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“Discipline is a top priority in Team Melli,” says Rezaei

In a short interview with Khabar Varzeshi, Rahman Rezaei, the assistant coach of Team Melli, highlighted the importance of discipline in Team Melli and how crucial it is for the overall success of the team.

Rezaaei was asked by the reporter “In the previous camp, Mohammad Hossein Kananizadegan was not invited due to disciplinary issues. Is he on the blacklist for the coming camps or not?”

“Disciplinary issues are a top priority for Team Melli’s coaching staff, headed by Amir Ghalenoei. In any case, in the previous camp, it was decided that Kananizadegan would be excluded from the group. Regarding whether he will be added to our team in the new camp or not, it is all up to the direct opinion of the respected head coach. I would like to emphasize again that Ghalenoei has a special emphasis on maintaining order and discipline in the national team because this issue is directly related to the fate of the team. You must have noticed, in the recent games of the Omid team in the Olympic qualifiers, the yellow cards were the difference between us qualifying or losing the chance to create history.”

“Disciplinary issues cost our football dearly. Previous experiences should be a lesson for us. Lately, football rules have become stricter than before, and both AFC and FIFA are very strict on the conduct of players and coaches, hence we attach high importance to it and should have zero tolerance for indiscipline no matter how important a player is for the team. We continue to advocate good behavior and discipline even in training and around the camps.”

This is an encouraging development for Team Melli’s mentality but it remains to be seen if this strict discipline and behavior will be implemented in competition matches. Historically, lax discipline has been the Achilles heel of Iranian football and that includes tactical discipline on top of behavior on and off the field. The former coach of Team Melli, Carlos Queiroz has done a fine job creating a strict disciplinarian environment in the camp. That discipline waned slightly during Dragan Skocic’s tenure.
it remains to be seen if Amir Ghalenoei is serious about this vital issue. Domestic coaches are known to be more tolerant of players’ indiscretions as evident in the Omid team in recent weeks.

Team Melli to set up camp in the Far East before the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

The first vice president of Iran’s football federation announced that Team Melli will partake in a tournament in the Far East before the start of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023.
According to a report, Mehdi Mohammadnabi, the first vice president of FFIRI, on the sidelines of the International Football Clinic Congress, said: “Before going to Qatar to participate in the AFC Asian Cup, Team Melli is supposed to arrange a training camp in the Far East.”

Emphasizing that the location of this camp has not yet been decided, he said: “We are working on the matter and hope that the national team will participate in a tournament in East Asia before the Asian Cup. Of course, this preparatory camp and tournament will be accomplished without the presence of the legionnaires.”

It has been previously announced that Iran will play a friendly match against the Japanese national team before participating in the Asian Cup, a match that will apparently be held without the presence of the legionnaires of the two countries. It is not clear if Mohammadnabi is referring to this match.

There is another two matches for Team Melli in the FIFA Day October break as Iran will be taking part in a 4 nations international tournament in Amman Jordan.

The Asian Cup will be held in Qatar from January 12, 2024, to February 10, 2024.

Asian Games 2022: Iran U23 qualify for the quarter-finals

Iran’s Omid team defeated Thailand 2-0 in the round of 16 of the Asian Games in Hangzhou and advanced to the quarter-finals round to meet Hong Kong, winners against Palestine in the same round.

Iran U23 team must be grateful for the Thai goalkeeper’s generosity in gifting both goals to Team Omid. Also, Enayati and his players must thank their own goalkeeper Hossein Hosseini for saving their blushes with some timely saves from the dangerous Thail forwards.

Iran’s first goal (15) was due to Thai goalkeeper Lakhonphon’s blunder and Arslan Motahari’s opportunism. While in control of the ball Lakhonphon was trying to find a teammate to pass to, but he took too much time while Motahari was approaching. By the time Lakhonphon decided to kick the ball away, the Iranian forward was right on his face as the ball hit Motahari and deflected into the empty net. An opportunist goal and an embarrassment for Thailand.

The second goal late in the match, was also another Lakhonphon gift to Iran when he committed a foul on Mamizadeh in the box resulting in a penalty kick which Yasin Salmani dispatched into the Thai net.

