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Iran’s Futsal climbs to 4th in the World Ranking.

Iran’s futsal Team has climbed to the 4th place in World Ranking joined by Argentina.

In the latest figures published by the Futsal World Ranking website for the month of October 2019, Brazil maintained top ranking followed by Spain and Russia. Iran is also the top-ranking team in Asia.

Just like the football ranking, Japan is behind Iran as the second-best Asian team at 15th place in the world. Thailand is also in the top 20 teams of the world at 19th place behind Iran and Japan.

WORLD FUTSAL RANKING

Current ranking – 31 October 2019
Ranking Team Points rank
dec 18		 +/-
dec 18
1  Brazil 1839 1 0
2  Spain 1785 2 0
3  Russia 1670 3 0
4  Iran 1644 6 2
4  Argentina 1644 5 1
6  Portugal 1637 4 -2
7  Kazakhstan 1565 7 0
8  Italy 1494 8 0
9  Ukraine 1466 9 0
10  Colombia 1454 12 2
11  Croatia 1443 13 2
12  Paraguay 1437 10 -2
13  Serbia 1416 15 2
14  Azerbaijan 1409 11 -3
15  Japan 1380 14 -1
16  Czech Republic 1367 16 0
17  Slovenia 1359 17 0
18  France 1300 18 0
19  Thailand 1295 19 0
20  Belarus 1294 22 2

Futsal teams departs to Bogota with great expectations.

Asian Futsal Champion, Iran departed to Bogota to participate in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016 with great expectation.

Iran goes into the FIFA Futsal World Cup with significant momentum, claiming the 2016 AFC Futsal Championship where they racked up an incredible 48 goals.  This is the sixth appearance for Futsal Team Melli in the World Cup which is now ranked in the top 5 teams in the FIFA Ranking.

Seyed Mohammad Nazemalsharieh will be hoping to lead his team to the final rounds of the competition after some sterling performances in the previous World Cup. Only two teams in the world had more participation in the FIFA Futsal World Cup than Iran’s 6 times. Both Brazil and Spain took part in 7 edition of the  FIFA  Futsal World Cup.

Reunion time 
Iran will be up against some familiar faces in the group stage of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016, where they will take on not just Spain but also Morocco, whom Tayebi and Co edged past four years ago. Their third opponents, meanwhile, will be somewhat more of an unknown quantity in Azerbaijan.

The Asian champions will once again be kicking off against Spain, on this occasion in Medellin on 12 September. Tayebi stressed that he and his team-mates will be gunning for victory in this heavyweight bout: “I can assure you that every time the Iranian national futsal team enter the pitch, we do so to win, because we’re among the world’s powerhouses in this sport. We respect the Spaniards but we want to win our first match in Colombia. Encounters between Spain and Iran are always spectacular and tight affairs, but we’re determined to get the win.”

“We know that Azerbaijan have a strong team, even though we’ve never faced them,” he continued. “The coaching staff have watched two of their games, though, and told us that they play some good stuff. As I said before, we play to win and that match will be no exception.”

Despite his confidence in his own side’s abilities, Tayebi is nevertheless mindful that several other countries have kicked on in recent years and so it will prove a tough task for Iran to achieve their goal of advancing to at least the last four.

“I think most teams’ level has improved, which means the competition will be stiff and there will be no easy games. There are no favourites on paper and every side will be made to work hard for wins.”

“We’re going to do our best to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup and play with heart. We respect all the other teams a great deal, but we’re determined to succeed.”

Shamsaei thanks God

Inspired by Shamsaee 
Tayebi is hopeful that the strike he bagged in Thailand four years ago will not be his last on the world stage, although collective glory remains his number-one target. “I was delighted to find the net against Spain. It was the most important goal of my career. Scoring at a World Cup is something unforgettable for any player,” he said, before quickly clarifying that, “As far as I’m concerned, the team’s success comes before my scoring statistics.”

“It’s exciting to see your name on the scoresheet in a World Cup match but, like I said, the team’s targets are more important. The fact that I’ve scored at a World Cup before shows that I can play my part within the group.”

In his eagerness to do his bit and perform his role with aplomb, Tayebi is inspired by the example of former Iran stars such as ex-national team captain Vahid Shamsaee, whom he described as “one of the best players in futsal history”.

“Vahid is a real legend and I have tremendous respect for him. He’s a great man who had a lot of success in his career. I’m proud to be his compatriot. I love the way he played and I’m going to try to follow in his footsteps by living long in all the Iranian fans’ memories.”

