Tag: Nasrollah Sajjadi

Iran Sport Official claims that Kranjcar not a suitable coach!

The Ministry of Youth and Sport relentless interference in football affairs is continuing unabated.  In the latest of such meddling, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry has been preaching about football affairs.  Seyed Nasrollah Sajjadi , who failed the vote of confidence by the parliament for his appointment as a minister ,  was speaking in a capacity of reference and knowledge of Iranian football, offering unsolicited advice to professional such as Carlos Queiroz while question the credentials of another , Kranjcar , based on shaky and ambiguous criterion from a self-proclaimed expertise panel of his ministry.

In his latest of many statements recently, Sajjadi criticized Carlos Queiroz for creating unreal situation and diverting attention while questioning the credential of a senior and seasoned coach like Zlatko Kranjcar.

During a visit to Khuzestan , Sajjadi denied any differences existing between his Ministry and the Football federation when asked about Kranjcar “ There is no such differences. Every foreign coach that has to work in Iran must pass the approval process of the Technical Selection Committee of the Ministry. Each candidate will be evaluated based on his Proficiency, Cultural background, legal issues and Conduct in public. “  

“When we evaluated all the conditions, the committee did not find that Kranjcar had the suitable credentials to hold such a position.”  Sajjadi claimed.

Queiroz coaching Team Melli in Lisbon 2014

A reporter asked him  “By refusing the employment of a Krancar for Omid Team , aren’t you wasting valuable time in our historic quest to make it to the Olympics after 40 years?”

 “I don’t call that a waste of time. We are ensuring that we apply the laws of the country and to ensure the right quality of coaches are recruited for all our sports teams. It is the FFIRI’s fault for acting late. They should have started the selection procedure of replacing the coach much earlier!”

Sajjadi also ridiculed claims by the Football federation of lack of funds “Among the 47 sport federations on our books in Iran, the football has the absolute highest budget of 8.55 billion Toman . They have received almost all of their allocation by June this year. Only 550 million Toman is remaining to be awarded.  This is in contrast to most other sport federations who received 50% or maximum 60% of their budget from the government so far.”

Sajjadi has also said that there is a standing agreement between the ministry and all sport federation in which each federations is required to declare and publish its balance sheet. The FFIRI has failed to do so, thus far.

Sajjadi had some harsh words for Queiroz. “He needs to stop mixing issues and coming up with excuses every time he is approaching a competition where he faces technical difficulties. He has to focus on his job and prepare the national team. Queurioz acted in the same manner before the World Cup and started a commotion with his imaginary and unreal problems to divert the attention away from him to some other parties. You have all witnessed that Team Melli had 3 training camps in Austria, South Africa and Brazil before the World Cup. It was conducted and completed without any problem.“   

The only thing that remains now is for the duo Goudarzi and Sajjadi to send the final list of players picked by the Ministry’s technical committee to Queiroz.  

Deputy Minister “It is better not to participate in the Olympic Qualifiers with this team”

Deputy Minister for Youth and Sport said that the sports federations whose results were well below expectation are themselves accountable for their performances in the Asian Games. Nasrollah Sajjadi, speaking on a TV show on Friday , earmarked the FFIRI for special mention criticizing the poor performance of the football team. “If this is all what the footballers can offer, then I see no point of this team competing in the preliminaries of the Rio Olympic Games. “

“Other countries reap the awards of their hard work. The football federation is solely responsible for this team and it is obvious that this team was not prepared well.  Being third in a 3 team group is not exactly a matter of bad luck either.”

Iran’s u-23 team was eliminated from the group stages of the Asian Games for the first time in decades after losing to Vietnam 4-1 and drawing with Kyrgyzstan. None of these two teams in Iran’s group made it beyond the next round, which magnifies the ghastly performance by the U-23 team coached by Nelo Vingada.

Sajjadi “We will have a grand farewell ceremony for Team Melli before flying to Brazil”

Nasrollah Sajjadi, under-secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sport and head of Team Melli Support Committee spoke of a grand ceremony for Team Melli.

“After the European camp and just before departure to Brazil for the training camp and the World Cup tournament , we have arranged a grand ceremony for the players to show the support of the Iranian people for the team. We have also invited the President Hassan Rouhani to be the guest of honor. Of course, his attendance is dependent on his timetable.” Sajjadi said. “We ask all the fans of Team Melli to show their real support by attending the league matches . In this way , the players will feel the support of the nation.”

Sajjadi also said that “We do not anticipate any problem in supporting Team Melli programs financially as the ministry has allocated  enough funds while the football federation has found a good sponsor”, stressing that all the training camps that were planned earlier on , will go ahead.

On the issue of Team MElli assistant coaches, Sajjadi said that Queiroz has interviewed two candidates for the job , and rejected one of them. He is still not decided on the name of the coach who will be accompanying the team to Brazil. Sajjadi said “Carlos Queiroz did not anticipate that Namazi will abandon the team in such manner (..)”

It seems that the officials are focusing on Omid Namazi’s departure on every opportunity as act of indiscretion, while the sudden departure of Queiroz close friend and compatriot is barely cited.