It was a difficult win for Omid Team against the lowly Thailand team, who gallantly fought in the hope of qualification and gave their best. Thailand was never overwhelmed by the Iranians and was perhaps the better team in the second half. Omid’s team struggled and as usual, were profligate, uninspiring, and at times even embarrassing. The offensive balls lacked quality and purpose while individual Iranian player skills did not make much of a difference in their overall team performance.

When an Iranian team is time-wasting and taking a long time on the grass faking injury, one knows how embarrassing this team is.

The only bright side of today’s performance was that of Seyed Hossein Hosseini who not only kept a clean sheet for the fourth consecutive match but also saved at least two goals and made further significant saves against a determined Thai onslaught.

With some more bad news on the way, as Persepolis demands the return of their three players, Omid needs all the luck and prayers to defeat Hong Kong in the quarter-finals. With such performance, even defeating a team such as Hong Kong is not guaranteed as the display is not assuring and quality is lacking when most needed from this team.

Meanwhile, China defeated Qatar 1-0, while outright favorites South Korea smashed Kyrgzestan 5-1 to set up an exciting meeting in the quarter-finals between the host and the favorite. in other matches of the same round of 16, North Korea defeated Bahrain 2-0, Hong Kong defeated Palestine 1-0.
Uzbekistan will play Indonesia, India will face Saudi Arabia and Japan will have an easy task against Myanmar to complete the quarter-finals couplings.

FIFA Ranking September 2023: Iran in 21st place.

Iran climbed one place in the latest FIFA World Ranking to 21st ahead of Peru, Sweden, and Ukraine while Japan’s impressive run continues with rank 19 just ahead of Senegal and Iran.

Japan is still maintaining the lead in AFC with Iran, South Korea, Australia, and Saudi Arabia following behind.

RKTeamTotal PointsPrevious Points+/-Positions
19JapanJapan1605.21595.969.24
21IR IranIran1561.261556.594.67
26Korea RepublicKorea Republic1533.011529.33.71
27AustraliaAustralia1531.721530.451.27
57Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia1412.821421.46-8.64
61QatarQatar1395.571395.570.00
69IraqIraq1347.381345.212.17
70United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates1342.431336.286.15
73OmanOman1334.371332.451.92
75UzbekistanUzbekistan1328.351327.580.77
80China PRChina PR1297.251304.78-7.53
84JordanJordan1286.361296.26-9.90

Smiles all across with Team Melli European competitions.

in the first round of this season’s UEFA club competitions, five out of six Iranian players were involved with their teams which all resulted in victories.

On Tuesday, Mehdi Taremi led his club Porto to a 3-1 win against Shakhter in Hamburg. Taremi scored one goal and was influential in another to start his campaign in a positive manner.

On the same night, Alireza Jahanbakhsh came in as a substitute and contributed a goal for his team Feyenoord in a 2-0 win against the Scottish champions Celtic.

Both the goals of Taremi and Jahanbakhsh were of high quality being praised by pundits.

On Thursday, AEK Athens with the presence of Team Melli Captain Ehsan Hajsafy who started the match, but was replaced by Milad Mohammadi, created the first shock of Europa League competition when they beat the south coast English Premier side Brighton 3-2 in a thrilling and eventful match.

In this match, Hajsafy was a major influencer as he gave away a penalty that Brighton scored, but then redeemed himself by providing an assist for the second AEK Athens goal. Hajsafy suffered a head injury and was replaced by Milad Mohammadi on the hour. Interestingly, when Mohammadi entered, the British TV commentator mentioned the AEK Players, nicknamed Milad “peep..peep” in reference to the speedy cartoon character “Road Runner”.

Due to the injury to Hajsafy in the second half, 14 extra minutes were added.

Sadegh Moharrami enjoyed the biggest win of the first round with Dinamo Zagreb after they defeated FC Astana 5-1 in Zagreb. Moharrami played the full 90 minutes and was one of the top-rated players of the match.

