Tag: Mehdi Taj

Haidar Baharvand elected as Interim President of FFIRI

Haidar Baharvand has been appointed as Acting President of the Iranian Football Federation and Chairman of the League committee at the same time, according to Hedayat Mombini a member of FFIRI's Executive Committee following the emergency meeting of the federation's Board of Directors.

“After the resignation of Mr. Mehdi Taj as a result of ill-health, we had a meeting to discuss this subject and according to the Statute of the Football Federation, one of the Vice-Presidents or a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation had to be selected as a replacement. Since Ali Kaffashian, who previously held this post has resigned, Mr. Baharvand was elected in an acting capacity. This was the whole subject of the meeting and following this decision another meeting was held with the Minister of Youth and Sports who gave his approval to this appointment” Hedayat Mombini said to ISNA reporter.

It seems that FFIRI Executive Committee and Board Member have no concerns or apprehensions about publically stating that the appointment of the head of the football federation FFIRI or approval thereof, is sanctioned by the government of Iran in direct violation of FIFA charter.

 Mombini added: "We are in a critical period as Omid Team will soon compete in AFC U23 Championship hoping to qualify for the Olympic games and there are also concerns on the appointment of a Team Melli. God willing, with this process completed and the situation returning to normal, the leadership of the Football Federation will continue in the same way. “

Asked how is the arrangement for the league, Mombini said: "Anyway, this issue has come up and now Mr. Baharvand will be the head of both, the Football Federation and the League Organization. We have no changes in the organization of the league at this time. We will decide next week on the Federation and Electoral Assembly dates. As you know, the elections were supposed to take place on May 6, but we will make the final decision sooner than that"

"I have not seen or heard of a written letter of resignation" Mombini responded to a question of whether Taj's letter of resignation has reached the board of directors. “I have no knowledge about that but Mehdi Taj has verbally resigned.” !!!

Asked about the urgency in selecting a Head Coach for Team Melli, Mombini said “there is a lot of work that needs to be done for the appointment of the coach; it would be a little late if we wait for May when the elections of a new President is scheduled. The coach and his assistants need to be selected soon. We are considering foreign and domestic options but are more inclined to choose foreign ones.”

Mehdi Taj , President of FFIRI resigns.

The President of the Iranian Football Federation has submitted his resignation from the post due to ill health. Mehdi Taj, who took the helm of the FFIRI has recently suffered to stokes and was hospitalized until lately back.

Taj joined the federation in 2008 where he was appointed as First Vice President until 2012, then President of the Iran Football League Organization (2013–2016) before taking over from Ali Kaffashian in May 2016.

Taj started his sports administration functions with Sepahan Esfahan as Secretary of the Board on two terms (1992–1994, 2002–2006) and president of the club (1994–1999).[2] He was also editor-in-chief of Jahan Varzesh from 1991 until 2001. On 7 May 2016, he was elected as president of Iranian Football Federation with 51 votes, succeeding Ali Kaffashian

Minister of Sport's reaction to Taj's resignation

Massoud Soltanifar, was disheartened to hear the news of the resignation of Mehdi Taj from the Football Federation. He said: "The recent heart attacks created grave concern for Mr. Taj and the sports community, and it is sad for me to hear about his resignation.  Soltanifar, today, expressing regret over the resignation of Mehdi Taj, said: "He was a capable, hard-working, accurate manager and we brought with him the best result in the history of soccer in the World Cup. It was Mr. Taj's success. The Minister of Sports and Youth added: "His health is more important to us and to his esteemed family and to the football community, and we certainly do not have a capable manager now in charge of the Football Bureau, but as a trusted adviser alongside sports management."

According to FFIRI regulation, one of the deputies will take over the reign until the holding of an election convention in May 2020. Second Vice President Baharvand and  Women's committee Vice President Sufi Zadeh are the candidates for the post. Most probably the former will take over the post.

