Ali Kafashian stated that Team Melli has not responded well to the aspiration of its fans and therefore Carlos Queiroz has been warned.

In an interview given to The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Ali Kafashian talking about the chances of Team Melli’s for qualification to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil explained, “ The team had good preparations and played lots of games. The Team performed well in the preliminary qualification rounds until the last two games (Uzbekistan & Qatar). In the past two games the players were not worthy of their national team status. We have two objectives to meet with the team, the qualification to the World Cup and second in the World Cup itself ,  playing well against strong teams.

“Just going to Brazil to appear in the World Cup is not important , we need to perform well and be strong in all the games. That is very important. When we observe Korea and Japan , we see that they are going forward with high confidence, but this is not evident in the Iranian national team. Team Melli has to meet the demands of people and we hope this is the case and the team performs better next time. I was really scared while watching the game with Uzbekistan. We warned Carlos Queiroz about that poor performance , but he also had his excuse and attributed the poor performance to poor preparation and because of the intense league program.

Asked if the administration meets with Queiroz to assist his preparation for Qualifying the finals , Kafashian responded that the federation has done everything possible to support Queiroz including cancelling of the Hazfi cup to give him time to prepare since he complained previously about like of preparation time. On top of our League matches , we also need to abide by the AFC program as there are few commitments that we have no option but to meet such as the AFC Champions League. We asked AFC to re-schedule the Champions League dates to allow more time for  Team Melli preparation. We have a crucial period starting September and have arranged at least two friendly matches for Team Melli.

Kafashian on a TV sports programs in response to the question whether these major changes in the Iran’s football program is worth it ? Stated: We have the World Cup once every four years and to qualify for that tournament is very important to us. However, the Cup and League games are held every year and we should not give excuses to the technical staff. They all wanted to cooperate this year, so the technical and development committee of experts and members have requested the Federation to help Queiroz. I accept that if you go to the World Cup, but the result is poor , it will be difficult. Even if we play well, but fail to qualify for the World Cup , people will not feel bad , but if we qualify but perform badly and concede four goals from Mexico , it reflects badly on us all.

About supporting football federation officials of the UAE Federation in their run for the Presidency of the AFC, Kafashian stated: Chairman of the UAE federation, is also the AFC competitions’ chairman. Our people have to discuss various issues with him and also exchange  views. Our Federation members also went to the UAE to share some ideas with them. It is all about collaboration, but the case of cancelling the friendly match is closed as we did not want to pursue it any further. That cancellation was based purely on political act. However, they need our cooperation, we do not need them.

Football Federation confirmed the presence of Iranian players have been banned in the UAE, said since the opening of the market for our players to the Persian Gulf states , our football have suffered and we have no interest in it. However , UAE has boycotted Iranian player again based on politics. It is a blessing in disguise quite like the boycott by the United States which is making our nations even more stronger and self-reliant. The sanctions are our gains.

He also delivered a warning to the clubs in regards to the professional licensing documents for submission to the AFC, Kafashian emphasized: this is only a warning, the club have to send to the AFC all relevant documents of all the Iranian league clubs in order to gain their professional license in Asia and operate as a company. To date, 85 percent of our documents are ready and to prepare these documents , they should be delivered tomorrow and we will subsequently send them to the AFC.

Kafashian also emphasized that he does not have any role in the votes issued by the disciplinary committee, he added: I also criticized the disciplinary committee decisions. There was a long delay in ruling on the Futsal case which eventually resulted in the second team Gitipasand went to represent us in Asia. Gitipasnd been successful in Asia and reached the final time that I say congratulations to them.

Abdulla Yusuf Helal scored for Bahrain after 45+1 minutes with the Iranians’ Morteza Pouraliganji equalising three minutes into the second half in the final match or the Asian Cup Group C qualifiers in Melaka , Malaysia.

Iran, who have accumulated 13 points and played five matches, opened their campaign by beating Kuwait 1-0, then Qatar 2-1, the Maldives 7-0 and Tajikistan 2-0, while the Kuwaitis first lost to Iran 0-1, then defeated Bahrain 1-0, Tajikistan 1-0 and Qatar 2-0.

The two best teams from the seven groups, the best third-placed team and the hosts will be pitted in the inaugural edition of the championship which will serve as the Asian qualifiers for the Olympic Football Tournaments. The finals will be played on 11-26 January 2014.

