Tag: Brazil

FIFA First ever Futsal Ranking

  • Futsal nations around the world ranked globally for the first time
  • Brazil tops both men’s and women’s charts; Portugal and Spain complete top three
  • Rankings will be key reference point for world futsal

FIFA has launched the official FIFA Futsal World Ranking, with powerhouses Brazil the first number-one nation on both the men’s and women’s chart as the rapidly growing sport takes another major step forward.

Iran’s Futsal Team Melli, recently crowned as AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2024 is ranked 4 in the list which will be regularly published, but unlike the FIFA Football Ranking, this will not be monthly!

Although the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking for football has existed since December 1992, and women’s senior national teams have been officially ranked by FIFA since 2003, that has not previously been the case for futsal. However, the indoor game has enjoyed exponential growth in recent years and this milestone moment represents the natural next step, as well as being the first time that FIFA men’s and women’s rankings have been launched concurrently.

Broadcasts of the FIFA Futsal World Cup™ in Lithuania in 2021 attracted an average of 2.42 million viewers per match, a massive 130 percent increase from the previous edition in 2016. The FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024™, which will be the first FIFA tournament staged in Central Asia, is likely to improve even on those impressive numbers, and a historic first FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup™ will be held in 2025. Against this backdrop, FIFA has rolled out global rankings for its member associations’ women’s and men’s senior futsal national teams in recognition of the dynamic development of and global interest in the sport.

The initial rankings have been based on statistics gathered from over 4,600 FIFA ‘A’ matches. FIFA defines an international ‘A’ match as a match between two FIFA members for which both members field their first representative team (‘A’ team).

The new ranking system will also serve to seed teams for all upcoming editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup – including during the recently announced draw for the 2024 competition in Uzbekistan. The system will likewise be used for qualification processes and enable comprehensive and consistent data to be gathered to monitor member associations in accordance with the FIFA Regulations Governing International Matches. That will support the prevention of practices that jeopardize the integrity of the sport, such as match manipulation.

In the nine editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup to date, the inaugural top-ranked men’s side, Brazil, have been crowned champions five times and only failed to finish on the podium once. They are closely followed on the chart by Portugal, who arrive at this year’s FIFA Futsal World Cup as the holders and have won the last two European crowns. Spain, the two-time world (2000 and 2004) and seven-time European champions, are third in the standings.

Brazil’s women’s national team have been just as dominant as their male counterparts, having won all seven of the South American championships that they have contested. Spain and Portugal are again behind them on the women’s ranking, albeit in reverse order: three-time European champions Spain are second, with Portugal – who have finished runners-up to their Iberian rivals in two continental finals – in third.

Fans interested in attending the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024™ can register to receive ticketing updates here.

Stunning victory for Iran boys against defending champions, Brazil

Iran’s U-17 national team defeated defending champions Brazil 3-2 in Jakarta, Indonesia in the Group C game on Saturday.

Brazil took the lead in the 28th minute from Rayan, while Abolfazl Zamani’s own goal made it 2-0 for the champions just before the halftime whistle.

In the second with two changes in the lineup, Hossein Abdi’boys started strongly and matched the Brazilians every step of the way. Yaghoob Barajeh scored Iran’s first goal from a quick long ball counterattack in the 54th minute. While Brazil were pressing to score their third goal, substitute Kasra Taheri took advantage of a poor ball in the Brazilian box to cleverly score the equalizer.

The winner came from yet another substitute, Esmaeil Gholizadeh, again from a quick counterattack to seal the win for Iran. 10 minutes of injury time was played for the Brazilians to score the equalizer to no avail.

This is arguably Iran’s most glorious win at any world championship. Beating the defending champions and four times winner of the U17 World Cup will be considered a historic achievement that will remain in memory for a long time,

It is also the first shock of the tournament.

In the other group match England, Iran’s next opponent beat New Caledonia 10-0

Iran U17 aims to shine at top level.

The young Iranians are looking to shock the football world in Group C of FIFA U-17 World Cup Indonesia 2023™.

In this edition, Iran U-17 will meet to giants of the football worlds Brazil and England in addition to “New Caledonia”. Despite the presence of two football superpowers, Iranian teenagers hope to advance to the next round of this tournament. There is a good chance that out of the 6 groups of this championship four best third teams, will advance to the next round.

