Tehran 14 Apr. 2014
With less than hours to go for the flight to Dubai then Johannesburg, South Africa, Team Melli seems to be in doldrums. The 28 players squad should be gathering and ready for the flight but the status of 22 out of 28 is not clear yet.
5 months after it surfaced that Team Melli plans to conduct a training camp in the midst of AFC Champions League competition, and the crucial part of it for that matter , the federation is facing a dilemma now. Constantly quizzed by reporters on what is the final verdict on the players at the crossroads of club and country duties, the federation , the management and the coaches of the team have al;l evaded and refused to answer , thinking that the problem will go way once it is ignored !
Now , at a critical time , only 6 players can be accounted for to be in the plane to South Africa. These are Ale Nemeh , Nourozi (Naft Tehran), Ansarifard , Lak (Tractorsazi), Haddadifar and Khanzadeh (Zob Ahan)
Out of the four Iranian teams in the AFC Champions league , only Tractorsazi will allow their two players to be relived from club commitments to join Team Melli squad. The 3 other teams , Foolad Khuzestan (2 players), Esteghlal (4 players) and Sepahan (6 players) who all have chances to qualify , have refused to release their players. That is a total of 12 players that have not confirmed their attendance. While Persepolis has the largest number selected , 7 players and the club is not involved in any competition , all their players are under investigation into tax evasion and hence are not allowed to leave the country!
To top all these problems, Kaffashian and his deputy are both in Kuala Lumpur attending a meeting. The only official of the federation available for comment was Mr. Amir Hossein Hosseini , the media officer who had little to offer on the situation except to say that “the Disciplinary committee will have to deal with all those absentees.”. That would be a fine solution for Iran, suspending 22 Team Melli players !!!
In hindsight, Carlos Queiroz has indicated a sometime ago , that to conduct a training camp in South Africa with so many players absent , missing or unable to join the squad is a meaningless exercise. But Kaffashian was adamant that the plan will go on as a gesture of defiance, more than anything else, showing off the ability of the federation to carry out its commitment especially after the fiasco of cancelling the Portugal camp because of lack of funds.
Faced with a true dilemma, it will be interesting to note how many players actually make the trip in the next few hours. We are not sure what sort of pressure will be exerted by the FFIRI or the clubs on the players, but one thing that we are sure of, is the inability and the incompetence that is continually shown by this football administration and its failure to competently deal with the complications of Iranian football.
LIST OF INVITED PLAYERS
Name | Club | League | |
1 | JABBARI, Mojtaba | Al Arabi | Qatar |
2 | BEIGZADEH, Hashim | Esteghlal | |
3 | HEYDARI, Khosrow | Esteghlal | |
4 | SADEGHI, AmirHossein | Esteghlal | |
5 | TEYMOURIAN, Andranik | Esteghlal | |
6 | JAMAATI, Mehrdad | Foolad Khuzestan | |
7 | MAKANI, Sousha | Foolad Khuzestan | |
8 | RAHMANI, Bakhtiyar | Foolad Khuzestan | |
9 | ALE NEMEH, Ahmad | Naft Tehran | |
10 | NOUROZI, Reza | Naft Tehran | |
11 | HAGHIGHI, Reza | Persepolis | |
12 | HOSSEINI, Jalal | Persepolis | |
13 | KHALATBARY, MohamadReza | Persepolis | |
14 | MAHINI, Hossein | Persepolis | |
15 | MOSALLMAN , Mohsen | Persepolis | |
16 | POOLADI, Mehrdad | Persepolis | |
17 | SADEGHIAN, Payam | Persepolis | |
18 | AHMADI, Rahman | Sepahan | |
19 | EBRAHIMI, Omid | Sepahan | |
20 | HAJSAFY, Ehsan | Sepahan | |
21 | KARIMI, Yaghoub | Sepahan | |
22 | KHALILZADEH, Shojaa | Sepahan | |
23 | SHARIFI , Mehdi | Sepahan | |
24 | ANSARIFARD, Karim | Tractorsazi | |
25 | LAK , Hamed | Tractorsazi | |
35 | MONTAZERI, Pejman | Um Salal | Qatar |
26 | HADDADIFAR, Ghassim | Zob Ahan | |
27 | KHANZADEH, Mohammadreza | Zob Ahan | |
28 | NEKOUNAM, Javad | Al Kuwat FC | Kuwait |