Tag: Mehdi Taj

it is the same old, same old Queiroz! a pentagon of failures.

Team Melli has just experienced its fifth major failure under Carlos Queiroz, meaning that the football federation, after spending billions of tomans (Millions of dollars) in the last 11 years, could not fulfill the two demands of the fans and people of Iran in football.

 11 years ago and when FFIRI decided to choose a renowned head coach for the national team to put an end to the failures and disappointments of Team Melli especially since Iran won the AFC Asian Cup three times in a row from 1968 to 1976, a feat not repeated until now by any nation. and also failing to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup, the leaders of the FFIRI did not imagine that even a 9-years tenure by a renowned coach,  still could not achieve anything of worth.

Carlos Queiroz was the option that the Football Federation chose to lead the national team in early 2010 based on analysis and research, as claimed! He was supposed to be the Messiah, able to break the spells of several decades of Iranian football failures and heartbreak. FFIRI objectives for Queiroz were clear and that would be to lead Team Melli into the knock-out rounds of the World Cup and win the AFC Asian Cup for the first time since 1976.  Two objectives had been set for Iranian football for years and the federation members spent millions of dollars to break these spells, but until today, they failed.

Qualification to the FIFA World Cup and winning thirds and fourth places in AFC Asian Cup were achieved by national coaches at a fraction of the cost of appointing Carlos Queiroz. In fact, Iranian coaches had a better performance than his team. Football Federation hired this Portuguese head coach at a very high cost that the FFIRI could not afford,  to break the two spells, but the 1-0 defeat against the United States was the end of the dream of qualification completing a pentagon of Queiroz’s failures with the Iranian national team.

Under Carlos Queiroz, In the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014, Team Melli had one draw and two defeats and was knocked out at the group stage.
In the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, the team experienced the same feat with one win, one loss, and one draw collecting 4 points.
Now,  in the FIFA World Cup Qatar  2022, the same thing repeated as Iran was knocked out with one win, two losses, and 3 points.

The Portuguese head coach was supposed to lead the Iranian national team to the title in the AFC Asian Cup, but during these competitions (2015 in Australia and 2019 in the UAE), when he was the head coach, Team Melli could not reach the finals with defeats against Iraq in the quarter-finals 2015 and loss to Japan in the semi-finals of AFC Cup 2019, and hence Iran completed its pentagon of failures under this Portuguese coach.

One of the criticisms that were leveled at Queiroz during this period is that he had a brute defensive mentality, commonly known as Park the Bus. It became synonymous with Queiroz and Team Melli quite unlike the Croatian coaches before him like Blazevic, Ivic, and Ivankovic who believed in offensive and attractive football.

While coaching Iran, Queiroz preferred strong defense detrimental to the offensive side. Whatever the coach’s playing strategy is, must be respected but ultimately he is responsible for the result. In Iran’s case, the defensive mentality of Queiroz failed to yield results.

In modern-day football and with so many advances in every angle of the game, it is rare that a coach survives that long in a team without achieving zilch.  Queiroz is unique perhaps an enigma. Why are they sticking to this man?

There is a logical reason, prepare a few for that. The first of which is the poor communication skills of the FFIRI, the nonexistence of quality international relations, and the twisted way that this federation is run. In Iran, the football federation is an extension of the government. It is an NGO by name only as the de facto leader of the federation is the Minister of Youth and Sports. It was the ministry that shouldered the coact of employing the highly expensive coach.

So, the failure of FFIRI is a natural extension of the failure of the government where loyalty rather than skills, intelligence, and suitability is the main requirement for appointment in every government-controlled organization.

Mehdi Taj has shown that he has a special faith in this coach because, despite past failures, he ludicrously went on to recruit the Portugues while the man who created a miracle that took Iran to the FIFA World Cup was fired with two months left! There was no logic and reasoning behind this but what it highlighted is the culture, or lack of it, of FFIRI leaders. A Culture of deceit, back-stabbing and immoral behavior.

FFIRI again in trouble with payments, this time it is Skocic.