Colombia 2016 could provide the perfect platform for Tayebi to fulfil this dream by not just adding to his World Cup goal tally, but accomplishing something that not even the great Shamsaee was able to – helping his country through to the semi-finals of the global showpiece.

This year’s competition will be a total of 6 groups in the competition with each group having four teams. After the group stages, the top 2 teams from each group will proceed to the knockout stage along with the 4 highest ranked third place finishers.

Solid preparations 

 

11 times Asian Champion Iran team has been actively preparing for the FIFA Futsal World Cup for over 4 months and played several tough matches. In Mashad, Team Melli played two matches against fellow qualifiers Uzbekistan with convincing wins 3-0 and 6-3 for Iran. Earlier, Iran participated in a 4 nation Futsal tournament in Thailand, where they drew with Kazakhstan 3-3, lost to Thailand 7-5 and beat Japan 4-2.

 

Team Roster

 

1 Sepehr MOHAMMADI Goalkeeper 27 years old

2 Alireza SAMIMI Goalkeeper 29 years old

3 Ahmad ESMAEILPOUR Pivot 27 years old

4 Mohammad KESHAVARZ Defender 34 years old

5 Hamid AHMADI Defender 27 years old

6 Mohammadreza SANGSEFIDI Wing 26 years old

7 Ali HASSAN ZADEH Wing 28 years old

8 Ghodrat BAHADORI Wing 26 years old

9 Afshin KAZEMI Defender 29 years old

10 Mohammad TAHERI Wing 31 years old

11 Mehran ALIGHADR Wing 27 years old

12 Hossein TAYEBI Pivot 27 years old

13 Farhad TAVAKOLI Defender 27 years old

14 Mahdi JAVID Pivot 29 years old

 

Head Coach: Seyed  Mohammad NAZEMALSHARIEH (IRN) 46 years old

Assistant Coach: Mohammad  HASHEMZADEH (IRN) 39 years old

 

 

Iran Futsal to the final after a bone crushing defeat of Vietnam.

Futsal Team Melli reached the final of the AFC Futsal Championship 2016 with a commanding win against surprise semi-finalist Vietnam. Iran’s 13-1 win was one of the biggest semi final margins in the history of the competition. The first half ended 7-1 for Team Melli.

Vietnam paid the price of naivety of their coach. Their quarter-final win against defending champion Japan, led to unrealistic , though legitimate belief in the team that they can conquer Iran.

However, It was clear from the first few minutes of the match that Vietnam cannot match Team Melli for skills and technique.

In the pre-match press conference , the ambitious Spanish coach Bruno Formoso said his team was looking beyond Iran and into the final. However, he failed to analyse the opposition properly and his plans went tragically wrong as his team was 3-0 down in less than 9 minutes in the 1st half. The major mistake was playing offensively against Iran and trying to match them for ball possession and attack.

Mahdi Javid opened the scoring for Iran before Farhad Tavakoli scored two quick goals to put Team Melli comfortably 3-0 ahead.

After the 3rd goal, Vietnam coach asked for a time out where he decided to play with all players in the filed ( 5 -0)  to score at least one goal against the mighty Iranians. Again , Vietnam players simply could not match the Iranians.

Despite the fact that Iran’s coach was revolving and playing all his squad, Nazim AlSharia  mainly used the reserve restig the likes of Taheri, Tayebi, Hassanzadeh and Keshavarz.

Vietnam brave resistance fell apart in the second half as Ahmadi , Hossein Tayebi , Mahdi Javid and Tavakoli  (scoring  his 4 goals) , Keshavarz  added another 6 goals in the second half for Team Melli.  Vietnam could not add to that solitary goal scored in the first half.

Iran’s injured Captain Mohammed Keshavarz , returned to the team and played the last 10 minutes helping himself to two goals in the process.

Iran will be meeting Uzbekistan in the Finals for a repeat of the for 2010 championship edition when the mighty Iranians defeated the host 8-3 in front of the passionate Uzbek fans.

Iran participate in China Futsal tournament.

Iran Futsal team will play in a 4 side round in China on Friday ribbon tournament
The 2015 Chinese Football Association Futsal international tournament organized by the Chinese Football Association will be held in Changshu City Sports Center from 18 to 20 May. The teams participating in this tournament are Mexico, Myanmar, host China in addition to Iran.

Iran will be the favorite despite missing 3 players who missed the flight due to injuries and other problems.
The Chinese team three games will be broadcast live or taped on CCTV and a number of provincial-level TV.

