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D-Day
Monday 25th August , set by the two parties , was the D-Day in Team Melli coaching circle.
Carlos Queiroz has been quite clear about his intentions. It is either a final agreement on all of the Portuguese coach demands and clauses of the contract , or Lisbon is the next destination of Señor Querioz and this time there will be no turning back.
On the weekend, and after initially declaring that the contract has been all but sorted out, Querioz come out of negotiation the happier man , despite his statement that in this contract , the Winner is Kaffashian. However , apparently there was some supposedly minor disagreement (5% according to Kaffashian) between the two parties that have developed into a major issue.
The Minster of Sport added another twist to the plot by stating that his Ministry does not think that Queiroz is the best choice for Team Melli.
The final decision.
We have lost count on the number of the final decisions that has been announced by both parties, but another final decision is now set for Tuesday 26th August 2014. (Tomorrow)
After today’s negotiation between Kaffashian and Queiroz which lasted for 90 minutes and finished by the end of business day at 1500 local time , and for the umpteen times it was reported that everything (…) has been sorted out and the contract signature will be adjourned to Tuesday to allow the Minister of Sport to view the contents and presumably give his approval as it seems that the Ministry will be the de-facto paymasters .
That is quite an interesting development and the saga continues in a merry-g-round fashion.
The Minister of sport blamed the media for exerting undue pressure on FFIRI.
In yesterday’s meeting with the press , Mahmoud Goudarzi , the Minister of Youth and Sport in the Iranian cabinet of President Hassan Rouhani, blamed the Iranian sport media for putting undue pressure on the Football federation to re-sign Queiroz while other better or more appropriate options were available!.
Goudarzi said that the media has an influential role in the society but it is not always operate to the interest of the majority or the nation. The minister re-emphasized that he is not interfering in the work of the federation but simply providing advice, like hundreds of the critics who do the same on regular basis. The Minister lamented the result of Team Melli in the World Cup and expressed his surprise why some circles in Iran rave about the team’s result consider the feeble performance as honorable defeats!.
The news conference came a day before Carlos Queiroz’s ultimatum to the federation, that Monday will be the limit of his tolerance.
The turn of events has been very interesting in the last few weeks with many controversial backstage events popping up here and there. Except for the Minister’s objection or reservation on Queiroz contract, which was a common knowledge in the football community but not made public until yesterday, there are several controversial issues that is going around affecting Queiroz’s future in Iran. Of course, providing material evidence on the authenticities of most of the stories and claims are next to impossible. [/column]
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Lobbying.
By definition, a lobby is an organized group of people who work together to influence government or organizations decisions. Lobbying is a recognized and a wide spread practice in Iran’s football.
Players and coaches have known to have paid journalist and reporters to back them in their newspapers and magazines. Players have paid agents and reporters to get the big clubs to sign them. Club Chairmen paid under the table money to Sport papers Chief Editors to support the club programs and lobby the government for financial aid and assistance. Club Chairmen have engaged Member of the Parliament to lobbying on the clubs behalf in the Parliament. Even the help of Imam Joma ( the Imam of Friday prayers) have been sought to back up certain players or teams causes!
Whether such practice in ethical or even legal, is not the subject of discussion here. We are just reporting this lobbying that is quite common in Iran’s football.
Accusations , although is a small circle , has been rife that Queiroz, through his Attorney team and his local assistants who are well versed in Iranian football politics, have used some of this lobbying to pressurize the FFIRI into agreeing on many forced clauses on the contract. Goudarzi made a veiled reference to such claims by stating that the reporters and the media are exerting undue pressure on the FFIRI.
The stumbling blocks
There is no way for this federation to regularly secure foreign currency to pay Queiroz according to the contract without the approval or assistance of the government. If the government, through the Ministry of youth and Sport has reservations about Querioz, then the contract will practically be as good as dead.
The way Queiroz has turned the whole contract into a one sided self-serving one according to many critics, has not endeared him to many, especially those influential persons who can make his life easy or difficult as they wish. The differences between the objective and aspirations of Iranian football bureaucrats and Carlos Queiroz was quite evident in the World Cup, while the formers were thinking of qualifying for the next round in a group which many thought would be possible and achievable, Queiroz’s priority was to not concede goals or park the bus.
Finally, the final nail in the coffin may very well be was the preposterous relegation and marginalization of Iran’s competing in the AFC Asian Cup 2015. The biggest prize of the continent has eluded Iran for 40 years. Instead of working towards winning the title when Iran is one of the two top teams in the continent, the duo Kaffashian and Queiroz decided amongst themselves that Asian Cup takes second priority to qualification for the next World Cup in 2018!!
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