Skocic’s financial burden is on the shoulders of the Football Federation

The president of the Football Federation has not yet managed to settle the severance pay that is due for the sacked Croat ex-Team Melli coach Dragan Skocic, Mehdi Taj promised Skocic that FFIRI will pay all his dues before he leaves Iran, but there were no settlements nor any payments.

Mehdi Taj decided to terminate Dragan Skocic’s contract after returning to the position of President of the Football Federation so that Carlos Queiroz can be recruited for Team Melli’s bench in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Taj is guilty of creating a catastrophic contract with Marc Wilmots, which caused Iranian football to be fined 3,325,000 euros plus a 5% per year delay fine, the heaviest case in FFIRI history .

When he was faced with demands of the Belgian coach to terminate his contract, Taj could not agree on terms with Wilmots. He even took two million euros in cash to Istanbul to pay off the Belgian who was by far the weakest foreign coach that Team Melli has had for decades but failed to satisfy the Belgian’s lawyers.

 After Taj’s proposals to settle with Wilmott failed, he returned to Tehran empty-handed. Conveniently, Taj resigned his post claiming ill health, thus avoiding the consequences of the FIFA fine and passing the torch to the next leader of FFIRI.

Now Taj is in another project that seems to be completely similar to what he had played with Wilmott, this time it is Skocic. Last Thursday, Dragan Skocic decided to leave Iran, even though he has not yet received his salary and other compensations, in order to partially satisfy the Croat who intended to return to Croatia in peace, Taj made some promises. The agreement reached shows that the former head coach of the Iranian national team is going to receive all his demands from the football federation before the start of the 2022 World Cup, but if this issue is not fulfilled, he will file a case against FFIRI with FIFA which will obviously include damages, delays, and other claims on top. FIFA also has an option to fine FFIRI for breaches of contract.

FFIRI responds to FIFA about Mashad incidents.

By the end of FIFA’s six-day deadline, the Iranian Football Federation FFIRI presented its defense in the case of the Iran-Lebanon match held in Mashad.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee on September 5th in a letter to the Iranian Football Federation demanded an explanation for the disorderly events of the match between Iran and Lebanon which was held in Mashhad. This match was the last game Iran played in the qualification rounds of the FIFA World Cup 2022. As the spectators were entering the stadium, disturbances occurred outside Imam Reza stadium. The sole reason for the aggravations which were associated with some violent scenes were the security forces, who took it upon themselves to stop women from entering the stadium at the behest of some religious figures. There was no attempt by the FFIRI personnel to intervene. Some female spectators, most of whom held legitimate match tickets, were insulted and treated roughly by the security forces.

Social media was littered with such scenes.

FIFA had given Iran six days to respond to this case. According to Ehsan Usooli, today was the deadline for FFIRI, which felt the seriousness of the accusations and possible sanction by the world governing football body as a result. FFIRI sent its response on time and according to Mehdi Taj, the new head of FFIRI, the FIFA letter’s wording was somewhat worrying, and for this reason, we have officially corresponded with government officials from the presidency to the judiciary and the parliament asking the appropriate authorities to deal with the perpetrators of this incident in Mashad.

FFIRI has permitted the entry of females only after the government lifted the ban. The action of the security forces in Mashhad was not in line with the government and it was an individual act by the local commander that created those ugly scenes that harms Iran’s reputation.  The FFIRI letters to the government agencies have been attached to Iran’s response to prove to FIFA that the government and the federation of Football had no role in this disorder. Meanwhile, there is yet no official response from the government to FFIRI to indicate that any police or security personnel will be held accountable. Holding the government and especially security forces liable in Iran is a very rare occurrence and if it ever happens, it will definitely not be publicized.

FIFA has announced that this case will be heard on September 31. Some officials of the football federation, including the vice president of the football federation, have expressed concern about this case.

