In the election of Iran’s Football Federation which was held this morning, rank outsider Mehdi Taj managed to win the presidency of this federation with more than double the votes of the incumbent acting head  Mirshad Majedi.

The man that left the federation under a cloud of accusations, claims of corruption, and nepotism and was legally pursued by several entities managed to dodge all the legal obstacles to his nomination. Reservation on his candidacy by clubs, a horde of managers, coaches, and players were all to no avail as Taj registered his name as a candidate for the presidency and comfortably won the hot seat about three years after he left it in tatters.  Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem who replaced Taj was fired from the post after less than a year in FFIRI.

The elections of the Football Federation started on Tuesday morning. Mehdi Taj, Azizullah Mohammadi, and Mirshad Majdi were the candidates for the presidency of the Football Federation. On vote counting, Mehdi Taj won 50 votes. The current acting head of FFIRI  Mirshad Majedi received 25 votes while Azizullah Mohammadi got 4 votes only.

On May 7, 2016, the last occasion where Mehdi Taj contested the elections, he won with 50 votes out of a total of 73 votes received at the Football Federation Assembly. He resigned from his post on December 29th, 2019 claiming health issues and a mild heart attack.

The first reaction to Taj’s return was the immediate resignation of the Head Coach of Team Melli’s futsal team.

Vahid Shamsaei that is in the midst of preparing the Futsal team to defend its Asian title in Kuwait, submitted his resignation in protest. Close associates informed the press that Shamsaei refuses to work with Taj and be associated with anything that Taj is involved in.