Two days before the end of the year and Nowruz the ancient Persian new year’s day celebrated by people from diverse ethnic communities and religious backgrounds for thousands of years and the national holiday of Iran, we look at some of the ups and downs of Iranian football.

Qualification to the World Cup 2014.

Without a doubt, qualification to the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil was the biggest achievement of Iran’s football. It was not just the fact that Iran has qualified for the biggest event in the World Football calendar, as Team Melli has managed this feat and qualified 3 times before that, it was the manner of qualification that was just short of spectacular.

Very few gave Queiroz men a chance especially after some lackluster displays and results by Team Melli including a historic loss to Lebanon, a team that until that fateful day, never managed to score against Iran. Iran really needed to win its remaining 3 matches, including the most difficult one against its nemesis South Korea in Ulsan, to assure the qualification.

With perseverance, purpose, style and some wonderful defending work at the back, Team Melli did exactly that and won 3 out of 3 heading its group and qualifying directly to Brazil and leaving the South Koreans biting their nails awaiting the Uzbekistan match result to know if they have made it along with Iran.

 

Iran’s Beach soccer

A historical achievement by Iran’s beach soccer team occurred in November 2013 , when Iran defeated Russia to win the championship of the Samsung Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

The Iranians beat the two-time defending Intercontinental Cup champion 4-3 in the final match of the tourney in Dubai. Players like Mohammad Ahmadzadeh , Peiman Hosseini , Mostafa Kiani , Moslem Mesigar, Hassan Abdollahei and Hassan Hajipour suddenly became household names in the Iran.

The Iranians love champions and championship pedigree. By winning the Intercontinental Cup , FIFA sponsored championship , Iran’s Beach soccer team ensured their names are engraved permanently in the hall of fame of Iranian football.

 

Persepolis and Esteghlal

No escaping the bipolar status of Iran’s football. The majority of fans, support one of these two teams wherever they are. Some even prefer the red or blue teams over their local teams. The destiny and fate of Team Melli depends largely on these two teams up to a certain extent. The success of these clubs normally is reflected on Team Melli.

Both these two teams are owned, managed and controled by the government since they took it over ( nationalized i) after the revolution. For 20 years, the government has been talking about the imminent privatization of these two clubs ,  especially during the two presidency terms of Mahmoud Ahmadineajd and his sports right hand man AliAbadi both of whom convinced the masses that the privatization is a done deal.

Not only such promises by the President never materialized, the two teams have faced immense financial problems, irregularities, poor management, anomalies and corruption. The extent of such has resulted in the migration of players out of Esteghlal , while Persepolis is virtually bankrupt unable to sustain its operation and hanging on a thread. No one knows exactly how these two clubs are actually functioning with debts in millions of US Dollars, unpaid bills and no revenue to even partially cover their debts or service the interest rates.

Active attempts by some old players to take control of the Persepolis , calling themselves the rightful owners of the club, has been met by skepticism and protests by many red fans. The New Year 1393 s expected to be a vital for these two clubs.

 

NAVAD program

Arguably the most controversial media programs if Iran broadcast weekly on Iranian national TV. Adel Ferdowsipour, the anchorman of this very popular program NAVAD (90) is more famous than a lot of footballers in Iran. He is also more popular than quite a few of them. His popularity, however, does not extend to the administrators, coaches, politicians, club owners and some of the hierarchy,.

Many of his critics see him as instigator of quandaries, agitator, controversy seeker, and a whistle blower that Iran’s football can do without. Many called for his removal while even the MP’s of the Majlis demanded his ousted. However IRIB management, to their credit , wisely and shrewdly stuck to their guns and maintained the popular man and his program, untouched, unchanged and unaffected. Such is his program popularity that most of players and coaches interviewed on post-match, plead to NAVAD program to give them a fair judgment on controversial calls or issues because they believe it is a fair and free tribune.

The true vote of confidence for this program came in the last edition, which was the final program of 1392 , when a telephone SMS poll gave it a whopping 96% vote of confidence from the fans. Simply amazing support that even dictators such as Hosny Mubarak and Saddam Hussain could not fabricate during their reign.

Ferdowsipour , despite some shortfalls of his own and some unorthodox style of presentation , remains one of the most powerful and influential people in Iran’s football , although he has no official designation at all.

 

A football federation that is always begging for money.

While the news of qualifying for the World Cup made a whole nation happy and full of joy, the reality hit hard when the football federation started complaining about lack of funds. Years of frail management, failure to market a good and profitable product, lack of outside interest in investing in football, sub-standard management skills amongst many other things, resulted in a football federation begging for money to support Team Melli activities.

As the result, this football federation under Ali Kaffashian was unable to arrange meaningful friendly matches against quality teams, cancelled planned training camps for Team Melli and has difficulty honoring contracts and payments of wages, and lost two assistant coaches through resignations under peculiar conditions.

With the government that is reluctant to bankroll the football activities, for very good reasons, the lack of funds to support Team Melli preparation for the FIFA World Cup , remains the biggest source of concern for every fan of Team Melli.