Tehran 14 Apr. 2014

With less than hours to go for the flight to Dubai then Johannesburg, South Africa, Team Melli seems to be in doldrums.   The 28 players squad should be gathering and ready for the flight but the status of 22 out of 28 is not clear yet.

5 months after it surfaced that Team Melli plans to conduct a training camp in the midst of AFC Champions League competition, and the crucial part of it for that matter , the federation is facing a dilemma now. Constantly quizzed by reporters on what is the final verdict on the players at the crossroads of club and country duties, the federation , the management and the coaches of the team have al;l evaded and refused to answer , thinking that the problem will go way once it is ignored !

Now , at a critical time , only 6 players can be accounted for to be in the plane to South Africa. These are Ale Nemeh , Nourozi (Naft Tehran), Ansarifard , Lak (Tractorsazi), Haddadifar and Khanzadeh (Zob Ahan)

Out of the four Iranian teams in the AFC Champions league , only Tractorsazi will allow their two players to be relived from club commitments to join Team Melli squad. The 3 other teams , Foolad Khuzestan (2 players), Esteghlal (4 players)  and Sepahan (6 players) who all have chances to qualify , have refused to release their players. That is a total of 12 players that have not confirmed their attendance. While Persepolis has the largest number selected , 7 players and the club is not involved in any competition , all their players are under investigation into  tax evasion and hence are not allowed to leave the country!

To top all these problems, Kaffashian and his deputy are both in Kuala Lumpur attending a meeting.  The only official of the federation available for comment was Mr. Amir Hossein Hosseini , the media officer who had little to offer on the situation except to say that “the Disciplinary committee will have to deal with all those absentees.”. That would be a fine solution for Iran, suspending 22  Team Melli players !!!

In hindsight, Carlos Queiroz has indicated a sometime ago , that to conduct a training camp in South Africa with so many players absent , missing or unable to join the squad is a meaningless exercise. But Kaffashian was adamant that the plan will go on as a gesture of defiance, more than anything else, showing off the ability of the federation to carry out its commitment especially after the fiasco of cancelling the Portugal camp because of lack of funds.

Faced with a true dilemma, it will be interesting to note how many players actually make the trip in the next few hours. We are not sure what sort of pressure will be exerted by the FFIRI or the clubs on the players, but one thing that we are sure of, is the inability and the incompetence that is continually shown by this football administration and its failure to competently deal with the complications of Iranian football.

 

LIST OF INVITED PLAYERS

 

	Name	Club	League
1	JABBARI, Mojtaba	Al Arabi	Qatar
2	BEIGZADEH, Hashim	Esteghlal
3	HEYDARI, Khosrow	Esteghlal
4	SADEGHI, AmirHossein	Esteghlal
5	TEYMOURIAN, Andranik	Esteghlal
6	JAMAATI, Mehrdad	Foolad Khuzestan
7	MAKANI, Sousha	Foolad Khuzestan
8	RAHMANI, Bakhtiyar	Foolad Khuzestan
9	ALE NEMEH, Ahmad	Naft Tehran
10	NOUROZI, Reza	Naft Tehran
11	HAGHIGHI, Reza	Persepolis
12	HOSSEINI, Jalal	Persepolis
13	KHALATBARY, MohamadReza	Persepolis
14	MAHINI, Hossein	Persepolis
15	MOSALLMAN , Mohsen	Persepolis
16	POOLADI, Mehrdad	Persepolis
17	SADEGHIAN, Payam	Persepolis
18	AHMADI, Rahman	Sepahan
19	EBRAHIMI, Omid	Sepahan
20	HAJSAFY, Ehsan	Sepahan
21	KARIMI, Yaghoub	Sepahan
22	KHALILZADEH, Shojaa	Sepahan
23	SHARIFI , Mehdi	Sepahan
24	ANSARIFARD, Karim	Tractorsazi
25	LAK , Hamed	Tractorsazi
35	MONTAZERI, Pejman	Um Salal	Qatar
26	HADDADIFAR, Ghassim	Zob Ahan
27	KHANZADEH, Mohammadreza	Zob Ahan
28	NEKOUNAM, Javad	Al Kuwat FC	Kuwait