The two most popular clubs in Iran Esteghlal and Persepolis football teams are on the verge of being eliminated from the 2022 AFC Champions League due to the non-compliance of their obligations to the Asian Football Confederation.
The AFC deadline for Esteghlal and Persepolis to resolve two major issues, joint ownership and tax debt, expires next Monday, and there is little hope that either club can resolve these issues given that the issue could not be resolved in almost 43 years olds. The seriousness of the matter has led Dariush Mostafavi, head of the Professional Licensing Appeals Committee, which is in fact one of the arms of the Asian Football Confederation and the AFC communication bridge between clubs and the Football Federation, to personally ask the President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, to address these issues directly. Mostafavi also called on Ali Shamkhani, chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, to hold meetings to remove obstacles in front of the two teams and try to prevent their expulsion from the competition, handing over the two clubs administration and control to “their own people” who are “trusted”.
In a comprehensive interview that Dariush Mostafavi’s gave to Radio Varzesh on Thursday evening, the former Persepolis, Team Play player, and a former head of the Football Federation, FFIRI underlined that the expulsion of Esteghlal and Persepolis has nothing to do with the managers of the two clubs and the football federation, and more to do with the structure, administration, and ownership of the two clubs.
The AFC requires team participation in its competition to achieve professional status with licenses issued according to strict guidelines and bylaws. Neither Persepolis nor Esteghlal have earned the license and hence they are not qualified as professional clubs.
Esteghlal and Persepolis and both owned by the government of the Islamic Republic. Appointments are directly controlled by the Ministry of Youth & Sports. Both clubs were taken over by the government right after the revolution in 1979. As such one of the basic and essential requirements of a professional and independent club is lacking in such a scheme.
Government after the government promised the masses that these two clubs in a partisan football of Iran will be returned to the private sectors, on the strict condition that the owners pass through unclear criteria, Islamic competency, and be approved by the regime’s higher counsels. Apparently, in many decades, the government has not found a suitable company or a group of people deemed to be eligible to run Persepolis and Esteghlal!