Changshu is the second city to host international futsal tournament, the Chinese team won the runner-up in the last edition. Before the game, the Chinese coach Zhiping said the Chinese team tournament consists mainly of young players. He added that their main rival is Iran, and in order to defeat the powerful Iranians , they have to outrun them in the match. The Chinese team will go all out to do well in this tournament although they are facing a powerhouse of Asian Futsal.

Futsal is one of the world’s fastest sport popular with higher ornamental, it is to improve the football skills, agility and speed education platform.

Matches schedule

(all time local China time GMT +8)

Friday 18th Dec 2015
19:00 China vs Mexico
21:00 Iran vs Myanmar

Saturday 19th Dec 2015
19:00 China vs Myanmar
21:00 Iran vs Mexico

Sunday 20th Dec 2015
19:00 China vs Iran
21:00 Mexico vs Myanmar

New head coach for Futsal team

The football federation has announced the appointment of Mohammad Nazim-Al Sharia’a as the head coach of Futsal Team Melli replacing the Spanish Jesus Candelas.

Despite his typical Arabic sounding name, Nazim-Al Sharia’a is very much an Iranian who assisted the former Team Melli Futsal coach.

After the Spanish refused to work with the federation due to late payment of wages and other problems, the federation created a real mess out of it. Knee jerk appointments, very much a trade mark of this federation , resulted in the announcement of Vahid Shamsaei as head coach of Team Melli but no one seemed to have informed him! Following much drama and turn of events , Shamsaei eventually turned down the job as FFIRI did not entertain Shamsaei’s  many demands.

A head hunting exercise began to recruit a quality foreign coach , but with the reputation of FFIRI already in the mud as bad employer and late payers, there were no foreign takers and hence the federation had to appoint someone within.2

Nazim-Al Sharia’a has worked closely with all the Team Melli futsal players and hence he has the upper hand in the job. Beside that , there isn’t much achievement by this coach to report.

Iran’s Futsal team to play in Uzbekistan friendlies.

Team Melli futsal team will leave Tehran on Friday en rout to the Uzbek Capital Tashkent, where it will play two friendly matches in preparation for the upcoming 2014 AFC Futsal Championship to be held at the end of this month in Vietnam.

Iran is grouped with Australia, Indonesia and China in Group C

The Spanish coach of Team Melli Futsal team Jesús Candelas has selected  the list of 16 players for the Uzbekistan tour.

According to the list distributed by the Federation, the players of the squad are :

  1. Sepehr Mohammadi
  2.  Ahmad Ismailpour
  3.  Mohammad Keshavarz
  4. Mohammad Taheri
  5. Mehdi Javeed
  6. Saeed Afshar
  7. Hamid Ahmadi
  8. Alireza Samimi
  9. Farhad Tavakoli
  10. Mehran Alighadr
  11. Meysam Khayyam
  12. Farhad Fakhim
  13. Behrouz Jafari
  14. Vahid Shafie
  15. Mohammad Shajari
  16. Alireza Vagaei.

 

The 2014 AFC Futsal Championship schedule for Team Melli is as follows

Wed 30th Apr   Iran vs. Indonesia

Fri 2nd May       China vs. Iran

Sun 4th May       Australia vs. Iran

FFIRI objection to the AFC futsal committee.

The FFIRI futsal committee has strongly objected to the AFC recent decisions taken on futsal.

The main grievance of the Iranians is the decision by the AFC futsal committee to hold the AFC Club Championship once every two years instead of the current annual competition. The reason behind the decision was due to the financial burden on clubs or federations and lack of interest from many AFC members’ states in carrying out this competition on annual basis. The majority of AFC member states do not have a regular or established futsal leagues.  Revenues from the Futsal leagues are meager which does not allow the competing clubs to cover the costs of playing in the championship without the financial backing of the federations.

The other point of grievance of Iran’s football federation (FFIRI) is the denial of Iran’s request to have two teams in each championship. The AFC Futsal committee has not seen any evidence to convince them to award Iran two spots in the championship while the rest of the member states have one each.

Those decisions were made after the conclusion of the 4th AFC Futsal Club Championship where the Thai club Chonburi Blue Wave defeated Iran’s representative Giti Pasand Isfahan in the final after a penalty shootout.  The Thi club had their Iranian goalkeeper to thank for this title after he saved 2 penalty kicks in the shoot-out. The competition was held in Nagoya, Japan.

Iran won 2 out the 4 championship, which far from what can be considered as dominating compared to the AFC Asian Futsal championship where Iran’s Futsal Team Melli has won 10 titles out of 12.

