Tag: Bizan Zolfaghar-nasab

An ill-tempered derby sells Iran football short!

Bizan Zolfaghar Nasab, the former Team Melli player and current Media expert says the standard of the Iranian football is always exhibited in the big Tehran derby between Persepolis and Esteghlal.

In the match played on Sunday, Persepolis defeated Esteghlal in the packed Azadi stadium by one goal to nil in a dour and ill-tempered match with frequent clashes between players and stoppages duration of the match.

Zolfaghar Nasab in an interview with ISNA, commented on the derby: “It was the weakest derby in terms of quality in the last two seasons. Neither team was able to reproduce its form. Both teams had a lot of changes this season, the players were not comfortable with the prevailing conditions and were not mentally fit.”

He continued: “Overwhelming errors and aggressive fouls diminished the quality of play and prevented the referee from doing his job too. Overall it wasn’t a good game. To say that, it is just the fourth round and the teams aren’t ready yet, is just an excuse. It is regrettable that we played such a sham game at this level in the league, a match that has millions of overseas viewers too. In addition to football standards,  the performance and the attitude of the players has put a serious question mark on our culture, morals and behaviour.”

Zolfaghar Nasab added. “This is not just a problem limited to the two teams. Of course, these two clubs have gone through many changes, from the change of board and CEO to the coaching staff and players.”  He added, “The lack of quality in this derby is not exclusive fault of the coach and the players but it is the combination of many factors which lowers the technical level of the teams.”

“European second-class clubs have stable management structures that remains at the helm for at least seven years. Bayern Munich has changed only two directors in five years, but here three CEOs change has occurred in one year. We do not expect Iranian clubs to be like Bayern Munich or meet the standards of the top European teams, but a country claiming to be a World Cup contender every tournament must have more structured and systematic clubs. In here, chaos is the rule rather than the4 exception”

Zolfaghar Nasabsaid at the end: “The Derby showed the true face of Iranian football. We are tense, chaotic, disorderly, undisciplined and seemed to be in a real hurry. To address this chaotic football system from the highest levels, we need proper and professional management, which we don’t at the moment.”

The overwhelming verdict by many critics and pundits that this derby between the two most popular team in Iran’s bipartisan Iranian football was a bad advertisement for Iran.  Nasser Mohammadkhani, ex Perspolis player and a member of Team Melli in the 1998 World Cup went as far as saying the at ” We have really seen 10 minutes of real football in the whole match, the rest was skirmishes, protests, clashes and everything but football”

Technical Committee of FFIRI were kept in the dark on Welmots.

Bijan Zolfagharnasb said in a statement to Mehr News Agency sports correspondent, commented on the selection of Marc Welmots as the new head coach of Team Melli by saying “I heard the news from the media. The federation officials decided to keep the negotiation completely secret.”

The former coach of the Iranian National Team continued: “I will take Mark Welmots selection and appointment as a good omen (..), he can achieve brilliant results with Team Melli if he is properly managed by the federation. Choosing a good coach is only half the challenge. Fifty percent of this is related to how the federation utilizes the coach.”  Zolfagharnasb emphasized the federation’s cooperation with his committee ” the technical committee  of the federation should continuously supervise and monitor the work of the coaching team. This certainly did not happen during Carlos Queiroz tenure. I did not consider Queiroz to be at fault in this matter. It was the contract signed with the federation that lacked clauses of supervision and oversight by a strong technical committee, hence he did what he liked at will”

Zolfagharnasb also supported the speculations that Javad Nekounam will be part of Welmots team.

Basically, Zolfagharnasb has proved that the Technical Committee of the FFIRI, which he is a prominent member of, is toothless and nothing but a rubber stamp for the President of the federation. One of the responsibilities of the Technical committee is the appraisal and approval of Team Melli and other National Teams age group coaches. Obviously this has not happened and the committee was kept in the dark as Zolfagharnasb himself admitted that he read the news from the media.

The fact that Zolfagharnasb approves Javad Nekounam’s appointment, which was an attempted failed move during Queiroz time, says a lot about the so called Technical Committee professionalism and work ethics. In principle, the federation should have a systematic and impartial mechanism of selection. Several candidates from a list of ex-Team Melli players or current coaches, should be considered not jut one person. The Selection process should  pick a competent coach who has the right qualifications, the character, experience and the right motive to be an assistant to a foreign coach. Not only Nekounam does not satisfy all the requirements, it is unfair discrimination to many other potentially good coaches who will never get the chance to serve their country under such a dark and retarded system. The effect of hiring the wrong assistant Iranian coach is significant. especially taking into consideration that he might have a negative effect on his compatriot players.