Brazil in 2019 and England in 2017 are the two recent champions of this competition. This is Iran’s fifth participation in the U17 World Cup. Iran’s last appearance in this tournament was in 2017 and it managed to advance to the quarter-final stage. In that tournament, Iran was grouped with Germany, Guinea, and Costa Rica and managed to advance to the next stage as the top team with 9 points. In the next stage, Iran U17 defeated the Mexicans 2-1 while in the quarter-final stage, it lost to the strong Spanish team 3-1, which included “Fran Torres”. Players like Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, Mohammad Sharifi, Younes Delfi, Taha Shariati, and Mohammad Reza Ghobishavi were among the Iranian players in that tournament.

In 2013, Iran was in the same group as Argentina, Canada, and Austria and managed to advance to the next round with five points after Argentina as the second team. In the next stage, it lost to Nigeria with a score of 4-1 and was eliminated from the tournament.

In 2011, Iran was in the same group as Colombia, Netherlands, and Gambia and advanced to the next stage with 7 points as the first team, where it lost 2-1 against Uruguay. Kaveh Rezaei and Milad Gharibi were among the Iranian players in that year.

2001 was Iran’s weakest participation in these competitions. Where they were eliminated from the tournament with three defeats in the same group as Costa Rica, Mali, and Paraguay. Now that we have reached the beginning of the 2023 U17 World Cup, Hossein Abdi’s students hope to repeat the brilliance of the junior team in 2019 and, in addition to advancing from the group stage, they can appear brilliant in the next round as well. However, we should not ignore the presence of the two world football superpowers, Brazil and England.

The FIFA U-17 World Cup™ kicks off in Indonesia on Friday 10 November – and the tournament is being streamed live on FIFA+!

Luis Figo, Ronaldinho, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Neymar, and Victor Osmihen are among the stars who have graced the competition, with this year’s edition again set to showcase some of the game’s most exciting emerging talents.

Iran’s U-17 fixtures

DATE/TIMETEAM ATEAM BVENUE
Sat 11-Nov-2023
19:00		BRAZILIRANJakarta International stadium
Tue 14-Nov-2023
1900		ENGLANDIRANJakarta International stadium
Fri 17-Nov-2023IRANNEW CALEDONIASi Jalak Harupat stadium, Bandung

THE SQUAD

vs Brazil

Iran wins the 2022 Emirates Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup on a sad note.

Iran are the 2022 Emirates Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup champion!

In the tightest of finals, the Iranians hung on to a 2-1 lead right until the end against Brazil, who also had three titles ahead of this edition, to lift their fourth, equaling Russia’s record.

Amir Akbari was named the MVP, while fellow Iranian Hamid went home with the Best Goalkeeper award. After netting a double on the final day, Carlos Carballo, the Paraguay skipper, won the Top Scorer award.

Two previous champions, each with three titles, clashed on the sands of Dubai for the crown at the 11th edition of the Emirates Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup. Neither had lost so far, but in beach soccer, there are no draws, and an unbeaten streak had to come to an end on Sunday.

After a tense opening of ten minutes, Iranian beach soccer legend Ahmadzadeh finally broke the deadlock, and the mainly Iranian stadium, including those outside who couldn’t get a seat inside, exploded.

A spectacular strike from Saeed had the crowd on their feet once more in the second period, and Brazil, as they had in the semi-finals, looked to be running out of ideas, taking potshots in an attempt to get back into the game.

Eventually, Marco Octavio’s men found a way through, as Catarino slotted home a penalty to make it 2-1.

A stubborn Iran then hung on for dear life as the men in yellow shirts threw everything they had at them, but they cleverly held the Brazilian firepower at bay to clinch the win and a record-equalling fourth Intercontinental Cup!

In the award ceremony at the end of the match, the Iranian Beach Soccer national team players mutedly celebrated the cham[pionship in respect to the hundreds of compatriots who have lost their lives at the hand of the brutal regime as a result of protests across Iran.  Before the start of the match, the National Anthem was also booed by a large number of crowds in the arena in protest against the Iranian government. Those two events had the Iranian state TV scramble to cut the live trans,mission and substitute it with their own propaganda.

Kudos to Iran’s Beach Soccer players for taking a gallant stand for a just cause.

FFIRI negotiates friendlies with Argentina or Brazil.

The Iranian football federation FFIRI Secretary-General Hassan Kamranifar has declared that his federation is actively planning friendly preparatory games for Team Melli ahead of its participation in the FIFA World Cup Qatar, 2022.

Kamranifar said: “As you know, Brazil and Argentina have a postponed match in the World Cup qualifiers which is scheduled to be held in Qatar. We are negotiating with one of these two teams to agree to play an international friendly against them.

