Tag: Mojtaba Khorshidi

Azizi Khadem removed from his Presidency of FFIRI

Azizi-Khadim removed from his post

The executive board of directors of Iran’s Football Federation FFIRI has temporarily suspended the President of the federation FFIRI until further notice on Thursday. This suspension is the initial motion to remove Aziz Khadem from his post permanently.

At the request of five executive members, an extraordinary meeting was held on the morning of February 17th with the main item of the agenda being the suitability of the current president Shababudin Azizi Khadem in running the federation and addressing several shortfalls attributed to him.

The meeting reviewed the conditions upon which the president may continue in his post and conduct the duties of the top executive of the federation or the temporary suspension allowing another candidate to fill the role until the general assembly meeting that decides on the president. The executive board decided to suspend Azizi Khadem in the extraordinary meeting whose term of office did not last more than 354 days.

The most important managerial post in Iranian football lasted less than a year for the unpopular Aziz Khadem. Interestingly enough, under the so-called incompetent president, Iran recorded a historical third consecutive qualification to the World Cup with three matches yet to be played. ONly Brazil managed one better than Team Melli.

The Secretary-General becomes the De Facto President

The meeting was formalized at 9:30 am today, when Hassan Kamranifar, the Secretary-General of the Football Federation, made a great effort to implement the articles of association of the federation. He also asked the support of the Ministry of Sports to seriously prevent the entry of various people into the meeting.

The Arrival of Azizi Khadem

The president arrived at the National Football Center at 9:00 AM a good half an hour early to attend the decisive meeting.  Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem rushed through the gate of the National Football Center with his driver right in front of the reporters and press photographers. He refused to comment and had to be seen or photographed.

On the other hand, Shohreh Mousavi, Vice President of the Football Federation, and head of Women Football Affairs entered the National Football Center with a contrasting way, She and a number of the board were smiling for the media. Mousavi is credited for leading that gang of five, as referred to by some media outlets, for the move to outset Aziz Khadem. She along with Hasan Osouli, Mirshad Majedi, Ahmad Reza Barati, and Bahram Rezaian arrived full of confidence in achieving their goal..

The Strict security.

Security personnel of the Ministry of Sports and the Football Federation strictly prevented various people from entering the National Football Center. They even asked Bonyadi-Far who had a scheduled task at the center, to return back another day.

Journalists and other media personnel were present in front of the main door of the National Football Center from 8 o’clock, but they were not allowed to enter.

Filming for the day lest

The Public Relations of the Football Federation have fully filmed today’s meeting of the Executive Board of Directors in order to provide it to the competent authorities and the Asian Football Confederation if necessary.

Two management members were Barred from the meeting

According to the official announcement of the AFC, two of Aziz Khadem’s allies were prevented from attending the meeting. Haidar Baharvand and Hamid Reza MehrAli, the first and second vice-presidents of Khadem were excluded. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has stated that the two men are not legally allowed to attend the board meeting deciding the fate of their boss, so both the deputies had to leave before the meeting deliberations started.

Obstruction to the entry of Khadem’s closest friend.

Mojtaba Khorshidi, the Manager of Team Melli was on his way to attend some business at the National Football Center, but the security of Azadi Stadium stopped him from entering. Khorshidi claimed that he intended to attend his office and not the meeting but the security informed him that the area is restricted even for the employees!. According to some witnesses, Khorshidi who is a personal friend of Azizi Khadem and his ally intended to have a short and urgent conversation with Azizi Khadem, but as he was not o enter under any circumstances, he slipped a note to his boss on a small piece of paper.

Police protection.

The arrival of the police security force which has deployed its patrol units around the National Football Center to ensure there will be no interruption or disturbances of the board meeting by the proponents of the incumbent president.

Breach of Security

The mysterious entry of a former head of the Futsal Committee, Davood Parhizkar, became a hot topic. Parhizkar is not an active member of the FFIRI and holds no official post, yet he was allowed to enter the National Football Center, but it is not clear whether he was able to attend the board meeting or is there only for personal matters.

The chairman responded and left.

A voting session was held on the dismissal or continuation of Azizi Khadem without his physical presence. At this meeting, he first defended himself against accusations and charges of shortfalls in his duty.  At the end of the interrogation, the majority of the board members voted to temporarily suspend Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem from the post of President of the Football Federation. This is unprecedented in Iran’s football history.

A majority consensus to expel the President.

Hassan Kamranifar, secretary-general of the Football Federation, called on the members present at the meeting to keep their votes secret. However, there has been a lot of talk about an alliance of eight members who could decide whether Shahab Azizi Khadem should stay or leave.

Ahmad Reza Barati, Shohreh Mousavi, Tahmours Heidari, Khodadad Afsharian, Mirshad Majedi, Ehsan Osouli, and Bahram Rezaian were present at the meeting.

