit.

As for his national team, Dejagah’s impact was felt instantly for Iran.  In his debut against Qatar in Tehran, Dejagah scored two goals and had the Qatar defense line on their heels for 90 minutes.  In a game against South Korea when Iran had fallen a man down, Dejagah was often seen single-handedly starting counter-attacks and frustrating Korean fullbacks on the way to a victory for Iran

But for now, Dejagah is taking things step by step and focusing on training with his Fulham teammates again.  If he can get back to his old form, both Fulham and Iran can surprise teams in the English league and World Cup respectively.

Dan Gaspar Has A Chance To Be Part Of Something Big In Iran

July 13, 2013|
Jeff Jacobs
The Courant

Dan Gaspar answered a question about the biggest misconceptions that Americans may have about Iran, not with a story of suffering, but with a story of suffrage.

“We were in South Korea when the presidential elections were going on in June,” Gaspar said. “The Iranian ambassador in South Korea came to our hotel. He had a box with pieces of paper. The players and the other members of our contingent with an Iranian passport were allowed to vote. And they did.

“You talk about misconceptions. Who would have thought, with the perceptions that most of the world has about Iran, that they’d have a ballot box during World Cup qualifying for the players to exercise their right to vote? That occurred. And once the elections ended, among the administrators and players, there was jubilation.”

Final score: Iran 1, South Korea 0. Destination: 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Final score: With 50.7 percent of more than 36 million votes cast, moderate Hasan Rowhani was elected to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president. Destination: Well, the hope is better relations between Iran and the West, especially the U.S.

“It was a perfect storm,” said Gaspar, the Iran national soccer team assistant coach from Glastonbury. “We qualified first in our group, which had never happened in Iran’s history. The most optimistic person wouldn’t have given us any chance of beating South Korea in South Korea.

“Couple that with the newly elected president, where there seems to be a renewed hope and aspirations for some modernization, and that combination of politics and sport gave the entire country a different feeling. It was magical.”

The streets of Tehran had been filled celebrating the stunning victory by Rowhani, a cleric supported by Iran’s reformers in hopes of better foreign relations, greater freedoms and a relaxation of international sanctions. Four nights after the election, when the team won in South Korea, Gaspar said players received texts and emails that “millions” were celebrating the combination of events.

Arriving in Tehran, the team was summoned by both Rowhani and Ahmadinejad. Their arrival was covered by national television, evidence of how much the sport means to the soccer-passionate Iranians.

“The pressure to qualify was intense, Iran desperately wanted to compete in Brazil,” Gaspar said.

Dan-Gasper - Team Melli goalkeeping coach
Dan-Gasper – Team Melli goalkeeping coach

In 2009, Iran played South Korea to a 1-1 draw in the qualifier, falling short of the 2010 World Cup. Ahamadinejad had just been re-elected in a disputed election and six players had taken to the field in green wristbands in what was seen as support of candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi. There were mass demonstrations in Tehran. Ahmadinejad, according to the The New York Times, was also rumored to have been involved in the hiring and firing of coach Ali Daei and the inclusion of some players on the national team. There, too, had been riots in 2001 when Iran was eliminated from the 2002 World Cup qualifier by Bahrain.

There was plenty of tension this time, too, between head coach Carlos Queiroz and South Korea coach Choi Kang-Hee. When South Korea played in Iran last year, Choi claimed Iran had made the stay as uncomfortable as possible with poor training facilities and accommodations and with visa snags. Choi said he was going to make life very painful for the Iranians in South Korea. Queiroz said Choi had embarrassed the Iranian people and called for an apology. Instead Choi said, “I will defeat Iran no matter what. Queiroz will be watching the Brazil World Cup on TV.”

From there, it got a little bizarre. South Korea player Son Heung-Min had claimed he would make Iran captain Javad Nekounam shed “tears of blood.” Queiroz would be photographed in the days leading into the game with a picture of a grim Choi taped to his shirt. After the game, Queiroz gave Choi what appeared to be an “up yours” hand gesture. Cans and water bottles were thrown from the stands.

“Coach Choi made some unfortunate remarks,” Gaspar said.

“He said he preferred Uzbekistan, our direct competition to qualify for the World Cup, and that he didn’t like Iranians. Those comments really motivated our staff and our players and gave our players motivation to compete. And they did. Sometimes words do matter. Those words helped us secure a victory.