The surprise of the day, however, was the absence of Sardar Azmoun from the match sheet of AS Roma against FC Sherif. MOurinho’s team won that close match 2-1 away in Moldova with the winning goal coming from Lukaku.

The absence of Azmoun and Kristensen is due to restrictions imposed on AS Roma within the context of UEFA. For several years now, Roma has had to deal with the tight restrictions of the settlement agreement with UEFA over Financial Fair Play.

That includes the ‘transfer balance’ – so the current squad must be worth the same or less than last season’s group.

If that value is off balance, then the one way to get it back onto the right level is by leaving out new signings rather than those who were already part of the team.

Therefore, in order to make room for Lukaku, Roma has to leave out fellow new signings Azmoun and Kristensen.

So, it was a perfect week for Team Melli players with Taremi and Jahanbakhsh scoring while Hajsafy provided an assist.

First win for Omid in the Asian Games

Omid Team managed its first win in the Asian Games 2022 after a disappointing goalless draw with Saudi Arabia in the first match. In Thursday’s match, the U23 team comprehensively beat Vietnam 4-0 to regain the top spot in the Group consisting of Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Iran.

Goals my Arsalan Motahri (5), Saman Touranian (47′)’, Mehdi Mamizadeh (53′), and Aria Barzegar (90+2′) sealed the win and a top-of-the-table spot for the U23 team. Iran plays its final game on Sunday against the bottom Team Mongolia for a place in the next round, which seems to be already assured after this win.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia defeated Mongolia earlier in the day 3-0 to be level on points with Iran but placed second with Omofd having a better goal difference.

Team Melli players in European Club competitions

The European Clubs championships will start in earnest this evening with matches in the UEFA Champions League UCL on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by the Europa League which is traditionally played on Thursdays.

6 Team Melli players will be involved in the European club competitions this season. Mehdi Taremi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Sadegh Moharrami, Sardar Azamoun, Ehsan Hajsafi and Milad Mohammadi. We will look at the individual players’ performances in the early season, their effectiveness for their clubs, chances of playing, and chances of their club qualification to the next round. The three competitions they are involved in are the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League.

Mehdi Taremi (FC Porto): presently he is without a doubt the most prominent amongst the Team Melli legionnaires possessing the highest value for his club. Being a key player with Porto and a title defender, there are a lot of expectations from Taremi. Despite some off-the-field distractions, that might have affected him, he returned back to what he does best by scoring the winning goal away to Estrela da Amadora last weekend. This season, Taremi started 4 out of 5 club matches.

FC Porto is in Group H which has the mighty Barcelona as the favorite, but also the Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk and Belgian Royal Antwerp. It is a tough group but Porto remains in contention for one of the two qualifying places.

Playing Status: Starter
Effectiveness: 8.5 out of 10
Chances of qualifying: 70%


Alireza Jahanbaksh (Feyenoord): The Team Melli Captain is not experiencing the best of times. His form has dipped considerably and he is now glued to the bench in the Eredivisie with Feyenoord. He played in two out of 5 league matches with only one starting and one as a substitute. Jahanbaksh neither scored nor provided any assists this season.

Feyenoord is in Group E of the UEFA Champions League along with favorites Atletico Madrid, Celtic, and Lazio, It is an even group but hardly an easy pass for Feyenoord, which will start with a match against the Scottish Champions Celtic on Tuesday 19th September.

Playing Status: Substitute
Effectiveness: 3.5 out of 10
Chances of qualifying: 68%


Sadegh Moharrami (Dinamo Zagreb): The Team Melli right-back has been having a good season with the Croatian champions. His rating has been amongst the best and also provided one assist in the 5 matches he has already played for the club.

In the Europa Conference League, Dinamo Zagreb is in Group C along with; Balkani (Kosovo), FC Astana (Kazakhstan), and Viktoria Plzen (Czechia). The former is the closest rival to Dinamo Zagreb. The first match is on Thursday 21st September.

