Omid Jamali , the IRIFF international relation officer , stated that Daniel Davari, the Iranian-German goalkeeper has been successfully registered in AFC records as part of Iran’s squad and is cleared to play for Team Melli in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers. However , Davari is still not cleared by FIFA to play in the World Cup qualifiers.

Apparently , there is still some issues with the player’s name as his two passports carry two different names. FIFA’s strict regulation requires that the player should carry identical details in multiple passports.

Jamali said that it is not a serious issue and the matter would be resolved in time for the next match against Qatar. Meanwhile , he also confirmed that Syria has requested a friendly match any time between January 20th to 30th , but Queiroz has turned down this offer and hence there is no friendly matches scheduled for Team Melli ahead of their official matches in AFC Asian Cup or FIFA World Cup preliminaries.

Team Melli’s coach , Carlos Queiroz has been issued a two match suspension by FIFA  for his vehement protest in the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying game against South Korea. The Portuguese coach protested heavily in two occasions and was warned by the referee before being sent to the stands by the referee.

Masoud Shojaei was also sent off in that match won by Iran.

Queiroz was immediately suspended for the next game , which was against Uzbekistan in Azadi , where Iran lost the match, however after the FIFA disciplinary committee reviewed the incident and referred to the referee and the match commissioner report , the international ruling body decided to add another match suspension. It is alleged that the Portuguese coach has used foul language against the South Korean player, while Querioz has indicated that player was constantly elbowing his players.

The ruling will leave Carlos Queiroz out of the match against Qatar will will be played in Doha.

In a statement to the press, Ali Kaffashian has indicated that IRIFF will appeal this ruling in the hope of reducing it to one match to enable Queiroz to accompany his team in Qatar.

Sources in Tehran have doubted that FIFA will change the ruling on appeal , due to the powerful lobby of the Qatar football and the influences they have amongst the governors and decision maker of FIFA.

Carlos Queiroz continues to look west in his quest to find European players with Iranian parentage or those who are eligible to play for Iran to supplement the local based players of Team Melli. His latest find is the 25 years old German-Iranian goalkeeper, Daniel Davari , whom will be included in the squad that will be announced at the end of this month, as confirmed by the Portuguese coach himself.

Davari follows Ashkan Dejagah , Omid Nazari and Reza Ghoochanejad in this respect.

The 1.92 m goalkeeper is currently playing his football in the second division of the German Football League (Bundesliga II) with Eintracht Braunschweig. Davari never featured for a main Bundesliga club , although he started his footballing career at youth level in FSV Mainz 05.

Born in Giessen (Gießen) a small university town in the German federal state of Hesse, 60 Km north of Frankfurt , with a population of approx. 76,000, (about 24,000 university students), from an Iranian father and a Polish mother, Davari eventually ended up playing youth football in FSV Mainz 05. He featured for the reserve team and played 32 matches until 2009 where he was transferred to his current team Eintracht Braunschweig.

Davari was the reserve goalkeeper until the main keeper Marjan Petković had an injury early during the 2011–12 season. Although the German goalkeeper, from Serbian descent returned back from injury , Davari’s good performance during his absence convinced the coach to keep him while Petković sat on the bench awaiting his chance to regain his starting position in the team.

Carlos Queiroz was alerted about Davari and it is believed that the Portuguese coach has been to Germany to watch the player in action. Selection of Davari is a vote of confidence in the young Goalkeeper and his abilities and will heat up the competition especially after the announcement by Mehdi Rahmati , the long standing Team Melli Goalkeeper , that he is not interested in playing with Team Melli anymore.

A glitch in the system , delayed Davari’s clearance to play for Iran. The German born footballer has two passports. The German passport has the name of Daniel while his Iranian passport has Mohammad Daniel. This discrepancy delayed the proceeding by FIFA but with some diplomatic help , the issue was resolved and Davari is eligible to officially represent Iran.

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Carlos Queiroz , Team Melli’s coach , demanded proper programming of the League and coordination with Team Melli in order to prepare for the upcoming crucial matches which will decide the fate of Team Melli in World Cup qualification.

With 2 weeks to go to the match against Lebanon as part of the Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers, Queiroz was critical about the uncertainty of the fixtures and league program and demanded that decision to be taken as soon as possible in order to set up the training camps dates for the upcoming matches both in Asian Cup and World Cup preliminaries.