“I think what he said was out of order. Does Iran have the facilities South Korea does? No. Perhaps it didn’t meet his expectations but Iran gave the South Koreans the best they had. There was no intention or mind games to make their visit unpleasant.”

When Gaspar was invited in 2011 to coach by Queiroz, he agonized over the pros and cons of leaving as Hartford coach for Iran. He also had worked with Queiroz on four different continents, including as Team Portugal goalkeeper coach for the 2010 World Cup, and such opportunities are rare jewels.

“Leaving Hartford was probably the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in my career,” Gaspar said. “Pat Meiser and Walter Harrison were fantastic to me. There have been times during this journey when I wondered if it was the right decision. Qualifying for the World Cup and going to one of the mother countries of football, makes it all worthwhile.”

He lives in a high-quality apartment in Tehran. He comes home every two months. Still there are long stretches away from his wife and family.

“It hasn’t been easy,” said Gaspar, who holds dual Portugal/U.S. citizenship. “My family has been extremely supportive. Without them, there is no way I could have had these wonderful experiences.

“Tehran is like every other major city. It’s congested. Driving is insane. I refuse to drive. We have a chauffeur and an interpreter with us at all time. I’m with the national team so maybe that isolates me, but I feel extremely safe and secure. I have never felt threatened in any way. In terms of the general public, they’re kind, understanding, respectful. They’ve accepted us. Politics is not something in our discuss

Haghighi, Gordan , Ahmadi, Rahmati & Dan Gasper
Haghighi, Gordan , Ahmadi, Rahmati & Dan Gasper

ion.”

Iran, which previously had advanced to the World Cup in 1978, 1998 and 2006, has matches scheduled each month, save December and January, leading into the World Cup and will compete in the Asian Cup. Because of sanctions, it’s not easy to get teams to come to Iran or to go to other countries. Visas are difficult to secure.

One of great joys for Gaspar has been the team’s improvement.

“Their individual skill sets are very good, comparable to most countries in the world,” Gaspar said. “The challenge we had was psychologically, emotionally. They tend to overreact. They tend to lose focus. They tend to get easily disturbed. That is something we had to try to change. We had to try to develop more self-confidence to succeed in the international arena.

“Keep in mind many of these players had never left Iran. So they really don’t have the ability to compare themselves to other soccer nations. We devised training sessions that would enhance their competitiveness and 11 vs. 11 read of the game. They were encouraged to evaluate multiple conditions and come up with the correct decision. They improved each session. Their confidence grew. Their mentality to compete got more aggressive.”

Gaspar said he’ll occasionally bump into people outside Iran who’ll ask him what he’s doing. And when he answers, he gets “the stare.” They don’t know what to say. He listens to the BBC to CNN and other outlets. He hears the rhetoric.

“Sometimes I don’t feel that’s where I’m living,” Gaspar said. “I’m a soccer coach. I’m not a politician. I’m about human beings. You want to be open to other cultures.

“Sports transcends politics. However we do know that victories and losses create a tremendous nationalistic fever. We knew for three years that we had 75 million on our shoulders with the hope of making this World Cup.”

A perfect storm lightened that load and gave 75 million people hope.

Ronaldo & Gaspar
Ronaldo & Gaspar

Another lesson for a Team Melli player.

Another Team Melli player has learned about professionalism, the hard way.

Karim Ansarifard, the young and promising Perspolis player has been snapped up by Tractorsazi Tabriz club after Ali Daei told his protégé that he is not wanted in Perspolis anymore.

Karim Ansarifard , had a dispute with the club centered around the contract payment. Ansarifard demanded an advanced payment in lieu of signing the new contract, which the club refused to accept. Ansarifard , lowered the percentage of the advance payment , but Perspolis would not entertain his demand fearing that other players would demand the same. During all this period of dispute, Ansarifard refused to report for training, which was started earlier than usual by team coach Ali Daei. Eventually when Ansarifard found the going tough , he accepted Perspolis club offer and was ready to sing the renewal of the contract, however , the situation has changed. His long absence from training, rendered him unusable by Daei, Ansarifard missed three weeks of workout. His inclusion in the team would have disrupted the rhythm of the team, according to Daei. The young hero suddenly found himself a persona non grata at his club.

