Team Melli midfield player , Andranik “Ando” Teymourian has a signed a one- year conditional contract with Esteghlal club of Tehran. Last season , Andranik played for the lowly Al Khraitiyat club in the Qatar professional league, his contract was not renewed at the end of the season. However, Teymourian’s agent , his own brother Serjik a former Esteghlal player, is still engaged in negotiations with an unnamed Qatari club for the possibility of signing a deal. In case of the success of that negotiation, Teymourian will return back to Doha and his contract with Estgehlal will be rendered void.
This conditional release clause was agreed by Estghlal’s CEO, Ali Fathollazadeh , who boasted about his ability to lure back Teymourian to his club while taking a swipe against the critics who have accused him of financial mismanagement. The beleaguered boss of Esteghlal said that the financial terms that that Teymourian is currently is negotiating with the Qatari club , cannot be matched by Esteghlal in financial terms. He also said that “it will be cruel for the club to stand against Ando’s with such a lucrative offer. If it materializes , we will release him to join the Qatari team and cancel this contract which he just signed with us.”
The club is notorious for deferring payments to the players and staff. Many players are still owed money, and cases have been escalated to the courts. Only a few days back Hanif Omaranzadeh , who finally received his check for last season , complained that the Esteghal check he was given has bounced back and the bank has returned it. While there was another interesting case , when Fatholahzadeh offered, Amir Hossein Sadeghi , Omaranzadeh’s partner in defense, his own Lexus car , because the club has could not afford to pay him the money owed!! It is not cl;ear whether Sadeghi will keep the car or return it to Fathollazadeh when the player eventually receives the money from the club.
There is also another twist in Teymourian’s case as there are still some outstanding payment which is due to the player from the time he played for Estghlal.
On another note, Esteghlal has sent the list of 25 players that will be taking part in Esteghlal’s match in the AFC quarter finals match against the Thai team. The name includes Javad Nekounam who has negotiated a contract with Sharjah club.
Both the top Tehran clubs, Perspolis and Estghlal have chronic cash problems. Perspolis have been deducted points by FIFA a few years back for failure to pay its players and might face a similar situation if the prolong case with several foreign players and coaches are not concluded.