Final Table

 or the last few days there have been many conflicting reports about the next season’s cup competition. The Hazfi Cup, translated into the Knock out Cup , has been  the center of some controversy which all ignited by some sources within the Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) declaring that this coming season will have no Hazfi Cup competition.

The justification for the elimination of this long lasting and popular competition which includes many teams from all the IRIFF league divisions, is the fact that Team Melli is involved in the World Cup qualification and hence the cancellation of this competition will assist in the preparation of the National Team!

Hadi Ayatollahei, the Vice-President of the federation has been quoted by Mehr news agency that the Cup competition is cancelled, A few hours later a conflicting statement was given by the second Vice-President t of IRIFF, Gholamreza Behravan, who said that the federation is still awaiting a verdict by the Asian Football Confederation on the outcome, so there is no decision on the status of the Hazfi Cup yet!.

There were also some reports that the cancellation of the Hazfi cup was based on a request from the Team Melli coach, Carlos Queiroz. This prompted the Portuguese coach to issue an angry denial in which he categorically dismissed any involvement by himself or his coaching team on decision to whether the cup competition will go ahead or not.

To confuse matters further, Omid Jamali, The International Public Relations Manager of IRIFF, has denied any knowledge of any correspondence between his federations and the AFC in regards to this issue as quoted by Mehr news.

TeamMelli.com contacted AFC to check the status of this merry-go-round affair. AFC’s Shahin Rahmani confirming that a correspondence has been received by AFC requesting a ruling by AFC on the validity of canceling the Cup Competition. The request will be addressed by the two AFC committees before a decision is given.  The matter will be will be referred to the “Professional Football Ad-Hock Committee” and “Competitions Committee” on July 17 & 18 for their reference and decisions.

There is very little doubt that the cancellation of Hazfi Cup has been discussed in the IRIFF be it in a limited capacity or in a general meeting. What remains a mystery is how those who support such cancellation of a very old and established competition in Iran’s history and league calendar, will support and enhance Team Melli’s chances of qualification to Brazil in 2014. In the last three times that Iran qualified to the Finals of the FIFA World Cup and during the seventies golden era when Team Melli won the Asian Cup unprecedented 3 times on the trot , there was no such cancellation of the cup competition. In fact Iran holds the World record for total of matches played in a World Cup qualifications in 1997 , when Team Melli qualified to the World Cup 1998 in France , playing 27 matches , the cup competition was played as normal.

It remains to be seen what is the final verdict on this completion and what true justification the federation has to cancel it.

 Sources: AFC. Mehrnews, IRIFF

With about 10 days before the transfer deadline set by the league competitions committee of Iran’s Football Federation, a third of Team Melli player have transferred and changed clubs. A few of those players who have not signed extension of contracts with their present clubs are also candidates for transfer if better contracts are offered from rival clubs.

Amongst the players that are still undecided , Team Melli’s Captain and current Osasuna player , Javad Nekounam is the most prominent .  Despite the negotiation that is currently ongoing between the player and Esteghlal Club , there has been no words of agreement although the chances are strong that Nekounam would be leaving the La Liga club .

Mohammad Reza Khaltbari , who played for Diego Maradona’s club Al Wasl of Dubai , is another Team Melli player without a club after the UAE league club did not renew his contract. Another Team Melli player leaving his club for the same reason is the defender Hadi Aghili who , like Khalatbari is still undecided and out of contract.

Although such changes of clubs has become a normal occurrence in Iran for the last decade or so , such large percentage of turnovers  to Team Melli players is unique.  These transfers take more prominence when one considers Team Melli’s current commitments and participation in the FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifications matches.

With players changing clubs and naturally requiring time to adapt to their new coaches , teammates and tactical plans, this puts added burden on them and could very well affect their forms during Team Melli training camps and matches in the WC Qualification matches.

The stability of players both physically and mentally is crucial for this stage of the qualification rounds. Team Melli has not exactly performed to the expectations of the fans and the media. Two poor performances so far in the qualification, the last of was against a capacity crowd at Azadi Stadium against Qatar ,  increased the pressure on Queiroz and his players to deliver what was promised to the fans.