Azizi Khadem’s entourage started packing.

The President of FFIRI under immense pressure had a few backers in the federation offices and corridors, however, those in his favor soon started packing their belongings in anticipation of worse things to come. That did not escape the hawkeyes of some reporters as they reported that a number of Azizi Khadem’s regular associates gathered their belongings after his temporary dismissal to say an early farewell. Azizi Khadem also bid farewell to all the staff at the national teams’ camp when he left the National Football Center, but refused to talk to reporters.

A serious challenge for FFIRI lies ahead.

The board of directors of the Football Federation, now headed by Mehrdad Seraji, not only has to make transparency its top priority but also has to resume the process of approving the bye-laws, which was previously approved by FIFA, in order to draw the approval of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. They should also try to hold a meeting of the General Assembly of the Federation as soon as possible to permanently remove Azizi Khadem.

Positive cases 3 and more bad news for Team Melli ahead of the crucial qualifiers.

A number of legionnaires invited to Team Melli training camp and the subsequent matches versus Iraq and UAE have not yet been able to join their teammates at the team’s camp in Tehran.

Mojtaba Khorshidi said “the latest situation of the legionnaires is as follows: Mehdi Taremi is still stuck in that small town in Turkey due to snowfall and poor flight conditions, and it is not yet clear what time he will leave for Iran. Karim Ansarifard has also recently arrived in Dubai after changing his flight route from Turkey to the UAE.  Sardar Azmoun has not yet traveled from Paris to Dubai.”

The Manager of Team Melli in response to the fact that these legionnaires will not arrive in time at the national team camp said: “Even if they leave now as we speak, they will be absent from training because they need to follow the health protocols process as they will have to quarantine first until the corona test result is proved negative. After the negative tests can join the squad and start training. As a result, they will be absent from today’s (Wednesday) practice. Regarding Azmoun, Nourollahi and Hajsafi, they can join the team’s camp after their corona test is negative: ‌ You know that the course of contracting Omicron is 3 to 7 days. We have to see what happens in the coming days.”

Khorshidi also mentioned the situation of 13 players who have joined the national team yesterday: “The PCR test results of these players has not arrived yet. This will probably happen in the next two hours, and after the tests are negative, they can start training. :

The Manager of the national team commented on the addition of new players to the national team camp from the waiting list: “The coaching staff has not decided yet.”

According to ISNA, since yesterday, the PCR test of three key players of Team Melli has been positive. Nourollahi, Azmoun, and Hajsafi are the players who will be absent from this camp.

Only Kamal Kamiabinia has been added to the squad from the waiting list as a replacement for Nourollahi.

Team Melli will face Iraq in two days’ time in a match that could be the qualification prize for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Iran needs three points from the next two games to book its place to Doha, Qatar

Team Melli preparations and brief.

Team Melli Manager says that according to the coaching staff, 10 players present in the current camp are selected to continue attending the final phase together with the legionnaires. They form the final list of the Team Melli squad.

The first phase of the national team training camp was concluded with the presence of 22 domestic league players. The coaching staff shortlisted 10 players for the final list for the games against Syria and Iraq. Mojtaba Khorshidi, the national football team Manager, announced the list of selected players on the website of the Football Federation

Saleh Hardani, Siavash Yazdani, Omid Nourafkan, Milad Sarlak, Yasin Salmani, Mehdi Torabi, Mohammad Karimi, Zubair Niknafs, Aref Aghasi, and Vahid Amiri

Khorshidi also mentioned an important point about the 12 players whose names are not in the final list and added: “The absence of these players in the final list is not due to their poor quality or poor performance in training. Mr. Skocic emphasized that not being in the final list should not disappoint these players and their performance will always be considered by the head coach and the technical staff of the national team, they will definitely have a chance to be in the national team in the future.”

 Mojtaba Khorshidi also confirmed the absence of four injured players in the final list: Ehsan Haj Safi, Morteza Pouraliganji, Seyed Majid Hosseini and Ali Karimi are the four players whose names were to be included in the final list of the national team. Their injuries rendered them unavailable.

After the weekend games in Europe, it is expected that most legionnaires in the squad will be arriving in Tehran within a day or two.

It is interesting to note that Dragan Skocic was in quarantine after he was tested positively for COVID19. His assistants carried on training with the squad and the list is prepared after consultation with all stakeholders. In addition to head coach Skocic, his Iranian assistant Vahid Hashemian, who also tested positive, was absent from training.

Both the Team Melli forwards, Sardar Azmoun (Zenit) and Mehdi Taremi (Porto) were on the scoring sheet with their respective teams while Saman Ghoddos whose appearance remains in doubt was one of the better players in the EPL match between Brentford and Aston Villa.