The Football Federation is currently undergoing a crises situation with a numerous problems, including a vacant Team Melli head coach post,  Poor results of Team Melli in World Cup qualifiers, refusal of the IRIB to recognize TV Broadcast rights, FIFA scrutiny on allowing women into football stadiums for league matches and the severe financial difficulties facing the federation.

Amir Ghalenoei, The pride of Iranian coaches

Amir Ghalenoei is the most decorated coach in the Iranian domestic league. His record stands at 5 championships titles, 3 with Esteghlal and 2 with Sepahan. All this is about to change as the controversial Ghalenoei is leading the charge for another championship and another record-breaking season.

Sepahan already holds the record for 21 consecutive undefeated matches in the Iranian Premier League. An old record leftover from the tenth Premier League era. In that year, Sepahan, coached by Amir Ghalenoei, lost against Esteghlal in the seventh week but remained unbeaten until the twenty-ninth week of the league when it lost to Mes Kerman.

This record is about to collapse. Again it is Sepahan and again it is Amir Ghalenoei. Interestingly, this time it also started with a defeat against Esteghlal, which was last season. Since then, the yellow and black jerseys have not been defeated. The only zero in the league table standings of the current Iranian Premier League is under losses for Sepahan.  Naft Masjid Soleiman finished the half-season unbeaten, but eventually, they were defeated in Tabriz in the 16th week. Sepahan with 31 points leads the table ahead of Persepolis with goal difference.

 

When Amir Ghalenoei set the record for undefeated matches, he also won the title with Sepahan.  He won the league title twice for the "Nisf Jahan" club and can now break his record for the third time for Sepahan. Ghalenoei and Sepahan have played 20 consecutive Premier League games without a loss. If they win the next two games, they will have a new record.

Team Melli under Ghalenoei in AFC Asian Cup 2007

Additionally, with Sepahan, Zob Ahan, Esteghlal, and TractorSazi, Ghalenoei has also been vice-Champion.

Amir Ghalenoei also managed Team Melli most notably during the AFC Asian Cup 2007. His statements before and after games are always controversial. He is not by any means unique in his rhetoric as almost all the Iranian coaches have this Blame Culture, feeling of being prosecuted, conspired against, treated unfairly and most famous of all of them, “the referee was against us” mentality. Ghalenoei has been sent off to the stands, sanctioned and disciplined many times in his career for his misdemeanors; however, he remains unique in one important aspect. He is technically one of the most acute and advance coaches that Iran has ever seen.  If there was an Iranian coach that can easily coach at the highest level in Asia (language barrier permitting) it is Amir Ghalenoei. This man is head and shoulder above the rest.

 

It is a great pity that his chances of coaching Team Melli are not great as he admits himself, he has far too many adversaries domestically. The FFIRI and Taj will not be able to deal with the outspoken Ghalenoei. The loser, however, is Team Melli and the national football at large.

Wilmots terminated his contract before the Iraq game!

In a series of bizarre justifications and rhetorics, the head of the Iranian Football Federation says Wilmots had terminated his contract before the game against Iraq!

Mehdi Taj spoke about the recent developments of Team Melli and Wilmots in a radio programme today noon (Friday).“after the World Cup and the Asian Cup, 2019 many believed that the next coach should be young and experienced and must be foreign nationals. The federation first spoke to Spanish coach Julen Lopetegui, who turned down the offer due to the ill health of his father suffering from cancer. After that, we shifted our attention to Hervé Renard  (Morocco's World Cup coach), but he said he could only accept the offer to coach Iran from June however we needed a coach from the March at least. Finally, we negotiated with Marc Wilmots, who was young enough (50 years old) and had experienced four World Cup as player and coach. He was an asset to the Belgian national team and was a very good choice for Team Melli, and everyone had confirmed him!” Mehdi Taj continued.

"When Wilmots came to Iran, we signed a good deal with him, but we insisted that the amount of the contract should remain confidential and not be transparent (…). It was also stated in a clause that any party unilaterally terminates the contract, will pay damages to the other an amount equivalent to three months wages."