Karim Ansarifard
Karim Ansarifard

It was only question of time before the young gun would find a club. Ansarifard is the second ex-Perspolis player that Tractorsazi has recruited this season after the acquiring the services of Ali Karimi.

Daei , the former Team Melli coach and the current Perspolis head coach, has written a new chapter in Iranian football culture by his action towards Karim Ansarifard. The Ardabil born player was one of the discoveries of none other Ali Daei himself and under his direction and supervision, the young striker advances remarkably to reach Team Melli and eventually join one of the top teams in Iran.

In a country where lack of discipline is rife amongst the players, coaches and management, meddling and intrusion in each other’s jobs is conventional, it was very much expected that the “Well doers” clan will start meddling in Daei’s decision by advising him to take back Ansarifard. In Iran’s football, the “Well doers” are a plenty. They could be anyone from the guard at the gate of the training ground all the way up to members of the Parliament. They are very opinionated lot who seem to know it and know the best of every football matter. It was a very interesting situation and a real test for Daei’s strong character. Whether he succumbs to peer and public pressure, or will he stand his ground like any respectable professional person , was a matter that many experts were waiting to hear the result of. Will he do a Carlos Queiroz act and risk leaving two influential and senior players from Team Melli (Aghili & Rahmati) because of disciplinary matters, or will Ali Daei just yields to pressure created by all the interferences, the begging , the pleading and all that jazz?.

 Finally, Daei’s approach prevailed. That is a milestone in Iran’s football; a small one perhaps but a significant one nevertheless. It has been a hard lesson for several Team Melli players and an eye opener for most of them. The way professionalism works, might not please some individual players, but it surely enhances the team organization and standard.

Futsal news

The Spanish coach Jesus Candelas Rodrigo extended his contract with Iran futsal team until April 2014 on Tuesday .
Candelas was appointed as technical director of Iran futsal team in last September. The 55-year-old Spaniard replaced Ali Sanei in January after Iran was eliminated from the 2012 Futsal World Cup, suffering a 2-1 loss against Colombia in the round of 16.

He extended his contract for six months more after the Iranian futsal team won the Gold Medal in the 4th Asian Indoor games in Incheon , South Korea last week.

Candelas has coached Spanish futsal teams Interviu Boomerang, Mejorada and Caja Segovia.

In the meantime, report press reports in Tehran have have indictaed that the Russin Futsal team , Norilsk Nickel have reached agreement with two Team Melli futsal players. Mostafa Nazari, Iran’s goalkeeper and Asghar Hassanzadeh to play in  Russian club. There were further negotiotion with Asia’s top scorer and Team Melli futsal player Hossein Tayebi, however , he is contract bound with GITI pasand.

Tavokali and Hassanzadeh
Tavokali and Hassanzadeh

Queiroz told to reduce his staff.

Ali Kaffashian, the head of the FFIRI has been quite accommodating to the Team Melli coach , Carlos Queiroz as he was counting on the Portuguese coach to save him from certain dismissal by public demand, if Iran failed to reach the World Cup. Queiroz managed to achieve that , despite a stuttering start, and saved Kaffashian blushes. However, there is one serious issue that Kaffashian is going to insist upon Queiroz and it seems that it could reach to a loggerhead.

Due to the over-extended budget of the football federation , Kafashian has demanded that Queiroz reduce his Team Melli technical staff by two.

Currently , Carlos Queiroz has a mini army with him consisting of  Omid Namazi , Dan Gasper, Markar Aghajanian , Antonio Simoez, Mikko Kujala (Fitness trainer) , Alireza Mansourian and Ebrahim Khanban ( analyzer). He also employed his mate Vingada for a short period ,but no finical arrangement was announced for that appointment.

If the coaching staff of Team Melli is eventually reduced due to financial constraints, it is most probably the Iranian assistant coaches who will lose their jobs.

In a separate news but related to the financial situation of  the FEderation and which demands a big budget ahead of the World Cup participation, Kaffashain met Ali Larijani the speaker of the parliament. Kaffashian explained the necessity for the government and the parliament to support Team Melli by releasing funds towards the program of preparation. Larijani , expressed his satisfaction with Team Melli progress and promised to discuss the matter with the concerned parties in the parliament.