Although FFIRI was not the culprit in this case and has not acted in violation of the FIFA regulation, the fact that females, not only were stopped from entering but also treaded roughly by security forces, does not emblemish FFIRI. It does not form a good defense nor will it be considered a genuine justification as the violation has occurred in the country. With local government personnel or any individual local commanders acting as they please on this subject, it is difficult to predict if females will be allowed in the stadiums in various Iranian cities. FIFA also fears that freedom of access to stadiums by female fans will be selective rather than institutional and FFIRI will play its ignorance card.

 FIFA is expected to act harshly against Iran, although scenes of ladies in Azadi where cheering female fans made the headlines across the world, might reduce the intensity of FIFA’s action.

Mehdi Taj on the defensive in the press conference

The beleaguered Head of FFIRI acknowledged that many in the country oppose his return to the FFIRI and many more oppose Querioz’s return as head coach of Team Melli.

In the press conference after his re-election, the head of FFIRI talked about various issues, including his legal cases with the chance of prosecution and the state of Team Melli.  According to press reports, after the departure of Skocic who was replaced by Carlos Queiroz,

Mehdi Taj, in the press conference on Thursday at the national teams camp, started by defending himself against accusations and pending cases in the courts, some of which are serious in nature, filed against him in the judiciary. “I have been in management work for about 40 years and I have worked in different capacities. Whenever the Wilmots case is mentioned, they immediately shout corruption! This case is similar to the case of Branco Ivankovic, Stramaccioni, and Calderon, but the case of Wilmots is called, corruption comes to people’s minds.”

He also defended himself about alleged fraud cases in the Foulad Mobarakeh company “I was retired from Foulad Mobarakeh. My wages were 20 million tomans per month for three years. If anyone has any claims with documents against me then let him go ahead and publish them. A question was asked to the judiciary about my legal status last week and suddenly all the media wrote that the judiciary published all the crimes of Mehdi Taj, all that remained was to accuse me of murders and kidnappings! The only letter that was in fact sent to the judiciary was from the Secretary General’s inquiry from the prosecutor, who asked how many open cases I have, and they announced these three cases.”

Regarding the statements of parliamentarians, especially Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who has taken a special interest in the wrongdoing and fraud cases in football, Taj said: “The representative’s concern should not be only football. He can speak 100 times, 200 times or any amount he wishes on any network. At the end, It is the judiciary that decides each case. We did not know that he and Mr. Rastineh are so interested in football, but if they care so much, they should focus on the football of their own province. The whole parliament is not just about these two people, but we will answer any question that any member wants to ask.”

Taj went on to say: “These people have not talked about broadcasting rights, not even once. I believe that IRIB cannot afford to pay for football broadcasting rights. Secondly, some of our teams receive money from the government. I have prepared a plan which is FIFA and AFC models. We hope that one day we will have a team in Khorramabad and Kermanshah, not only in cities that only have factories. We hope that deprived provinces including Sistan and Baluchistan will have teams.”

“Instead of being hostile, the IRIB can work with the football federation and have a codified plan and work with this plan for years. The football development model is not very difficult. We can borrow, learn and respect all the laws of the country.”

Referring to Team Melli, he said: “Mr. Skocic is a very respectable and honorable coach. It was very difficult for me. I swear to God that it was difficult for me to remove Skocic. The coach was very calm and gentle. In the most difficult conditions, he took charge of our national team and managed to qualify to the World Cup in the most difficult of circumstances. Please raise your hats in his honor. I saw that the conditions of the national team and players were not good. I don’t want these issues to be opened. We came to the conclusion that if we change the head coach now, it will be in the country’s interest. Now they say that no one can guarantee that if we bring in Queiroz, we will get better results, but the history of Mr. Queiroz in our national team, the results obtained in the past, and the games that he has led the national team as he has been with the team for eight years make us believe this is the right appointment. We are heading to the right direction and have started a good path. It was easy for me to let Skocic stay and not accept responsibility. I could say that I did not leave him, but I removed Skocic for the sake of the country.

The appointment of Queiroz is for the benefit of the country,

Taj claimed ” I know that some seniors and veterans are totally against the selection of Queiroz and also against my own appointment for whatever reasons. I really kiss everyone’s hand out of respect for the national team and the country and out of respect for our beloved flag, and I ask for the country to support the national team in the current situation.”

