Tag: Behtash Fariba

Fariba warns against the government influence in FFIRI election.

In an interview with Mehr, Behtash Fariba referred to the upcoming elections of the Football Federation FFIRI and said: “The members of the Football Federation Assembly should elect a person as president who is independent, competent and capable of instigating changes in the federation.”

The former Team Melli and Esteghlal player further noted: “The next president of the Iranian football federation will have many problems and must be able to overcome these problems.”

He added: “Assembly members must choose the right person for football. As a footballer, I ask those who are in fact our representatives in the Assembly to steer football in the right direction with a proper choice in order to progress and develop. Rest assured that a good outcome will be achieved if the government does not interfere in the elections.”

Fariba, who has also played for   Pas club, continued in an interview with Mehr news: “I do not believe that the Ministry of Sports will remain idle and not interfere in the elections, I wish it would not interfere. I wish the government would not influence the proceedings of the election and running of football affair, but it is wishful thinking. Despite their public stance that  they (the government) would remain neutral and would not interfere, do not believe it.“

The Iranian football veteran pointed out ” Be rest assured that the Ministry of Sports has its own agenda and preferred candidate(s) and all efforts will be made to get their own candidate to win the presidency of the federation. This is modus operandi of the ministry that has a solid track record of appointing chairmen and board members of Esteghlal and Persepolis in order to manage and control these two most popular clubs of the nation and beyond.  The chaos and poor management style of the appointees of the Ministry are vividly visible to all. Now, do you think that the Ministry of Sports will neglect to exert influence in a place like the Football Federation? highly unlikely, in my opinion”

Mohammad Ali Karimi , is one of the candidates and has the broad support of footballers. His nominated deputy is another Iranian legend, Mehdi Mahdavikia.

AFC Asian Cup in numbers

With the group stage done and dusted, here are key statistics that have emerged from the latest edition of Asia’s premier tournament.

0 – Iran, Japan and Korea Republic all conceded zero goals in the group stage of the tournament. Iran were the last team to win the AFC Asian Cup after conceding no goals in the group stage when they claimed the title in 1976 – they defeated Iraq 2-0 and South Yemen 8-0 in their three team group.

1 – Tournament debutants Palestine scored their first ever AFC Asian Cup goal when Jaka Hbaisha found the back of the net in the 84th minute of his side’s 5-1 defeat to Jordan.

2.54 – There has been an average of 2.54 goals scored per match in the 24 group stage clashes at the tournament.

3 – China won all three of their group matches for the first time at an AFC Asian Cup. This is the eleventh straight tournament the Chinese have participated in and they’ve now been undefeated on four occasions during the group phase – 1992 (one win, two draws), 2000 (one win, two draws), 2004 (two wins, one draw) and 2015 (three wins).

4 – Hamza Al Dardour equalled the record for most goals in a single AFC Asian Cup match after scoring four goals in Jordan’s 5-1 win over Palestine. Three players had previously achieved this feat at the AFC Asian Cup – Behtash Fariba (Iran – 1980), Ali Daei (Iran, 1996) and Ismaeel Abdullatif Bahrain, 2011). Daei’s four goals came in the shortest space of time knocking in his first in the 66th minute before converting a penalty to take his tally to four on 89 minutes.

8 – Australia scored the most goals in the group stage of the tournament with 8 ahead of Japan on 7 and the UAE with 6.

11 – Palestine conceded the most goals in the group stage. After going down 4-0 to Japan, Jordan’s Hamza Al Dardour scored four goals as they went down 5-1 to Jordan before being defeated 2-0 by Iraq.

14 – The UAE’s Ali Mabkhout scored the fastest ever AFC Asian Cup goal when he put the ball in the back of the net just 14 seconds after his side’s match with Bahrain kicked off.

23 – Korea DPR scored their first AFC Asian Cup goal in 23 years after Ryang Yong-gi scored in the 12th minute of his side’s clash with Saudi Arabia in a match they went on to lose 4-1. They only had to wait another four days until they had another ball in the back of the net despite it being an own goal by China’s Gao Lin.

24 – The 2015 AFC Asian Cup broke the record for the most amount of matches without a draw at 24.

90+1 – Reza Ghoochannejhad scored the latest goal of the group stage after scoring the winner in the first minute of stoppage time against the UAE. The win ensured Team Melli topped Group C and avoided a quarter-final clash with defending champions Japan.

135 – There have been 135 saves made by the goalkeepers at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.

487 – Oman ended a goal drought of 487 minutes when Abdulaziz Al Muqbali scored against Kuwait in his side’s third match of the tournament. They went on to win the match 1-0.