Tehran

In the ‘Navad’ TV show , the same program that Daei likes to ridicule and criticize when he fancies, the Perspolis coach has stunned millions of Iranian viewers   by his revelations and accusations of corruption and bribery in the domestic league.

Speaking to Ferdouwsipour on telephone, Daei said that he has evidence and documents to prove that corruption exists in the league and his team was victimized by the referee Mohsen Gharemani who sent off Perspolis defender a few minutes into the game. When asked about the evidence that he has , Daei rebuffed the presenter and told him that he is not here to be investigated and he does not have to answer to the presenter of  “Navad”  show. “It is the football federation’s job to investigate and ask for evidence. I do not need to explain myself for you her. All the evidence that I have was presented to the FFIRI in our meeting today.” Daei said.

Rouyanian , CEO of Perspolis club and Ali Daei were summoned to the headquarters of FFIRI in the aftermath of their accusation for a hearing with the top brass of FFIRI on Monday.

Daei’s wrath

The blazing accusations boarding insults and ridicule towards the match referee Mohsen Ghahremani who was on the other phone line included not just poor decision making and poor vision ,  that Daei accused the referee of in a live TV broadcast , but also included a direct accusation of match fixing and bribery.  Daei explicitly mentioned that Gharemani was leaning towards Sepahan and was paid for it. When Ferdowsipour asked Daei  to elaborate what he means about leaning , the Pesrpolis coach played on the words and refused to provide a direct answer by saying “it is sufficient that that all the evidence that I have , are already submitted to the proper authorities “ , The authority is the football federation ethics committee. When pressed further to mention what type of evidence Ali Daei has regarding the corruption accusation , Daei responded by saying that the Match footage is the greatest of evidences!.

As a consequence to that, many recent news and developments in relation to bribery scandals in Iran’s football came to light.  There was footage of an Azadegan league Club CEO who gave details of a referee who allegedly demanded a bribe in order to fix a match for the club. The CEO apparently named many people , although IRIB censored those names for legal reasons. Further to those accusations, the longtime member  of the disciplinary committee Alipour , was interviewed regarding these accusations and detailed description by the Azadegan league Club CEO. Alipour confirmed that they have also received such information, however , every time they requested that CEO to attend a hearing , he kept coming up with excuses of ill health. The matter was never fully investigated by the federation.

Azadegan corruption scandal

What the FFIRI firmly acted upon was the scandal of last year in the Azadegan league ( First Division).  This was by far the biggest corruption scandal that shock Iran. The main Instigator & culprit was Shahrdari Tabriz team which won the title and promotion to the top flight of Persian Gulf League. After what was a deemed to be a rapid accelerated investigations, the federation found that Shahrdari Tabriz was guilty of match fixing in collaboration with another team , Chalamsheh.  Shahrdari was stripped of the tile and the promotion while the other team was relegated down to the third division.  The two teams match was fixed for a Shahrdari win which would assure the Tabriz team of promotion. Many famous names were involved in this scandal, including Fraz Kamalvand, a well know coach, Sadegh Varmazyar , ex-Team Melli player who was the assistant coach,  Peyman Sahib Jaamei , another well know footballer originally from Khuzestan. All of the three were found guilty on several counts of corruption, and subsequently were suspended from all football activities up to two years. There were also other players involved who received lighter punishments such as Sheys Rezai , the controversial ex-Perspolis defender who also made a brief appearance as Team Melli player, Mehdi Vaezi and Ali Alizadeh all of who represented Team Melli.

Courts of Law

All sort of accusations of match fixing , favoritism , and bribery has been circulating in Iran football in the last few years,  however apart from the aforementioned Azadegan league scandal, none was seriously investigated or dealt with by the football federation or by the courts of law. What the federation has failed to do is to take a stern action against the profligates.  When people started spreading accusation or rumors, there was no action taken to stop them or demand proof of their accusations. As such, those accusation took the round and very easily reached the stands where the fans became disillusioned by this football. In general , there is a lot of trash talk but little action, however , with Ali Daei’s recent accusations which is nothing but allegations at this point that requires full investigation  and proof, it is clear that match fixing and bribery which has been suspected to be widespread in Iran’s football, is a reality that has to be immediately and forcefully dealt with by the law and the courts in Iran. Simply depending on a weak federation with lethargy and hesitancy to rock the boat, is a time bomb.