“It is has been mentioned in various media outlets that the contract with Wilmots and his assistants is valued up to € 5 million, which is untrue and those who have claimes that are liars. In my opinion, the Majlis member who publicized this figure should not talk about these issues and he should think about solving people problem.”

"We signed a contract that included everything, and before we presented it to Wilmots, we consulted three international legal experts, one of whom is a member of the FIFA Appeals Committee," said the head of the Iran Football Federation. "The figure of Wilmot's contract is reasonable for anyone who knows Belgian football. It is not right when the lawmaker says this trainer isn't worth $ 500,000. There are many foreign and domestic coaches in our league who earn more than  $ 500,000.”

"When we signed the contract on May 22, one of the clauses referred to the subject of outrageous US sanctions and that may affect the way we pay our salaries, which led Wilmots to request two days for consultation," Taj added. "The contract stipulates that if the coach does not receive his entitlements for 2 to 3 months, he can terminate unilaterally. Mark Wilmots terminated his contract before the match against Iraq.

“In the meantime, we have sent several letters to FIFA to pay Wilmots' money out of their budget, but due to the new sanctions, they have not been able to find a bank, and Wilmots has stated that the federation has no will to pay him. However, we paid 7 days later. Taj added: "At the last meeting, he wanted us to guarantee that payments would not be delayed, but I told him that we should discuss more urgent clauses in view of the termination of his contract before playing with Iraq."

Taj and Wilmots to meet for termination of the contract.

After a lot of speculations and what looked like a covert operation, the FFIRI seems to have reached the decision to terminate the contract of the current head coach of Team Melli, Marc Wilmots.

The president of the Iranian Football Association FFIRI Mehdi Taj who attended the AFC awards ceremony, has left Hong Kong to arrange a meeting with Marc Wilmots or his lawyers in Istanbul with the objective of terminating the Belgian coach contract on mutual consent. It is believed that the groundworks for such termination has been completed and the meeting will be a formality to end what was a bitter and dark period of Team Melli history under the ineffectual Wilmots.

This would be Wilomts third successive sacking from his post after he was dismissed by his country's federation in June 2016, and then came his short tenure with Ivory Coast, where he left his job  in November 2017 "by mutual agreement" where he had only been in the role six months, but paid the price for his failure to guide the Elephants to a fourth successive World Cup 2018.

With Iran , Team Melli is in serious risk of elimination from the World Cup with two successive defeats in the group qualifications rounds. It seems that the World Cup is Marc Wilmots', Achilles Heel.

Branko Ivankovic is the leading candidate as successor , however there is still a major financial settlement that needs to be sorted out by Persepolis club before the Croat will agree to return back to Iran.  The president of that club has admitted that their former coach (Branko Ivankovic) is negotiating with the Iranian Football Association to become the national team coach after Ivankovic emphatically turned down Persepolis club offer to return to his old job.

Ivankovic is still very bitter with Persepolis club specifically his last few months with the club, not just because the club failed to respect the contract and held his wages for several months, but because of all the troubles and the turmoil that was created in the team led by a few players to undermine his authority and hinder his job.

Although Branko, as he is popularly known in Iran amongst the fans, has not signed up yet, it is believed that if FFIRI can guarantee regular payment of his wages, Ivankovic will sign to lead Team Melli for his third time.

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Marc Wilmots accuses FFIRI of committing a serious breach of contract".

The strained relationship between Marc Wilmots and the Iranian football took a sharp turn to the worst as the Belgian coach has tweeted that his employers, FFIRI have committed a serious breach of contract while the FFIRI has secretly approached Branko Ivankovic to replace Wilmots.

The Belgian coach says that unbearable situation has been created for him and his assistants by the Football Federation. Following the defeat of the Iranian national football team against Iraq, criticism of the Belgian national coach has been on the rise, and the rumours of replacing Wilmots with Branko Ivankovic has gained momentum.  However, the Iranian Football Federation in a bizarre statement about the various rumours surrounding Team Melli coaching, including negotiation with Wilmots on the subject of termination of the contract, said that it (FFIRI) does not confirm or deny anything!! Such peculiar denial has given the media the ammunition to speculate more and confirm to a certain extent that what has been rumoured is, in fact, close to reality and truth and not just rumours.