The next match against Lebanon away in Beirut is significant as it will shape the group outlook where South Korea seems to have already taken an unassailable lead after two matches. Team Melli requires a strong performance against what looks like the weakest Team in the group , but the competition is such that even Lebanon can create headaches for Queiroz especially with the lackluster of Team Melli’s performances of late.

The large number of players changing club could have an effect on Team Melli , of course we are hoping it will be positive.

Two goals from Payam Sadeghian’s 3rd minute penalty and the second from Yaghoub Karimi from Sadeghian’s fine assist , was enough to defeat Tajikistan and maintain Iran’s perfect record.

This win keeps Iran at the top of the table and assured qualification to the next round. in the final match against Bahrain , Iran’s U22 team required to avoid defeat for the qualification.

Iran maintained their winning start to the AFC U-22 Asian Cup qualifiers on Thursday with a thumping 7-0 win over Maldives.

Goals from Payam Sadeghian and Kaveh Rezaei put the Iranians two up inside 18 minutes, before Morteza Tabrizi grabbed another to give his side a commanding lead at the break.

Milad Gharibi then grabbed a second-half brace along with a second from Tabrizi, before Bahram Dabbagh fired home a seventh in injury-time to make it three wins from three for Iran.

In a one sided match , Iran U-22 team easily disposed of Maldives 7 -0 in the third match of AFC U-22 CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFICATION, Team Melli U22 team therefore maintained its perfect record and it verge of qualifying for the final tournaments in 2013.

Iran scored as early as the 7th minute when a foul by Maldives defender inside the boc resulted in a penalty which Payam Sadeghian converted with ease. Kaveh Rezaei  then scored on the 18th while Morteza Tabrizi  made it 3-0 on the 21st minutes. The first half ended 3-0 with Maldives using some rough tactics to stop the superiority of Iran’s players.

The win means they are currently top of Group C, three points clear of Qatar and Kuwait, who recorded 1-0 wins over Bahrain and Tajikistan respectively

AFC U-22 CHAMPIONSHIP 2013

QUALIFICATION

28-June-2012     17:00 MYT

Hang Jebat Stadium, Melaka, MALAYSIA               [Attendance]     100

MALDIVES                    IRAN

0                                 7

Scorers:  Payam Sadeghian (7 p) , Kaveh Rezaei (18) , Milad Gharibi (55, 82), Morteza Tabrizi (21,69), Bahram Dabbagh (90+1)

Maldives:  Abdulla Fayaz , Mohamed Thoriq , Amdhan Ali, Riley (c),Samdhooh Mohamed , Mohamed Thashmeen ( 46 Imaaz Ahmed) ,Ahmed Visam (73 Ahmad Ziaan Mohamed ), Mohamed Irufaan ,Guraish ,Moosa Yaamin, Hassan Wisaal(46 Abdulhannan Mohamed Sadin)

Head coach: Urbanyi Istvan Bela

Iran: Iman Sadeghi ,Vahid Esmaeilibeigi ,Shahryar Shirvand (c),Payam Sadeghian , Kaveh Rezaei (79  Bahram Dabbagh), Milad Gharibi , Ali Goudarzi ,Saeid Lotfi , Akbar Imani , Shahab Karami (86 Navid Khoshhava) ,Morteza Tabrizi (69 Saman Narimanjahan)

Head coach: Alireza Mansourian

Cautions: Hassan Wisaal (6) , Mohamed Thashmeen (28) , Moosa Yaamin (45+1), Shahab Karami  (49), Amdhan Ali (66), Guraish (88)

Iran’s National U-22 team defeated Qatar  2-1 in today’s match held in Meleka , Malaysia in the Group C qualifying matches for the AFC U-22 Asian Cup. Both Iranian goals were scored in the first half  by  minute 29 and MohammadReza Khanzadeh in 29^th  and two minutes , later in the 31st minutes Kaveh Rezaei made it 2-0. Qatar scored a consolation goal in the second half.

With this win , Iran lead the groups with 6 points

 Iran started the match playing calmly and spent most the initial 15 minutes probing the Qatari defenses.

The onslaught began in the latter stages with series of attacks from the flanks in order to open up the Qatari’s who were content to defend and

hope for a break in the counter attack. However , the sustained pressure by Iran did not allow the Qatari;s to advance much and during one of such Iranian offensives  and from a corner , Khanzadeh slotted the ball home to score Iran’s opener.

