In an unforeseen move, the FFIRI has appointed Vahid Shamsaei as the acting head coach of Iran’s futsal team.
Shamsaei, a legendary futsal player in his own right is currently the head coach of league champion side, Tasisat Daryaei FSC. In a statement carried by the official FFIRI website, the head of the futsal committee Seyed Reza Efitkhari announced “We have thoroughly discussed the current situation in the aftermath of Jesus Candelas resignation from his post. To minimize the impact and for the sake of continuity, we have decided that the best option is to appoint Vahid Shamsaei as caretaker head coach until such time when a final appointment can be reached.”
The move seems to be a hasty one brought by the circumstances and shortage of time as Iran futsal team has a busy schedule ahead and involved in several competitions which require prompt action to resolve the coaching responsibilities and appointments.
What seems to be quite odd, however, is the decision by the FFIRI Futsal committee to nominate Shamsaei’s team as the representative of Iran! This move was most probably demanded by Shamsaei himself as a pre-condition for accepting the job on temporary basis. Shamsaei is free to choose other players from other teams to supplement his own. Tasisat team which will be labeled as Iran’s Team Melli futsal team. Shamsei’s first assignment is to take the team to Portugal on a tour where two games are arranged against the Portuguese national side.
Vahid Shamsaei (39 years) is officially the world’s top futsal goal scorer with 82 goals. He started his coaching career while still playing with Dabir Tabriz. In 2014 he transferred to Tasisat Daryaei and won them the title on his first attempt. The 8 times Asian Cup winner had a difficult relation with FFIRI in past few years. Futsal in general is still going through some rough times, with variety of problems. Managerial disputes, league disruption, crowds’ disturbances, claims of corruption and administration problems have marred the progress of futsal in Iran.
Iran is hosting the AFC Futsal Club Championship in summer 2015 (30July-07th August)
Iran has won the Asian title a record 10 times but lost the last AFC Asian Championship to Japan on Penalty kicks last year). The other nations that won the tire is Japan on 3 occasions.