“I believe that this choice is in the interest of the country. We qualified for the World Cup with Queiroz two times in a row. Those who claim that I have abused my power, let them come forward with proof. During the presidency of Mr. Ahmadinejad, they use to give the president a car, which I did not get. In these 13 years in the federation, I did not receive a single rial in salary. Publish the facts if there is anything. It is not a fact when a parliamentarian claims there is corruption in football.

Taj added: “Who does not have a case in the courts? It was easy for me to do nothing and let the national team go to the World Cup. Mr. President announced several times that he supports the national team financially. We signed a provisional contract with Queiroz, he receives 50,000 euros per month. He has 5 assistants, each of whom receives 30,000 euros. This contract is until the end of the World Cup, and of course, there is a possibility of extending it until the AFC Asian Cup. I thank Queiroz. Mehdi Taj said, “When the government supports the national team, why should we ask for health?” He said: In any case, I think the choice of Skocic was right. If according to many loved ones, it is wrong, they should support the growth of the country’s national team.

“I thank Hamid Estili.” when he was asked about the Team Melli manager’s resignation from his post: “I have not seen Estili’s resignation. I would like to thank him for his efforts during the supervision of the national team. Regarding Foulad Club’s opposition to Nekonam’s activity in the national team, Taj said: I hope that the problem of Nekonam will be solved, and I myself will consult to have Nekonam as a good coach and an investment for the future in the national team. This is the German model, where they leave some people with the national team to become the head coach. God willing, this will happen

The manager of Team Melli resigns.

Hamid Estili has submitted his resignation as the Manager of Iran’s National Team.

Estili’s resignation comes in the aftermath of the sacking of Dragan Skocic which he considered immoral and unethical while the Croat was under contract and busy preparing Team Melli for training camp in Austria. In a post on his social Media Page, Estili announced that he resigned from his post.

lPrEarlier on, Karim Bagheri, another member of Skocic’s technical staff and advisor to the coach, announced his departure from Team Melli coaching team. . Yesterday (Wednesday), Dragan Skocic was officially removed from his post by Mehdi Taj.

Mehdi Taj’s list of accusations are made public.

A list of accusations against Mehdi Taj, the president of the Football Federation, was announced.

 The Minister of Sports was quizzed about the reasons why the regulatory authorities including the judiciary, and the public prosecutor’s office have not publicly announced any affidavit or accusations against the 3 candidates for the FFIRI presidency before the elections.

According to the minister, there was in fact an immediate response from  Tehran Prosecutor’s Office when asked about the alleged accusations against all three candidates as the Public Prosecutor responded on the same day that the inquiry was sent.
According to the documents obtained, the Tehran prosecutor announced in an official letter on 24th August 2022, six days before the election of the FFIRI, that legal cases has been filed against all the 3 football candidates in the Tehran prosecutor’s office.

According to this report, Mehdi Taj was accused of abusing his job position, use of fake documents, creating a false report with the intention to mislead and falsify facts, illegally occupying state property, employing a person on the payroll of the federation (Haider Baharvand) against the law (barring the employment of retirees), illegal seizure of public funds, unauthorized seizure of financial resources (claims) of the Federation from the contracting companies and service providers,

Also, he was accused of negligence in dealing with public funds and misappropriation leading to the wastage in the amount of around 10 million Euro, destruction of state property, defrauding the country’s monetary and currency system, general fraud, false reporting, collusion in government contracts, forgery of official documents. These are all related to the contract of the former head coach of Iran’s football team (Wilmots).

Based on those accusations, a court case has been filed in the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office. A restraining order was issued by the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office for Mehdi Taj on the charges aforementioned.

The case related to Marc Wilmots is under further investigation as an additional report by the General Inspection Organization, an auditing authority, on the charge of embezzlement of public funds is still being finalized.

In this regard, some organizations, including the student mobilization of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences of Tehran University, have filed a case with the Head of the Judiciary, demanding that the Judiciary investigate Mehdi Taj.