The Secretary-General of the Football Federation added: “4 teams out of 6 possible opponents of Team Melli are among the best and are in the top ranks of the FIFA rankings. Both teams are in the middle ranks, we are going to choose teams whose games are close to our opponents. Therefore, we have negotiated with Peru, New Zealand, and several other countries, which we will announce immediately after it is finalized.”

He continued: “Holding friendly games is difficult due to financial issues. One or two teams have requested to play behind closed doors and without television broadcasting, which is still good ”
in discussing the readiness of  Team Melli,  Kamranifar emphasized: “Skocic is also trying on his side to use his contacts to arrange friendly games and we hope this will happen soon so that we can play a friendly match in the first FIFA Day,”

UPCOMING FIFA DAYS 2022

Dates Matches
30 May – 14 June 2022 4
19–27 September 2022 2

Iran in the third seed of World Cup draw.

The Iranian national football team was placed in the third round of the FIFA  World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

With nearly all matches except a few played in the World Cup qualifiers, the ranking of the teams present in this period of competition was also determined. Based on this, the Iranian national team will be in Seed 3 as in the previous period. The draw for the World Cup will be held on Friday in Doha, and Team Melli will know its opponents.

* What does it mean to be in Seed 3?

The placement of Iran in Seed 3 is a good thing, because a team from Seed 4, which is lower than Iran in terms of points in the FIFA rankings, will be in our group.

* Which teams will we not be in the same group with Iran?

Also, considering the ranking of Iran in the World Cup, Team Melli will definitely not be in the same group with the teams in seed 3. Iran will not be drawn in the same group with the other Asian teams such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. Also, if Australia or UAE qualify for the World Cup through the playoffs, this team will not be drawn with Iran. Thus, the Iranian national team will definitely not be grouped with the teams of Senegal, Serbia, Poland, Morocco, Tunisia, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and “UAE or Australia” (in case of reaching the World Cup).

World Cup qualifiers are as follows:

Seed 1  Belgium (1), Brazil (2), France (3), Argentina (4), England (5), Spain (7), Portugal (8), Qatar (52)

Seed 2: Denmark (9), Netherlands (10), Germany (11),  Mexico (12) , USA (13), Switzerland (14),  Croatia (15), Uruguay (16)

Seed 3: Senegal (18), Iran (21), Japan (23), Morocco (24), Serbia (25), Poland (28), South Korea (29), Tunisia (36)

Seed 4: Canada (33),  Cameroon (38),  Ecuador (46), Saudi Arabia (53), Ghana (61), , 3 playoff teams

* Mexico and USA are still on the face, No, for all intents and purposes, we should consider these two teams among the teams that have qualified for the 2022 World Cup.

Note: In the World Cup draw, teams from different continents, except Europe, will not be grouped with a team from their own continent, and from Europe, a maximum of two teams can be in the same group.

 

Ali Daei will participate in the draw ceremony.

Iran’s legend and former Team Melli coach will be one of the 7 selected football personalities who will be drawing the names out of the pot.

Iran’s FIFA Futsal World Cup dream ended by Kazakhstan fightback

Kazakhstan fought back from two goals down to advance to the semi-finals as Iran’s bid to better their third-place finish of five years ago was halted at the Kaunas Arena.

Kazakhstan will face Portugal next while defending champions Argentina will meet five-time winners Brazil in the other last four tie.

Iran dominated possession in the opening minutes but were unable to find any openings against a defensive-minded Kazakhstan side looking to hit on counter-attacks.

Team Melli’s persistence, however, eventually saw them open the scoring in the eighth minute through Moslem Oladghobad, who finished Saeid Ahmad Abbasi’s pass into the area.

Iran survived a scare seconds before the end of the first half when the Video Assistant Referee was called into action for Farhad Tavakoli’s tackle on Taynan in the box, but the referee deemed it a fair challenge as the Central Asians took their two-goal lead into the break.

IR Iran v Kazakhstan-FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021

Kazakhstan came out fighting in the second half and came close in the 23rd minute through Douglas Junior’s cracking strike from distance, but Iran goalkeeper Alireza Samimi pulled off an impressive save to deny the Brazilian-born winger.

Samimi, however, was unable to keep out Dauren Tursagulov’s strike two minutes later with the Iranian defense caught off guard by Junior’s quick through pass.

IR Iran v Kazakhstan-FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021

Buoyed by the goal, Kazakhstan pressed forward and drew level in the 29th minute through Arnold Knaub, who scored off a free-kick which was awarded after Mohammad Shajari’s foul on Higuita.