Queiroz mentioned the case of Manchester clubs in England, both owned by foreigners; with City being owned by Arabs and United by Americans, yet their fixtures are quite clear from the start of the season thus allowing their national team to properly prepare its program. Queiroz said, in Iran where both sides , the clubs and the National team,  being owned by the same organization which is ultimately the government of Iran , he is surprised why they cannot coordinate in order to serve Team Melli and the clubs’ interest. He added that there is no point of setting up a camp if the players are not available because of club commitments in the league or cup competitions.

Asked if he has any difference with the head of the football league, Queiroz dismissed such notions and focused on the requirement to coordinate the programs and that is all he is worried about. “All is required to sit round the table and discuss these issues.”

As for Rahmati’s unexpected announcement of his retirement from Team Melli, Queiroz thanked the Esteghlal goalkeeper for his services to Team Melli and said that he respects his decision to retire. Every player has his own priority and motivation and Rahmati has made his decision. Queiroz added that as long as he is the coach of Team Melli , he will not invite Rahmati to the squad !

Queiroz also said that he is actively looking for replacements at that vital position and confirmed that the German-Iranian goalkeeper Daniel Davari will be in the squad when the list will be published on 30^th January.

Daniel Davari currently plays for Eintracht Braunschweig in the second tier of the Bundesliga 2.

Seyed Mehdi Rahmati, Team Melli’s goalkeeper has surprisingly announced that he will not be available for selection for Team Melli in the time being. In an unexpected move, Esteghlal’s goalkeeper who has been a fix choice for Carlos Queiroz and 3 times winner of Persian Gulf League tittles with Esteghlal and Sepahan, refrained from mentioning the reason behind his decision.

The 29 years old goalkeeper has been a target of much criticism lately and is believed to have been despondent by the negative comments especially after the recent two defeats by Lebanon and Uzbekistan in the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualification matches.

Despite the criticism , Mehdi Rahmati remain the top goalkeeper in Iran and his post in Team Melli never seemed to be in threat by any other keeper. Rahmati , however , was given a rest for the recent WAFF championship in Kuwait , along with many other fixed players. Iran failed to qualify for the next round for the first time in its history in Rahmati’s absence.

Rahmati who has 76 matches under his belt , made his debut for Team Melli in June 2004 against Lebanon while playing for Fajr Sepasi of Shiraz.

Iran fell 1 positions to be 60  in January’s FIFA world football rankings, which were announced on Thursday.

The 3 times winners of Asian Cup slide continues after the defeat at home against Uzbekistan in the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 qualifiers. In December 2012 , Iran dropped 15 position to 59. but mainatained its ranking as the forith best team in Aisa. In the new years ranking and the first of 2013 , Iran dropped in the Asian ranking as well , it is now the fifth best among Asian countries with Uzbekistan easily taking Iran’s position.

The top ten ranks remained the same as Spain stayed top while Germany remained second before Argentina and Italy.

Top Asian Teams in FIFA Ranking

	FIFA Rank	Zone Rank	Team	Pts		+/- Pos
	21	1	Japan	834	1
	34	2	Korea Republic	687	1
	36	3	Australia	674	0
	56	4	Uzbekistan	555	11
	60	5	Iran	537	-1
	86	6	China PR	415	2
	89	7	Iraq	392	3
	95	8	Jordan	375	-1
	99	9	Korea DPR	363	0
	103	10	United Arab Emirates	346	-7

AlJazeera English reports

Masoud Shojaei is the only Iranian player in Spain’s Primera Division and is an icon to young footballers back home.

Osasuna might be in a fight to avoid relegation from Spain’s Primera Division, but one of their players is still enjoying star status in his home country.

With more than forty international football caps to his name, Masoud Shojaei is an icon to many young Iranian footballers, and he takes this responsibility very seriously.

Matt Rumsey reports from Pamplona, Spain.

Tehran

Team Melli coach Carlos Queiroz has stated that Iran has quite a turbulent path towards qualification to the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.  Queiroz was interviewed by BBC Persian Service.  The Portuguese coach left for vacation after the defeat by Uzbekistan, according to the official Iranian news agency while also visiting London where the interview was conducted with the BBC.

 Queiroz said that Team Melli should have defeated Lebanon to ease the worries and reduce the pressure towards the qualification but the defeat in Beirut made it quite demanding for us. “Even with 8 of our players missing, we should have beaten Lebanon in Beirut, instead we suffered a bitter defeat which made our task that much more difficult for the qualification.” Queiroz said.