Playing Status: Starter
Effectiveness: 7.5 out of 10
Chances of qualifying: 80%


Sardar Azmoun (Roma): After a shaky season with Bayer Leverkusen marred by long-term injuries, Azmoun is now on loan with AS Roma coached by Mourinho. Team Melli striker will not enjoy the UEFA Champions League this term as Roma is playing in the Europa League. Azmoun made his debut last Sunday as a late substitute for Romelo Lukaku in a 7-0 thrashing of bottom Club Empoli

Azmoun had a slow season start so far in Rome mainly due to injuries he carried from Leverkusen plus some personal issues. AS Roma is in Group G with FC Sheriff, Servette, and Slavia Prague and will begin the campaign with the Modovan Champions FC Sheriff on Thursday 21st September.

Playing Status: Substitute
Effectiveness: 4.5 out of 10
Chances of qualifying: 75%


Ehsan Hajsafi (AEK Athens): Team Melli Captain and most capped player has had a mixed season with the club. He has started 1 out of 3 league matches although he was also a starter in the UCL Qualifiers which AEK Athens lost narrowly to Antwerp.

AEK Athens is in a strong group that includes, The Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion, Ajax Amsterdam, and Marseille. It is arguably the strongest group in the Conference League and the Greek club needs to be at its best to have a chance of qualifying. The mission starts on Thursday with a match away to Brighton.

Playing Status: Substitute
Effectiveness: 6 out of 10
Chances of qualifying: 35%


Milad Mohammadi (AEK Athens): started 2 of the 3 matches in the Greek league and played the full 90 minutes each time as a left-back. He seems to be growing in confidence this season after a mixed season in 2022/2023.

Playing Status: Starter
Effectiveness: 6.5 out of 10
Chances of qualifying: 35%

Poor grassroots football development, the reason for Omid’s Failure

After the disappointment of Iran’s U23 team’s failure to make it to the AFC Asian Cup U23 Qatar, where 16 top Asian teams will try to qualify for the Olympics, criticisms and theories on the failure have been in abundance.

One interesting theory comes from a long-time coach who has been operating at the youth level for many years in Iran’s football and looking beyond the classic narrative of failures and defeat.

Referring to the reasons for the Omid team failure, the Iranian football expert, Amin Rasti said: “Iran’s grassroots football structure is frail and unethical, and we will not get anywhere with such mentality and system.”

In an interview with Mehr reporter, Amin Rasti commented on the elimination of Iran’s Omid football team under head coach Reza Enayati: “The problem is in players’ development at the grassroots level, which causes unprofessional and misdemeanor in later stages of a player’s career such as in Omid and beyond.”

“It was unreasonable to expect a miracle from Enayati to qualify for the Olympics. He had just arrived (…) and perhaps he was not fully acquainted with many issues, or perhaps lacked some necessary skills. The issue that worries me is that we are ignoring the growth of our Asian neighbors, our competitors. This problem does not refer to one institution or a few managers. The basic football structure is quite weak. The foundation is fragile. Why don’t we have a grassroots tournament in Iran? The discussion of financial issues is on one side of the equation while paying attention to grassroots football development is on the other side.”

Rasti continued: ” There is a problem with grassroots football training at club level. I have warned against the neglect at this level, several times in the past few years. Grassroots football starts with toddlers and ends with the youth. It is a critical stage but also vital in developing a footballer. We have the problem of education in these categories. The dearth of quality trainers, mixed priorities, and general lack of planning. There are a thousand and one reasons why grassroots football is bad and going to worse.”

Referring to the low level of quality, and standards of the grassroots coaches, Rasti said: ” I don’t see the problem only in the thoughts of the head coach, but I want to say that our problem is the importance of infrastructure in grassroots football. This trend is seriously alarming for national football. Our coaches have fallen behind in the modern science of player training. Self-development and improvement are rare. If we don’t pay attention, we will have problems in the senior category as well. “

Rasti talked about his fear of facing the great rivals of the Asian continent in the upcoming AFC Asian Cup and stated: ” I am really worried about the Asian Cup. Playing against Saudi Arabia can be scary for this football. We are tired of mentioning Japan, which started about 25 years ago and now it is destroying giants like Germany. Japan has moved way up but aside from that, the rest of the Asian nations are also getting stronger and stronger.”