Qatar were on the brink of a quick plan change when Kaveh Rezaei robbed the ball from a Qatari defender and managed to create a one on one situation with Qatar’s goalkeeper. Rezaei made no mistake and scored Iran’s second less than 3 minutes from the first goal.

The referee from Hong Kong played on a suspicious penalty for Iran ans the rest of the match did not yield any more goals for Iran,

Qatar managed to score a consolation on the 92^nd minute.

Accordingly, Haj Amin Mohammadi has received his 2^nd yellow card and will suspended for the game against Maldives.

IRAN – QATAR

         2 – 1

AFC Asian Cup U22 Qualifications ,  Group C ,  Hang Tuah Stadium , Melaka

Scorers:  Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh  (29’) , Kaveh Rezaei   (31’)

Ali Reza Safarbeiranvand  ; Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh,  Mohammadamin HajMohammadi , Saeid Lotf , A

hmadreza  Zendehrooh  , Morteza Pouraliganji  (67’ Morteza Tabrizi ) , Yaghoub Karimi , Shahab Karami

, Farshad Ahmadzadeh (79’ Saman Narimanjahan) ,  Kaveh Rezaei  , Mohsen Mosalman (83’ Navid Khoshhava)

Coach : AliReza Mansourian

Yellow Cards:  , Mohsen Mosalman (15’) ,  Saeid Lotf (30’),  Mohammadamin HajMohammadi (71’)

Iran’s U-22 team began its campaign for the qualification to the final of Inaugural AFC Asian Cup U-22 by defeating Kuwait 1-0 in Melaka , Malaysia. The only goal of the match was scored by Amin Haj Mohammad on the 76th minute.

In a one sided match that saw Iranian players miss many scoring opportunity against rare Kuwaiti offensive moves , the match looked like another classic Iranian performance of sustain dominance without scoring  until Haj Mohammad broke the deadlock 14 minutes before the end from a immaculate free kick by Payam Sadeghian to the big relief of the team and the coaching staff.

In what was expected to be a comfortable match, especially after the brilliant result against the Italian counterparts just before the tournament started when Team Melli U22 won 6-2 , the outcomes was a familiar pattern of difficulty to finish the moves.

In the post-match Press conference , Alireza Mansourian , lamented at the fact that his team dominated and missed many scoring opportunities especially in the second half.

The Iranian coach said that he knew that Kuwait will be packing defense and depending on the counter attacks and he was ready to face such tactics. He admitted that the Kuwaitis executed their plan quite well and they were a touch opposition to break, Mansourian was satisfied with his own team performance and praised his players especially the defense line which kept a clean sheet and managed to contain the fast Kuwaiti counter attacks,

On the reasons why his team did not manage to score as freely as the lat game. Mansourian said the circumstances of the two matches were different. The Italy match was an open game where both teams were seeking to score , while in this competition , I expect most of the teams to tighten the defenses as their priority will be not to concede goals.

The Group C matches is currently taking place at a neutral venue in Melaka of Malaysia amongst Bahrain, Iran, Tajikistan, Qatar, Kuwait and the Maldives.

All the six countries were in action on the same day with Tajikistan losing to Bahrain 0-1 , Qatar defeating the Maldives 2-1.

Team Melli U-22 next game will be against Qatar on 25th June at Hang Tuah Stadium at 16:30 Local Time

Iran – Kuwait

1 – 0  (0-0)

Goal Amin Hajmohammad (76’)

Hang Jebat Stadium

Melaka of Malaysia

Iran: Piranvand ; Shirvand, Hajmohammad, Khanzadeh ,Esmaeilbeigi, Pouraliganji, Emani ( Karami 85’ ) ,Mosalman (c) ,Karimi ( Rezaei 63’ ) , Sadeghian , Gharibi ( Tabrizi 90’ )

The National Iranian U22  football team is undergoing training in its camp in Malaysia in preparation for the upcoming AFC U-22 Asian Cup qualification tournament to be held near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The team under the guidance of AliReza Mansourian and his coaching staff is one of the title contenders for the inaugural tournament which will be held next year. It contains a list of promising Iranian players who have represented the country in different age levels, including the senior level.

The competition schedule for Iran is as follows.