In explaining some of the problems that team has faced, Queiroz pointed to Perspolis players as the source of a major setback. “Despite Perspolis buying the best players of the league including many Team Melli players, they failed to capitalize on their resources and the team dipped in the table. When the team was not doing well in the leagues, it is natural that their forms were reflected in the national Team as well.” In veiled criticism towards his compatriot Jose Manuel , the ex-Pesrpolis Coach who was sacked by the club recently, Queiroz gave the example of the forward line of his team. ” We have Ansarifard , Ghazi and Ali Karimi in the forward line and they are all Perspolis players who did not do very well with Team melli hence reflecting their form with the club.” “ I do not have a magic wand to make to create miracles nor to create players. I have to depend on the players produced by the clubs” said Queiroz in justifying the poor performance of Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Carlos Queiroz expressed his satisfaction with living in Iran. He is impressed with the reception he is getting from the fans and wherever he ventures. He said that he has lots of friends who take him around and especially to museums and other attractions. He also said that he has no problem with the food in Iran as the country has so much good food that he spends much of his spare time eating the good Iranian Cuisine.

Carlos Queiroz feels confident and hopeful that Iran can make. However, he stressed that the team must win the remaining matches in order to fulfill this ambition.

Team Melli’s next official match will be against Lebanon in the Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers.

Watch Carlos Queiroz interview with BBC Persian

Hamadan

 The Head of Iranian football Federation , Ali Kaffashian has bemoaned the criticism and questioning targeted at his federation’s achievement in the aftermath of winning this year’s AFC Asian Federation of the year 2012.

Iran Football Federation was surprising selected by the Asian Football Confederation as AFC MEMBER ASSOCIATION OF THE YEAR, despite Iranian teams at all levels having one of the poorest results in many years and hardly winning any trophies or titles. Iran also lost its futsal title to Japan is a sport that it has dominated since its onset in Asia.

Kaffashian stated that this honor belongs to all the administrators of the IRIFF and not just a single individual and hence he believes that this collective effort represents recognition by AFC for the fine work that his federation has achieved. However, the beleaguered head of IFF thinks that there are groups in Iran who are questioning this achievement and trying to undermine the IRIFF efforts in developing football in Iran. He previously also accused those who are questioning the award of this title as people questiong the Country and its leadership !

Kaffashian, who was attending a meeting of the general assembly of the Hamadan Province football committee, did not name those are alleged to be undermining his federation.  However, his target is clearly the TV Show “Navad”, which ran a poll asking the viewers to name the most astounding event of the football season in Iran. The absolutely majority elected the option of IRIFF winning the AFC MEMBER ASSOCIATION OF THE YEAR. The influential “Navad” programs runs a SMS poll in every program in which millions participate and it is one of the more popular part of the show.

“Navad” is a weekly IRIB football program hosted by Adel Ferdowsipour and is considered as the most popular TV show in Iran. The show has raised several controversies throughout the years however, it is still considered as an important and influential tribune for all football personalities to air their grievances. The host , Ferdowsipour , is known as a bold character who does not shy away from criticizing the authorities and the federation for their shortfalls.

Brazilian Jurandir Dutra de Azevedo and Spaniard Jesus Candelas Rodrigo have been shortlisted for Iran futsal coach job.  The Brazilian is though to be assigned the the U23 team while the Spaniard will be coaching the Senior team.

Seyed Reza Eftikhari who has been recently appointed as the Head of Iran’s Futsal committee replacing the long serving Abbas Torabian,  announced that the IRIFF is in the final stages of negotiation with Jesus Candelas Rodrigo. The Spaniard has already served as the technical director of Team Melli Futsal and was part of the coaching staff of the last campaign in the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Thailand which saw and early exist from the competition.

Eftikhari said that the stumbling block currently is the availability of hard currency to pay the coach. The federation will be approaching the government and Ministry of Sport in order to streamline an arrangement enabling the Spaniard to be paid in Hard Currency.

Both the coaches have many critics in Iran for their failures in the past.

Seyed Reza Eftikhari also commented on Vahid Shamsaei and said his return to Team Melli is the sole responsibility of the coach and his committee will not intervene in his selection. Eftikhari rejected any claims that the federation has any objections to Shamsei’s return and denied any problems existing between the player , who is currently the World Record holder of international goals scored , and the futsal committee.