Rasti re-emphasized: “We are not proceeding on the systematic path in any way. Grassroots football is lost. We have a large pool of talent at the grassroots, but it is managed poorly. It is a pity for these talents. We must be much stronger than what we are now. We will not reach our potential because of mismanagement Believe me, this year is too late to return to the first level of Asian football, and we must formulate and adjust the basic structure from today to reap the benefits in the coming years”

Amin Rasti

Nepotism, favoritism, and poor coaching eliminated the Omid Team.

Iran’s Omid (U23) football team failed to advance to the final stages of the AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Qatar 2024 and the chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics. This under-23 national team, which, like its previous generations, has some prominent players in their own right, and despite the experience of the likes of Amin Hizbavi, Yasin Salmani, Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad, Mohammad Reza Bardbar, and Allahyar Sayadmanesh, failed to score against Uzbekistan and was the weaker team in the final match.

After two wins against weaker opponents namely Hong Kong and Afghanistan, the crucial game against the host, which scored an amazing 18 goals against the same two weak teams, was a must-win situation. However, Omid lost and it was now up to the classification of the 4 best second teams. Malaysia had an identical record as Iran, but booked its place in the final rounds based on a better disciplinary record, to add salt to the wounds of the Iranians.

In the post-match press conference, despite this humiliation, Reza Enayati was defiant and blamed the loss against Uzbekistan on everything but himself while rueing the two yellow cards his players received. Funnily, he blamed the results against Hong Kong and Afghanistan on the pitch, as if Iranian stadiums and grounds are exemplary!

Digging deep into the selection of this coach, evidently, he was supported and approved by Amir Ghalenoei, the head coach of Team Melli and former Estaghlali like Enayati himself. Through a complicated process, despite the differences of opinion among the country’s football leaders and sports managers. Mehdi Taj, head of FFIRI planned to hand over the executive and management affairs of Omid Team to Habib Kashani, as in the past. The numerous financial problems of the Football Federation forced Taj’s to extend a hand to the member of the Tehran City Council to try to break the spell of the Olympics’ failures with Kashani’s management experience in sports.

Kashani agreed to take over the affairs of the team, conditionally on having total authority, including the appointment of the head coach, and without interference from anyone. That never happened. Kashani quietly withdrew and declined calls by the federation to re-consider.

Many local coaches were approached and offered the chance to be the head coach of Team Omid. The likes of Hamid Derakhshan, Mehdi Tartar, and Mojtabi Hosseini, all rejected such appointments. The 46-year-old, Reza Enayati, who has been jobless since he left Naft Masjed Soleyman was chosen with the direct approval of Ghalenoei, despite his lack of experience and weak resume.

Kashani opposed Enayati’s choice from the very beginning, and when he felt the appointment was going through against his will, he left the job and resigned from his post as Manager of Omid Team. For arranging matches for the team, Mehdi Taj, could only get WAFF U23 Cup. In this regional competition, Omid won against Syria and drew against Palestine. They then defeated Jordan in the penalty shootout and went to the final with Iraq, but this time the penalty shootout was not auspicious for the team as Omid was content with a second-place finish.

Enayati was then able to enforce the Turkish camp program with the extensive support of Ghalenoei and two of his close friends. in Turkey, the team was able to have good preparatory games which raised the expectations that Omid would go through to the final first stage of the Olympic qualifiers.

With all the players at his disposal, Enayati went to Tashkent, Uzbekistan to lead one of the most promising generations of Iranian under-23 teams. With the extensive support of the head coach of Team Melli, who supported Enayati providing the team with Sayadmanesh, Hizbavi, Salmani, and HosseinNejad, The only absentee was Saman Fallah, who stayed in Tehran due to injury.

Iranian football is experiencing a yearning of half a century to qualify for the Olympics. The Olympic mascot for Iranian football enters its sixth decade it is considered a completely wrong way to manage hopes.

A brief look at this half-century of regret shows that one of the weaknesses of the strategy has always been in choosing the right management model for the team or how to choose the head coach and creating a platform for the cooperation of clubs with this team. Choosing a person who is perhaps in the third or fourth tier of Iranian coaches, is a sure way to fail. everyone understands that.