At this stage, these are all accusations that the courts need to convene to issue verdicts. The Sports Minister did not comment on the clause that mandates that a candidate for the Presidency of the Football Federation must be free of all legal cases and not been accused or involved in any investigation including misappropriation of funds, a clause that has excluded various candidates from elections in various organizations and NGO’s.

Prior to the elections of the FFIRI, many media reports were confident that Mehdi Taj will not be cleared to run this election because of the list of accusations against him by various institutions and his violations of the rules while at the helm of the FFIRI. His premature exit from the federation when he was the head of FFIRI was a clever escape route to kill the investigations which would have found him guilty of several violations. His departure, however, only managed to delay the inevitable.

The allegation list is interesting as many of the items concern public funds that the government controls, confirming the generally held view that the FFIRI is just an extension of the government.

 

Mehdi Taj desperately seeking Queiroz !

Mehdi Taj once again succeeded in winning the majority votes (exactly the same number as his last election!) in the general assembly of the FFIRI to become The President in the 8th election and to manage the affairs of the country’s highest football institution for a period of two and a half years.

His selection fueled the rumor of the termination of Dragan Skocic’s contract as the head coach of the Team Melli once again leaving the Croatian coach in a state of stress and instability while the national team is preparing for the training camp in Austria including two much-needed friendly internationals against Uruguay and Senegal.

Skočić, who seems to take every opportunity to ensure his continuation on the bench of the best team of the Asian ranking and play in the FIFA 2022 World Cup, accommodates every request from the federation officials so that maybe the meeting with the hierarchy at the request of Hamid Estili can bring him closer and closer to this personal goal.


On the other hand, the opposition by some players in the squad such as Ehsan HajSafi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Karim Ansarifard, Mehdi Tarimi, etc., with the continuation of the Croat man on the bench, is still strong leading HajSafi to travel all the way from Athens to Tehran for just a few hours just to cast his vote for Mehdi taj in the elections. Hajsafy’s flight schedule was so tight that he took special permission to cast his vote even before the ballots were open as his return flight departure was tight. He stayed a few hours in Tehran only and that highlighted the desperation of this group against Skočić.

Taj has blatantly shown that he has no interest in Skocic staying. After taking office, the president who returned to the football federation initiated the project of Carlos Queiroz’s return to Iran as a top priority. To ensure all matters and contract details are ironed out, Mehdi Taj had a facetime meeting with the Portuguese coach.

Queiroz was fired from his last post in two managerial/coaching posts. After he left Iran, he took over Colombia in 2019.

In the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifications, Colombia’s performance slipped disastrously, with a 0–3 home loss to Uruguay (its worst ever home loss for 82 years) before being shockingly thrashed 1–6 by Ecuador, and this finally put the end of Carlos Queiroz’s reign as Colombia’s boss.

On 8 September 2021, Queiroz was employed by Egypt FA.

Egypt qualified for the third round of the World Cup qualifications to face Senegal for a spot in the World Cup in Qatar. However, after a 1–0 win in Cairo, and a 1–0 loss in Dakar, Egypt lost in penalties; hence, they failed to reach the final competition. He later agreed with the Egyptian Football Association to terminate his contract by mutual consent.

The failure of Egypt in qualifying for FIFA  World Cup 2022 occurred despite the availability of World Class players  Mohammed Salah of Liverpool in the squad,

In audio and video calls with Mehdi Taj, Queiroz put his demands, terms, and conditions on the table to Mehdi Taj who seems to have accepted Queiroz’s personal and financial terms outright in the same manner that he did the Wilmots contract. but Taj, this time needs not only the approval of the Football Federation’s Board of Directors but also the consent of the high-profile opponents of Portuguese man, and that includes personnel in the corridors of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Queiroz left with only a handful of friends in 2019 after Iran’s drubbing by the Japanese team in the semi-finals of the AFC Asian Cup. That 3-0 loss was the biggest in over thirty years. Many members of the parliament,  the Islamic Council, are not too keen on the return of the vindictive and confrontational coach who does tend to intimidate anyone who opposes him or his ideas.