 And the lame statement by FFIRI, who are trying to be clever, will not alleviate those stories.

Now Marc Wilmots has ended his silence on the subject today and posted on his official Twitter page his thoughts on the "rumours" in the Iranian media: "The reality is that the situation is unbearable for me and my assistants due to a serious breach of contract by the Iranian Football Federation. "The case is being processed by my lawyers and I do not intend to comment any further."

While the breach of contract by FFIRI is quite clear, as Mehdi Taj administration has consistently delayed the payment of the wages of Wilmots and his assistants, which eventually forced the hands of Wilmots to refuse to carry out his duty ( a violation of the contract of its own), the serious concern is hardly about the clauses of the contract but the lacklustre, lethargic , lack of creativity and lack of urgency in the team that is coached by Wilmots and that lead to two consecutive defeats.

Asghar Sharafi, severly criticized FFIRI over failure to honor Wilmots contract.

After all the fuss about football federations failure to pay Wilmot's wages, a great number of sporting personnel and media in Iran attacked the head of the federation and accused him of shortfalls and failures which has put Iran's name in disrepute.

Asghar Sharafi, Iran's veteran footballer , former Team Melli star and assistant coach is one of those who strongly criticized the performance of the Football Federation in the aftermath of the disgrace leading to a threat by Coach Wilmots to leave.

"if you did not have the money, why would you employ and upset a foreign coach?" Sharafi questioned.  "in reality, Team Melli has no working head coach. How can that be? Aren't these people ashamed? Those who claim to be managing and running football affairs in our country are only embarrassing the nation and making a mockery out of us in front of the world. They are playing with the dignity of this nation. Aren't they thinking even a little that their poor actions have an effect on the reputation of this country?  Why don't they care to think about the country's reputation ?"  Sharafi added:

Asghar Sharafi Team Melli Iran 1972
Asghar Sharafi Team Melli Iran 1972 winger

"Is it not in the class of Iranian football not to have a working coach for Team Melli? We are the 25th richest country in the world. Also, if we don't have the money as they claim all the time,  then why hire a foreign coach? We have so many good young coaches right now. Our football is very beautiful. When speaking, negotiating or cutting deals, that person must have knowledge."

" Some times ago, our football was not so good, but who can criticize the progress of Yahaya Golmohammadi's team which he built on the tightest of budgets, or Amir Ghalenoei? Who can question Esteghlal and Persepolis? Our football has changed. to the better" said Sharafi who was the assistant coach of Heshmat Mohajerani in Iran's first participation at the FIFA World Cup1978.

"I blame the football federation100 percent for their incompetence.  They're not worthy of the posts that they cling to.  These are people who would not even be employed in their previous organizations but somehow, they turned up as experts in sporting organizations like football. I am not seeking controversy or start a fight with someone. I have accomplished many honours across the world representing Iranian football. The World Cup , Olympics Games and Asian Games? I've reached all of this. Everyone has his days but a person can not be there at the top all the time. It is not always Asghar Sharafi's day. So I'm not talking about jealousy. It really hurts me to witness the ridicule that these people have put upon us. Show me a country that doesn't have a coach when it and goes to play a game" Sharafi added.

"It's a real shame they didn't pay the coach his dues or any money for that matter, a real shame. Why hire a foreign coach? Extend your foot to the size of your carpet. Wilmots has the full rights to refuse to work with this lot " said Sharafi. "He has a contract with us, he gets ten times as much as a local. How much we gave to Queiroz and Branco. Whose money is this? It's yours and mine, it's people's money. Then they take two photos for their family album and say, look, I wasn't in football but I was the president of the federation." Sharfi taking a dig at the head of the federation. Mehdi Taj.

Wilmots wages resolved, claims Mehdi Taj.