23 June 2012 19:30  IRAN-KUWAIT        Hang Jebat Stadium

25 June 2012 16:30  IRAN-QATAR         Hang Tuah Stadium

28 June 2012 16:30  MALDIVES-IRAN      Hang Jebat Stadium

01 July 2012 16:30  IRAN-TAJIKISTAN    Hang Jebat Stadium

03 July 2012 19:30  BAHRAIN- IRAN      Hang Jebat Stadium

Iran Team roster

Farshad Ahmadzadeh (Pars Tehran)
Ahmad Arabpour (Foulad Yazd)
Bahram Dabbagh (Tractorsazi)
Akbar Emani (Sepahan)
Vahid Esmaeil-Beigi (Mes Kerman)
Milad Gharibi(Saipa)
MohammadAmin Hajmohammadi(Malavan)
Seyed Hossein Hosseini
Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Damash)
Shahab     Karami (Shahrdari Yasuj)
Yaghoob Karimi (Naft Tehran)
Mohammadreza Khanzadeh(Rah Ahan )
Navid Khoshhava (Tractorsazi)
Baba Mohammadi (Peykan)
Mohsen Mosalman Malavan)
Saman Narimanjahan (Machine Sazi)
Alireza Piranvand (Naft )
Murteza Pouraliganji (Naft)
Bakhtiar Rahmani(Foolad)
Kaveh Rezaei(Foolad)
Payam Sadeeghian (Zob Ahan)
Iman Sadeghi (Malavan)
Eman Shirazi (Zob Ahan)
Shariar Shirvand (Machine Sazi)
Murteza Tabrizi (Pas Hamadan)
Ahmad Zendeh Rouh (Mes Kerman)

About AFC U-22 Asian Cup

The AFC U-22 Asian Cup was first proposed to the Organising Committee for Youth Competitions on 23 November 2007. It is planned for youth development and to solve the issue of insufficient FIFA match dates.

The AFC Competitions Committee held on 28 July 282008 has decided that the first edition of the Competition shall be in 2013 with the Qualification event in 2012.

The AFC U-22 Asian Cup is open to all AFC Member Associations. All participating teams will go through a qualification round with sixteen (16) teams advancing to the Final Championship which will be held in a host country to be determined.

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 14 February 2012 in AFC House. Similar to other age-limit national team competitions, the draw was conducted on Zoning Basis for West (West & Central / South Asia) and East (East & Asean). Since it is the first edition of the Competition, the rankings of AFC U-19 Championship 2010 was applied for the seeding of teams during the draw.

There are seven groups consisting of a total of 41 teams.Top two from each group and one best third placing of all groups (total 15) will qualify to the Finals of the competition.

The Host of the competition shall receive an automatic qualification to the final round of the competition.

The Competition will replace the Olympic Football Tournament Asian Qualifiers and as the second biggest national team competition after AFC Asian Cup, it is expected to attract a lot of attention from sponsors, fans, media and increase the overall value of AFC Competitions.

The Persian reign in the Asian Beach Games after edging the hosts in the final, as Palestine beats Lebanon for the bronze

21 Jun 2012

The Iran National team ended up as the gold medalists in this III Asian Beach Games. The Persian, edged China on their own home, in the final of a competition that has meant, above anything, a new and firm step forward in an Asian Beach Soccer which turns more and more competitive every tournament. The bigger experience of the Iranians, who had taken part in most of the FIFA Beach Soccer world Cups played so far -what becomes a real evidence about their outstanding role in the continent-, prevailed this time. Despite playing against such a spirited defense as the Chinese one, the Persian side managed to find the cracks in their resistance to unbalance things on their favour and edn up clinching a prize they had never had access to before.

First, it was the strong defender Abdollahi, whose long-range shot found the terrain’s collaboration to evade the Chinese goalie’s efforts past. With the score yet unleveled, although only slightly, it was Ongaro’s side the ones who needed to think, mainly, on the other end, something Iran took advantage of, getting more spaces and more seconds to decide what step to take next. With the match heading to its end, and China needing to run flat out into attack, another of the everyday-heroes in Iran, Ahmadzadeh, widened the distance and almost decided the game, as the two minutes remaining were not enough for the hosts to turn the score around. The silver medal, though, means the highest record for China in the competition, as well as their best continental result, quite a remarkable reward to share with the thousands of supporters cheering them from the beginning of the competition.

Goals: 0-1: Abdollahi, min. 3 (2); 0-2: Ahmadzadeh, min. 2 (3)