Enayati, when asked about the chances of winning this group, before traveling to Tashkent, said “Inshallah, with the good prayers of the fans, we will win” !!!

If we have to depend on prayers, why would we need him on the bench of the Omid Team? we might as well do our prayers and hope for the best.

The recipe of failure was drawn this time with Enayati’s lack of experience and the poor vision of Ghalenoei and the football federation headed by an incompetent Mehdi Taj who is the master of apology in Iran. This time like last time there was nothing to offer the fans except for the repeated word “regret”. There is no talk of any long-term plan, which is definitely alien for this federation, no talk of gap analysis and where things could have improved, what they learned from their mistakes, and technical analysis of the team. Nothing but “We are sorry”, They move on to the next failure.

It is the Asian Games next. The Omid team has already flown to China for their first match against Saudi Arabia on 19th September 2023 in Linping Sports Centre Stadium.

full schedule :

DateTimeMatchVenue
19-Sep-202319:30 (15:00 Iran time)Saudi Arabia – IranLinping Sports Centre Stadium
21-Sep-202319:30 (15:00 Iran time)Iran – VietnamLinping Sports Centre Stadium
24-Sep-202319:30 (15:00 Iran time)Iran – MongoliaShangcheng Sports Centre Stadium

A mockery of football

After the failure of the Omid team to make it to the last 16 teams of Asia, let alone qualify for the Olympic games, the criticism intensified against the whole system and how football is becoming a mockery in Iran,

Piruz Ghorbani, a former Team Melli, Estghal player and current coach is one of the outspoken persons who had some harsh words. “Nobody knows what pecking order was Enayati when it came to the selection of the head coach for Omid. The federation approached at least 20 national coaches, and none of them accepted the job for one reason or another but generally, it is believed that it is a no-win situation mission and one that is doomed to fail. Enayati accepted because it is better than nothing!”

“Not even in another 150 years, we will qualify for the Olympics under this mentality and management. We still do not know whether the responsibility of the Omid team lies with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) or the Football Federation (FFIRI).”

About the elimination of the Omid national team from the Asian U23 qualifiers, Ghorbani said “No one agreed to become the coach of the Omid team for reasons. It was evident that this team would not qualify. Of course, let us not forget that the coaching staff of the Omid team performed quite poorly against Uzbekistan yesterday and could not fulfill the expectations of the fans.”

We should have been eliminated.

He commented on the fact that the management staff of the Omid team did not know the rules of the games and qualification process: “These issues are not new in Iranian football and I am sure it will happen again. In general, I must say that despite some efforts, it was not enough for the Omid team and inherently, we should have been eliminated. We won’t go to the Olympics in 150 years with such management and system.”

Kenya and Angola play against Iran when there is no one else to play against.

He continued: “Iran has the best potential at the Omid and senior team levels. We can’t criticize Ghalenoei for the matches against weak teams, because it seems that they have to fill FIFA Day out of necessity. We have to accept that Angola and Kenya play with Iran whenever they have no one else to play against. If Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Australia play against Iran, we would be holding a quality match and a challenging experience based on the levels of the opposition. Such teams are testing for us and demand excellence from our players”


We are only fooling ourselves,

The former Esteghlal player said: “Football is not an individual sport that we can perform on our own. We must have long-term planning. That does not exist here and it has always been our downfall. What plan did we have for the Omid national team to expect success now? Why are you raising the level of expectation from TeamMelli now? The team I coach (Gachasaran Oil and Gas in the First division) could have beaten Angola. Bulgaria is the fourth-tier team in Europe. Watch the countries around us and their level of preparation; They attract top talents such as Ronaldo to improve their league and players’ standards. It may seem crazy to do such things, but when we see the grass of the Azadi Stadium, we feel embarrassed and sorry for Iran’s football. We are making fun of ourselves with these conditions.”

Ghorbani said: “If we speak out, it is out of affection for this land and dignity. We do hope that the senior national team will achieve something in the Asian Cup.”