To demonstrate how evidently anti-Skoci Mehdi Taj is, In the past week since he won the election, Taj has yet to hold any meeting with Dragan Skocic or Hamid Estili and to demonstrate for all that he is still not convinced and unwilling to see the Croat at the helm of Team Melli.

The new management team of the Football Federation is actively pursuing the dismissal of Skocic, while there is still some strong support for the Croat from other borad directors such as Mirshad Majdi. However, Taj lobby seems to be gaining ground but the number of his supporters is on the rise.

Taj needs the signature of five other members of the board of directors to formalize the contract with Carlos Queiroz. Mehr reporter has been informed that seven of the board members are completely in favor of Queiroz’s return in order to appease Mehdi Taj who has put this issue at the top of his priorities.

The struggle and the politics to determine the head coach of Iran’s national team continues while the 2022 World Cup starts in nearly 75 days. The FIFA Day games schedule also shows that there are only 17 days to hold national team camps in September and November.

Assuming All matters are sorted out, any coach needs to have divine power to turn the fortunes of Team Melli which is suffering from a serious loss of confidence, form, and mental stress from the infighting between the two groups of players within the camp.

Carlos Queiroz, if selected certainly does not have such divine power as he failed to demonstrate any in the 8 years at the helm of Tema Melli. What he has, however, are two vital elements, one of which is to his personal benefit and that is his professionalism in contract negotiation. He had learned the shortfalls of the previous contracts and how easily the FFIRI repeatedly fails to honor the financial terms of contracts.  Taking that into consideration, he is dictating all the terms on a desperate Mehdi taj and that includes contract payments in US dollars deposited in a foreign bank, most possibly in Dubai plus no promises of any success in the FIFA World Cup 2022. Time is too short for proper preparation, and no one can dispute that, can they?

The second attribute is the strong no-nonsense character that he has demonstrated time and time again. He will have no second thought about kicking sulky or indisciplined players such as Taremi out of the squad. There is no such thing as players’ powers in the Queiroz dictionary. The reality is, that Iran’s football needs a decisive character like Queiroz else some immature players will wreck the ship.

Less than 24 hours from his resignation, Shamsaei returns!

Nothing in Iran’s football seems to work like the rest of the world. Nothing seems to be certain and the fans are becoming used to expecting the unexpected.

In the series of comical acts, Vahid Shamsaei resigned from his post as the head coach of the national futsal team on Tuesday after Mehdi Taj was elected as the new president of the Football Federation. Shamsai openly and honestly announced that his vote in the election was Mirshad Majdi’s rival Mehdi Taj, but he also said that he has no problem with Taj, Nabi, and Ghanbarzadeh and has great respect for them!
His justification for resigning, Shamsaei said: “Because I saw the past events of futsal with my own eyes and I want that honor to be preserved, I am leaving. ” The World leading futsal goalscorer had several disagreements with Taj during his presidency.

After this decision, some board members of FFIRI made some calls to Shamsai and asked him to reconsider his resignation. Among those who called Mehdi Taj, the newly elected president and the reason behind the resignation.

Somehow, Shamsaei withdrew his resignation in less than a day !!

Shamsaei will be on Iran’s bench in the AFC Futsal Cup 2022, which will be hosted by Kuwait in October. He will also travel to Thailand next week with the national team to participate in the country’s preparatory tournament.

Despite being a legendary figure in Iran’s futsal, Shamsaei is also known for his fits of anger, sulky attitude, and bemoaning character. His personality and weakness in dealing with hardship could be the Achilles heel of this coach.

What does the election of Mehdi Taj means for Team Melli.

While the Iranian football circles are still stunned by the election of Mehdi Taj and many in the media believed he does not stand a chance of being approved due to legislation against him in courts and various other issues that deemed his candidacy as unlawful, Taj not only registered his name but also won. The ripples have already started.

As soon as he was announced as the new leader of FFIRI, Vahid Shamsaei resigned just a month before Iran’s Futsal Team Melli starts its defense of the title. Soon after Shamsaei, Mostafa Nazari, the goalkeepers’ coach also followed in resignation.

