Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, the Secretary General of the football federation has left his post without much ceremony. The FFIRI has appointed Alireza Asadi as his replacement.
in addition to his post, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi was also the Manager of Team Melli. His last assignment was accompanying the team in Australia for the Asian Cup 2015 and before that; he was in Brazil in the same post.
Kaffashian embarked on a major clean up in FFIRI which included the ousted of several influential figures. Before the list was officially announced, in a hasty response to a reporter who asked if Mohammad Nabi is on the list, Kaffashian answered affirmatively. However, someone seemed to have reminded the head of FFIRI that incumbent Secretary General is also Team Melli manager and the squad will be leaving for Australia in a few days’ time. Kaffashian , quickly issued a correction to his statement and confirmed that Mohammad Nabi was still Team Melli Manager and he will continue his job as normal accompanying the team for the Asian Cup. During the whole of the competition, Mohammad Nabi was rarely seen smiling, not very surprising knowing that he is already sacked and just filling the gap temporarily. Thus Kaffashian , in his usual prowess , has created a fine atmosphere for the man to do his job!
Kaffashian and his administration are no stranger for such disorders and mix-ups and that was confirmed today when Asadi took over without inviting the press core to cover the handover , a routine exercise always carried out by the FFIRI. When Journalist quizzed the PR manager of FFIRI why the journalist were excluded from the ceremony, he replied quote “The press conference hall was full !!” Unquote.
The press conference hall was definitely not full of journalists as the few of them that were present, were behind closed doors.
Team Melli is officially Manager less now unless Asadi is appointed in the post. This is not the ideal situation and creates a conflict between the two posts. Mohammad Nabi was a temporary assignment until the federation could find someone that Queiroz approves of and likes. Not a simple deed to carry out. The common understanding in football teams is that the Team Manager is the top of the hierarchy, coach and others report to him. In Team Melli case, it works rather differently.