Seyed Reza Eftikhari , the spokesman of the FFIRI futsal committee said that his federation will be communicating with the other members seeking their support to overturn this decision.  These members are the same ones that have come up with the decisions in the first place. Eftikhari also said that the committee selected by FIFA to oversee Asian Futsal is a weak one!

The AFC Futsal committee includes the influential Abbas Torabian, a veteran futsal administrator and the head of Futsal in FFIRI. When probed by ISNA sport reporter to the reasons why FFIRI is questioning and objecting to the decisions that has been taken while Abbas Torabian the long-time FFIRI representative was a party to these decisions making process, Eftikhari  response was quite interesting  “These things happen!”

Eftikhari then went on and said “In any case, the people who are in this committee are thinking about their own personal interest, while we are doing our jobs as professionals (..). Our condition is different from Senegal, Nepal or Bangladesh. Iran is competing with Europe and Latin America. !”

Hence, Eftikhari, has proven beyond any shadow of doubt, how pathetic and disorganized the FFIRI management is where the simplest of tasks, in this case communication and coordination between managers , does not exist while claims of being part of the elite of this world, is abundant.

Iran continues its domination of Asian futsal with an Aussie drubbing.

Dubai – Maktoum bin Rashid Arena – Al Wasl Club..

Iran futsal team dominated their strongest group rival and scored 9 goals without return in what was dubbed as the battle for group leadership. At the end , it was just another practice session for the Persians as they run over Australia 9-0 in a one sided match.

Vahid Shamsaei , the ever green Iranian Captain was on the score sheet again as he lead his young teammates to an emphatic third victory on a row scoring an average of 10 goals a game ( Played 3 Won 3 Goals for 31 against 1). The first half ended 5-0 for Iran and despite some strong efforts by the Australians , they could not manage to penetrate the solid Iranian defense. On the rare occasion that they managed , Nazari , Iran’s goalkeeper was more than capable of handling any threats.

Iran , therefor concludes its group matches with an impressive record. Team Melli will be facing Uzbekistan in the Quarter Finals on Monday.

Team Melli is meeting Albania

Sunday 2t May 2012 – Istanbul – Besiktas Stadium :

Team Melli , currently undergoing a training camp in the preparation for their first match in the final rounds of Asian Zone FIFA World Cup qualifiers , will be meeting tha Albanian National football team in Istanbul. This friendly comes about a week prior to the opening match vs. Uzbekistan in Tashkent.

 

Albania , has already played another of Iran’s group opponents , Qatar and manged to beat them 2-1.

 

 

A whirlwind start for defending AFC Futsal Champions, Iran.

Iran Futsal teamThe defending AFC Futsal Champions, Iran has started their campaign in whirlwind style when they defeated their main rival in the group , Korea Republic by a whopping 14-1 score line.

The first match of the two powerful Asian opponents played in Al Shabab arena to a full capacity mostly Iranian fans who did not stop supporting their team from way before kickoff. Apparently, many fans were unable to gain entry due to the limited space and seats available at this venue.

The first half ended with a 6-0 score line for Team Melli , but the floodgates really opened a few minutes into the second half.  Iran displayed some fantastic  team world and wonderful goals to keep the crowd entertained through the match.

Midway through the second half, Iran’s coach played virtually the reserve team , but that did not stop the Iranians notching goals one after another.

The irony of this match was that the Korean were quite strong and opponents who did not give up at any stage. Perhaps the gamble taken by the coach in playing the goalkeeper as a field player was behind the large number of late goals conceded in the second half , but apart form that the Koreans were  simply overpowered  by their nemesis the Iranians who were excellent in individual skills and teamwork.

Another odd occurrence was the failure of the world’s top futsal scorer Vahid Shamsaei and the Captain of the team , to score.

Iran will play Qatar , who lost their first match 3-1 , on Saturday before finishing their group  matches against Australia on Sunday.

 

Lineups

I.R. IRAN

4              DF           MOHAMMAD KESHAVARZ NASRABADI 23

7              MF         ALI ASGHAR HASSANZADEH         12,  33

9              FW         SHAMSAEE VAHID (C)

10           FP           TAHERI MOHAMMAD    11

12           GK          MOSTAFA NAZARI

Substitutes

1              GK          ALI REZA SAMIMI

5              DF           HAMID AHMADI

6              MF         JAVAD ASGHARIMOGHADDAM                29,  39

11           DF           MAJID LATIFI

14           FW         MAHDI JAVID    15,  17  27

15           MF         HOSSEIN TAYEBI               31

17           MF         AHMAD ESMAEILPOUR                  7

 

ALI  SANEI ARANI (Head Coach)