In Football’s Team Melli, Vahid Hashemian has been rumored to contemplate the same action, while Dragan Skocic is once again on his toes on Team Melli’s hot seat.

While Misrshad Majedi confirmed Skocic’s position as head coach and he is still one of the biggest supporters, Mehdi Taj was rumored to be instrumental in the agitation moves and calls for the return of Carlos Queiroz. During the polarization of Team Melli in the last few weeks, Taj remained inconspicuous and tight-lipped about any issues related to the FFIRI, but it was no secret that he was active behind the scenes in driving the demands of Carlos Queiroz’s to return to Team Melli.

Mehdi Taj has been active in Iran’s football for decades and has a strong lobby too.  He is a man who went through many governmental posts in Esfahan province. His career progression is all through the regime’s organizations. In football, he was the chairman of Sepahan for many years and was a strong leader who propelled the club from Esfahan to new heights including winning the league titles and reaching the AFC Champions League.

The election in FFIRI is nothing different than other elections in the rest of the country mainly the election of the President of the Republic. It is all well orchestrated and the results can be predictable. The formalities, the process, and the motions are all pre-determined and nicely engineered.

Taj’s rap sheet and still pending issue with Marc Wilmots is perhaps his biggest shortfall. He has never been transparent about the contract, selection process, and the payments to the big failure Wilmots. As he did not play any role in the selection of Skocic, because he was out of action, he has no affinity for the Croat and much prefers to work with the devil he knows, namely Queiroz. However, time is the biggest factor that is against this union. Queiroz himself left Iran in distress and bitterness. He later accused and bad-mouth several people in Iran including the Ministry of Sports. He left very few friends in the country. One of those who was a victim of Queiroz onslaught was no one but Mehdi Taj himself.

The outspoken Portuguese is well aware of how politics works in Iran’s football and he knows who has the keys. If Mehdi Taj comes calling and is seriously desperate, Queiroz contracts and other demands could be prohibitive or beyond the abilities of Taj.

There are players in Team Melli who supported Taj and will be happy to see him back at the helm of the federation, however, the man remains a polarizing and divisive figure. Undoubtedly, he has the strong backing of the regime and access to many government agencies and ministries. It remains to be seen whether he will use that support wisely to the benefit of football in general, or try to strengthen his grip on a shambolic federation that for decades has failed in achieving what football deserves.

A shock in Iran football. Mehdi Taj selected as head of FFIRI!

In the election of Iran’s Football Federation which was held this morning, rank outsider Mehdi Taj managed to win the presidency of this federation with more than double the votes of the incumbent acting head  Mirshad Majedi.

The man that left the federation under a cloud of accusations, claims of corruption, and nepotism and was legally pursued by several entities managed to dodge all the legal obstacles to his nomination. Reservation on his candidacy by clubs, a horde of managers, coaches, and players were all to no avail as Taj registered his name as a candidate for the presidency and comfortably won the hot seat about three years after he left it in tatters.  Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem who replaced Taj was fired from the post after less than a year in FFIRI.

The elections of the Football Federation started on Tuesday morning. Mehdi Taj, Azizullah Mohammadi, and Mirshad Majdi were the candidates for the presidency of the Football Federation. On vote counting, Mehdi Taj won 50 votes. The current acting head of FFIRI  Mirshad Majedi received 25 votes while Azizullah Mohammadi got 4 votes only.

On May 7, 2016, the last occasion where Mehdi Taj contested the elections, he won with 50 votes out of a total of 73 votes received at the Football Federation Assembly. He resigned from his post on December 29th, 2019 claiming health issues and a mild heart attack.

The first reaction to Taj’s return was the immediate resignation of the Head Coach of Team Melli’s futsal team.

Vahid Shamsaei that is in the midst of preparing the Futsal team to defend its Asian title in Kuwait, submitted his resignation in protest. Close associates informed the press that Shamsaei refuses to work with Taj and be associated with anything that Taj is involved in.