Taynan then completed Kazakhstan’s amazing comeback when he scored off a corner as Iran’s hopes of making a third FIFA Futsal World Cup semi-final were dashed.

Hashempour: “We will show our strength once again”

Defending champions Iran are determined to claim back-to-back Intercontinental Cup crowns and equal Brazil and Russia at the top of the records

Defending champions Iran have landed in Dubai with the mission of reediting the 2018 crown and equalling Brazil and Russia as the most decorated sides at the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup records. After clinching the Bronze Medal at the last World Beach Games in Qatar just a couple of weeks ago, the team feels in the perfect mood to take on such a challenge.

Grit, talent and perfect teamwork, plus the support of their passionate fans, give Abbas Hashempour’s team all the necessary ingredients to go all the way in this year’s competition, taking place in Kite Beach between the 5th and 9th of November.

“Only the most powerful teams take part in the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup, so we are fully aware of how difficult it is to prevail in such a competitive arena. Russia, for example, is a team that can do real harm on you if you are not fully focused and fight fiercely every single second of the game. But we also are, as we have repeatedly shown, capable of winning any team in the world. This is what we have in our minds and our hearts, and we will try our best to beat all our opponents and reach the final”, Iran National Coach Abbas Hashempour explained.

The tough opposition will not be the only obstacle for Iran to accomplish their mission, though. The Persian side will be missing one of the key players, 2018 Rising Star Mohammad Moradi, due to injury, and some other players will also be back in competition after injuries, that leaves a question mark on their outcome during the coming days, but coach Hashempour believes the collective strength will help the team overcome these setbacks.

As the defending champions, the Iranian side will have all the eyes put on them, but this is not something the team is concerned about. “Everyone will be expecting a lot from us, but we are determined to show everybody why we are the champions. We want to demonstrate again how powerful we are”, the coach admitted.

Iran were drawn in Group B together with also-favourite Russia, Egypt and CONCACAF champions Mexico and will be making their debut, precisely, against the Azteca side (Tuesday 5th of November, 8:00 pm). That will mark the first step in their road to reediting the crown and claiming their third Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup.

Iran’s Futsal climbs to 4th in the World Ranking.

Iran’s futsal Team has climbed to the 4th place in World Ranking joined by Argentina.

In the latest figures published by the Futsal World Ranking website for the month of October 2019, Brazil maintained top ranking followed by Spain and Russia. Iran is also the top-ranking team in Asia.

Just like the football ranking, Japan is behind Iran as the second-best Asian team at 15th place in the world. Thailand is also in the top 20 teams of the world at 19th place behind Iran and Japan.

WORLD FUTSAL RANKING

Current ranking – 31 October 2019
Ranking Team Points rank
dec 18		 +/-
dec 18
1  Brazil 1839 1 0
2  Spain 1785 2 0
3  Russia 1670 3 0
4  Iran 1644 6 2
4  Argentina 1644 5 1
6  Portugal 1637 4 -2
7  Kazakhstan 1565 7 0
8  Italy 1494 8 0
9  Ukraine 1466 9 0
10  Colombia 1454 12 2
11  Croatia 1443 13 2
12  Paraguay 1437 10 -2
13  Serbia 1416 15 2
14  Azerbaijan 1409 11 -3
15  Japan 1380 14 -1
16  Czech Republic 1367 16 0
17  Slovenia 1359 17 0
18  France 1300 18 0
19  Thailand 1295 19 0
20  Belarus 1294 22 2

Jorge Fosati to replace Queiroz in Team Melli !!

An Colombian website  caracoltv claims that the next Team Melli coach will be coming from Uruguay. The site mentioned Jorge Fosati as the successor to Carlos Queiroz whose contract ends after the AFC Asian Cup 2019.

The website wrote that while Carlos Queiroz is expected to lead the Colombian national team, Jorge Fosati will take the helm at Iran’s national team. Day after day, the news that Carlos Queiroz’s will be taking over the head coach job of the Colombian national team are getting stronger , naturally a replacement coach should also be appointed to lead Iran in place of the Portuguese. In the meantime, Jorge Fosati of Uruguay is on the verge of being appointed to that post in Iran’s national football team. A few days ago, the Colombian Football Federation has denied any communication with Luis Felipe Scolari.

In Abu Dhabi, Carlos Queiroz has neither denied nor confirmed this news after he was asked by a reporter prior to the game against Vietnam. He asked the media to only ask questions about the match as any other question about his future is an insult to the team and the fans.

Carlos Queiroz is preparing Team Melli to play Iraq for a top of the table match in Dubai in the final match of Group D of AFC Asian Cup 2019