Appointment of new head coaches for Futsal Team Melli.

Brazilian Jurandir Dutra de Azevedo and Spaniard Jesus Candelas Rodrigo have been shortlisted for Iran futsal coach job. The Brazilian is though to be assigned the the U23 team while the Spaniard will be coaching the Senior team.

Jurandir was Iran’s coach in the 2006 AFC Futsal Championship, where the Iranian team finished in third place.

Iran Football Federation has also lined up Jesus Candelas as the likely candidate to replace Ali Sanei.

Jesus Candelas Rodrigo was appointed as technical director of Iran futsal team in September.

Seyed Reza Eftikhari who has been recently appointed as the Head of Iran’s Futsal committee replacing the long serving Abbas Torabian, announced that the IRIFF is in the final stages of negotiation with Jesus Candelas Rodrigo. The Spaniard has already served as the technical director of Team Melli Futsal and was part of the coaching staff of the last campaign in the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Thailand which saw and early exist from the competition.

Eftikhari said that the stumbling block currently is the availability of hard currency to pay the coach. The federation will be approaching the government and Ministry of Sport in order to streamline an arrangement enabling the Spaniard to be paid in Hard Currency.

Both the coaches have many critics in Iran for their failures in the past.

Seyed Reza Eftikhari also commented on Vahid Shamsaei and said his return to Team Melli is the sole responsibility of the coach and his committee will not intervene in his selection. Eftikhari rejected any claims that the federation has any objections to Shamsei’s return and denied any problems existing between the player , who is currently the World Record holder of international goals scored , and the futsal committee.