Tag: Asian Cup

Fifa’s Sepp Blatter calls on Iran to end stadium ban for women

Sepp Blatter has asked Iran to end its ban on women watching football matches, describing the situation as intolerable.

“When I travelled to Iran in November 2013, I was not only confronted with huge popular enthusiasm from football but also a law forbidding women from attending football matches,” the Fifa president wrote in the governing body’s weekly magazine. “I raised the topic at my meeting with the president of Iran Hassan Rouhani, and came away with the impression that this intolerable situation could change over the medium term.

“However, nothing has happened. A collective ‘stadium ban’ still applies to women in Iran, despite the existence of a thriving women’s football organization. This cannot continue. Hence, my appeal to the Iranian authorities; open the nation’s football stadiums to women.”

During the Asian Cup in Australia this year, Iran’s support included thousands of women who were free to show up in Australia, without any dress restrictions. Their female supporters also become a big hit with local media, prompting the Iranian authorities to remind the players to be wary of posing for photographs that may be posted on social media.

Iran is bidding against the United Arab Emirates to host the 2019 Asian Cup and the ban on women is expected to damage their chances of being awarded the tournament.

Blatter also criticized the continental confederations for failing to elect any women on to the Fifa’s executive committee. The committee includes three women, one with voting rights and two co-opted but they are elected directly by the Fifa Congress following a change to the statutes in 2011.

“This was hard work because the members of Fifa’s executive committee are elected by the national associations in their [continental] Congresses and … there was never, never a proposal for a woman to be finally in Fifa,” Blatter told an event at Fifa headquarters in Zurich. “We had to take the decision, and I did it in 2011 at the end of the Congress, I said we must have at least one woman on the executive committee,” he said.

“In all the confederations, there is no woman … this macho sport, and that’s a pity, we should change in the future.”

women in stadium 593x310

Team Melli Coaches performances and Queiroz vs. Ghalenoei debate.

The war of words between Ghalenoei and Queiroz has reached its peak after the conclusion of the Asian Cup 2015. The warring coaches are undermining each other verbally, with fans taking sides in debates on forums.

What does the figure say about the performances of the two coaches? It must indicate to some degree the success (or failure) of the coach, if results are indeed the catalyst.

 Along with these warring coaches, we have included another 4 former Team Melli coaches performance data for a meaningful comparison.

Head to head

Direct comparison between Queiroz and Ghalenoei indicates that the Iranian coach has better record in offense and winning categories, while the Portuguese has a better defensive record.

Both have now played in the Asian Cup. Both achieved identical result. Both lost at quarter finals stage with penalty shootout. Queiroz takes the edge with winning 3 out of 3 matches against Ghaelnoei’s 2 wins and 1 draw.

Queiroz qualified for the World Cup , but that is after being in charge for 3 years. Ghalenoei lasted only 1 year and never had the chance to coach in the World Cup qualifiers.

Offense:

 Mohammad Mayeli-Kohan had the best attacking record amongst the 6 coaches with his team averaging a very respectable 2.73 goals a match. This is indeed a high goal average scored and a record that might stand for decades. The worst offensive team was Afshin Ghotbi with only 1.30 goals per match , the second worst is Carlos Queiroz with 1.59

Winning percentage:

 the most wins percentage goes to Ali Daei whose teams had as 64% rate. Daei is , closely followed by Mayeli-Kohan with 60%. The worst is Ghotbi teams with only 53.33% while the second worst is Queiroz with only 54.35%.

Defense:

Best defensive team goes for Carlos Quieroz with his team conceding .52 goals per match. The worst defense was Branko Ivankovic teams conceding shy of a goal per game ,  at 0.93.  Ghotbi was second worst in defense close to Ivankovic at .90 goal per game.

We leave it to you to decide who the better coach in terms of performance is. What is clear for us , though , is that Carlos Queiroz record , is far from being the best overall coach despite holding the job for 4 years now.

Table

 # Name Nationality Matches W D L win % GF GA GFPG GAPG
1 Mohamad MAYELI-KOHAN Iran 40 24 10 6 60.00% 109 27 2.73 0.68
2 Branko IVANOKOVIC Croatia 56 33 14 9 58.93% 115 52 2.05 0.93
3 Amir Ghalenoei Iran 17 10 6 1 58.82% 30 12 1.76 0.71
4 Ali Daei Iran 25 16 6 3 64.00% 44 15 1.76 0.60
5 Afshin Ghotbi USA 30 16 6 8 53.33% 39 27 1.30 0.90
6 Carlos Queiroz Portugal 46 25 14 7 54.35% 73 24 1.59 0.52