Mehdi Taj, the President of FFIRI has confirmed that Team Melli's coach salaries have been paid in full. During a reception ceremony for Iran's Beach Soccer team which has just clinched the Intercontinental Cup for the 3rd time, Taj was asked  by a reporter if Marc Wilmots' wages problem has been resolved or not,"  Mehdi Taj said, "Yes, it has been resolved, and we paid him his dues plus three to four months in advance!" There is no confirmation on the wages of other foreign coaches. Marc Wilmots himself never discussed the financial problems publically. It is not clear whether he will comment on what Taj has said to the media. In the same interview, Taj said that his federation is actively seeking a friendly game in FIFA day right after Iraq's game. "Nothing is certain, though," Taj said.  

Concerns are high for Omid Team prospects.

Apart from the Football Federation and in particular, its president Mehdi Taj, everyone that has insight and knowledge of Iranian football believes that the appointment of a rookie as the coach of Omid Team (U23) is a big mistake.

Farhad Majidi has been put into an unenviable position and given the task of qualifying for the Men’s football Olympic tournament after more than 40 years of absence. Coaches much more experienced and qualified than Majidi have failed to take Iran to what looks like an unattainable dream and some kind of a spell.

 While many prominent and experienced domestic coaches turned down the job, Majidi took upon himself to promise success in qualification but without much thought or results in the field.

Omid Team, which is considered the backbone and the near future of Team Melli, under head coach Farhad Majidi has been performing dismally and the result of the recent friendly games (1-0 and 4-1 defeats against Uzbekistan) raises an alarm bell that many have expected and forecasted the minute Majidi was appointed.

Mansour Rashidi, the famous Team Melli goalkeeper is yet another ex-player who raised doubts on the Omid team recently. Rashidi told Mehr sports reporter: "I am not familiar with the Omid Team players except for one or two and admittedly I am not close to the team to know them inside out. I didn't watch any of the recent friendly games with Uzbekistan either, but the results of those two preparations matches were not serving Iranian football's reputation. " The former coach of Iran's Omid team continued “This team is the backbone of Team Melli and much more efforts are needs to be taken into Temporary Email consideration to develop it.  It seems the level of attention, priority and care for Omid team is low.”

He added: “Farhad Majidi is one of the Iran football upcoming prospects and I am confident that he will have a bright future in coaching. But coaching Omid Team at this stage of his career was far too early for him. This team needs much more experienced and qualified coaches.  The last time Iran qualified to the Olympics was  Montreal Olympics 1976 and I was honoured to be a member of that Olympic team " our former national footballer said.

“We never imagined at the time that qualifying to the Olympics would be an unattainable dream for Iranian football”. Rashidi said: "Although the results of the preparatory games are a blow and a disappointment for Iranian football, I really hope the team can break the spell of half a century of not qualifying for the Olympics and take Iranian football out of this misery and pity."

In order to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic games, Iran must achieve one of the top three ranks in the upcoming Asian U23 Championship in Thailand. Iran did not even qualify directly as the achieved qualification as one of the best second teams.

Iran - Iraq Friendly international!

The Iranian Mehr news has reported that Iran will play a friendly match against Iraq in Basra in November of this year, according to a statement by Mehdi Taj.

On the occasion of the courtesy visit by Iraq’s Youth & Sports Minister to the National Teams Football training centre, accompanied by the president of the Iranian football federation, Mahdi Taj, confirmed that part of the bilateral agreement with the Iraqi side was arranging of friendly international matches hosted by both countries.

What seems to be quite odd with this news is that Iraq and Iran will be meeting in the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 second-round qualifiers in Basra on 14th Nov. It is not known if this supposedly friendly match is going to be played before or after the official AFC qualifier. It is highly unusual, in fact not even heard of, for two teams to arrange friendlies matches before meeting in an official competition.

It is unlikely for Team Melli under Marc Wilmots to attempt such endeavour. Mehdi Taj might have been referring to other national teams such as the U23 Omid team or U19.

Apart from the game against Iraq in November 2019, Team Melli’s last match in the second round of the AFC Asian qualifiers 2023 is on 09th Jun 2020 against Iraq in Azadi Stadium.