Tag: English Premier league

Team Melli might be without Saman Ghoddos!

Saman Ghoddos may not be able to accompany Team Melli for the upcoming two matches of World Cup qualifiers due to the recent changes announced by the English Football League.

The Team Melli camp begins with a group of domestic league players and in few days, the legionnaires will arrive in Tehran to join for the match against Syria. Among the about 20 legionnaires invited to the national team, Saman Ghoddos may not be able to accompany the team against Syria and Iraq due to Iran’s health regulations associated with covid19 and the new English Premier League restrictions on players.

The Premier League said in a statement yesterday: “The Premier League clubs today, despite their reluctance, unanimously decided not to allow players to travel to countries on the red list. The decision of these clubs is supported by the Premier League. And about 60 players from the 19 Premier League clubs who are set to travel to 26 countries on the red list for the September national games will be negotiated with the Football Association and the government to find a solution. But due to concerns, there is no exemption for travelers from entering the Red List countries.”

As a result of this new restriction, Liverpool was the first EPL Club that has not allowed the departure of several of its national team players, including Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, Alison Becker, because Egypt and Brazil are on the Red List.

Considering the Covid19 situation in Iran and the daily cases exceeding 40,000 people infected with death figures of 700 patients in recent times, it seems that the restriction will apply to Brentford Midfielder, Saman Ghoddos.

If that is the case, Skocic will be without the services of one of the best legionnaires.  Ghoddos is the only Iranian player to play in four major leagues in the world. In the last Team Melli games in Bahrain, Ghoddos showed his excellent technical qualities and sharp eyes for creating scoring chances for his forwards. with defense-splitting passes.  Apparently, it seems Skocic will be deprived of this player’s qualities.

Skocic had previously lost Morteza PouraliGanji and Aref Gholami due to a cruciate ligament rupture, and Ehsan Hajsefi’s injury sparked speculation about the possible absence of the national team captain. It remains to be seen where the Football Federation’s consultations will go in the coming days, and if Ghoddos is not invited to the squad, it has certainly been imposed on players due to Premier League restrictions. Ghoddos recently had the opportunity to play for his club in the second week of EPL, and last night he played 90 minutes for Brentford in the Carabao Cup, in which he was his team’s best player Bretford winning 3-1.

Jahanbakhsh scores a brace for Feyenoord.

Team Melli winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored twice in the opening 34 minutes on his third appearance for Feyenoord at home to Lucern in the Europa Conference League against Swiss club Luzern.

The match ended 3-0 for Feyenoord for an aggregate of 6-0 win and qualification to the next round. The second goal by Jahanbakhsh was rather spectacular and was a reminder of Alireza during his heydays in AZ Alkmaar where he scored at will and managed to win the Golden Boot award of the Eredivisie.

The bad news is that Jahanbakhsh left the field limping.  The Iranian winger was on fire but just before the break he hobbled off injured and had to be replaced by Robert Bozenik.

Jahanbakhsh joined Brighton for a record club fee and endured two miserable seasons under Graham Potter management before moving on to Feyenoord this summer for a reported fee of less than 1 million Euro.

The attacking midfielder and winger will be playing under a completely different environment in Feyenoord a club that is usually at the top of the leagues and compete for trophies and honors, while in Brighton he was playing for a club whose highest success and ceiling of ambition are to remain in the premiership and avoid relegation, year in years out.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh - Feyenoord

IRIB

The football league committee of FFIRI has agreed to the request by Channel 3 (Sports Program) to change the kick-off time of two matches involving Iran’s two most popular clubs Esteghlal and Persepolis, as IRIB did not want the matches played in the Persian Gulf league to clash with the Euro 2020 live broadcast.

In most countries, such requests are normal and mostly accommodated, because the chunk of football revenue that ends up in the clubs’ coffers are due to the TV broadcast rights. IN Iran, it is unique. IRIB is known to be the biggest debtor of football and does not pay a single Rial for broadcasting football matches on its channels.

Television broadcast rights all over the world are the biggest source of income for professional clubs and can be more than 50% of their total income. This explains how freely the English clubs spend money to buy players or how the 24 Championship clubs participate in the heaviest league in the world to advance to the English Premier League with its riches due to the Broadcast rights. With the large amount of money awarded to the clubs, not only the English Premier League can afford to buy the most expensive players, but a significant portion of their revenue is invested in the development of the young players, training facilities, and stadia. This automatically helps in raising the standards and making English football one of the most competitive. Switch to any TV Sports pay channel, and there is a good chance that it carries the English Premier League, where the TV station has to spend around 350 million pounds for a season for such rights.

The same applies to the Splansh La Liga, The German Bundesliga and the Italin Serie A.

What is happening in Iran regarding football matches broadcasting?

In Iran, the situation is quite different, and not only does the official and the sole broadcaster IRIB has a monopoly on radio and television broadcasts but also does not pay anything to the football federation and the league organization to broadcast domestic football competitions.

It has also been known that IRIB even demands payment from clubs to broadcast their games. These are games other than Persepolis or Esteghlal which IRIB does not think it is viable commercially.  The broadcast organization IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting), is directly under the control of Ayatollah Khamenei. Not only it does not pay the domestic football matches broadcasting, but it also refuses to pay for broadcasting international competitions and illegally broadcasts many games on its channels. This practice has been going on for many decades.

Now, however, IRIB, with complete impunity and arrogance, has the audacity to demand changes in the league program to suit itself rather than the Premier League competitions and the FFIRI obliged. The issue begins when the federation announced on Monday in a news item that because of the Channel 3 network requirement to broadcast the Euro 2020 semi-final games, it asked the league organization to change the kick-off time of Esteghlal-Trakctor and Foolad-Persepolis games, which was immediately approved by the league organization.

It was incredible that the Football Federation and the League organization agreed to the demands of IRIB, while IRIB  has not bought the broadcast rights for Euro 2020!!

The audacity of IRIB is beyond belief. Because it does not report to the government and is under the control of Ayatollah Khamenae it makes its own rules, publishes inaccurate and misleading information, while always seemed immune from prosecution under the country’s laws unlike any other media outlet in Iran. Of course, there is no expectation from a broadcaster that does not apologize for any of its big and small mistakes.

While common sense says that the FFIRI should object and turn down these demands because of the refusal of the official broadcaster to pay broadcasting rights, the opposite has happened!!

Azizi Khadem regularly mentions IRIB in good terms and goes as far as thanking the head of the Radio and Television Organization at every opportunity he gets! We still remember how Azizi Khadem, board members of FFIRI, and management of Team Melli paid a courtesy visit to Ali Asgari the President of IRIB four days before the trip to Bahrain to award IRIB the title of the “twelfth man of Team Melli” and gifting him a Team Melli Jersey with No. 12 printed on it!

Amazing how things work in Iran. While IRIB persistently refuses to pay for broadcasting matches of Team Melli and the league, while the same organization makes millions in advertising revenue during the televising of these matches, while for decades the FFIRI management demanded its rights from IRIB and was turned down and even threatened, this Management or Azizi Khadem in particular, is giving IRIB a seal of approval for violating international norms and laws and recognizing Iran’s football biggest debtor as the “twelfth friend”! This indicates how rotten is the system of governance in FFIRI as Az=izi Khadem is looking beyond Presidency of a football federation at the time when he will be kicked out of his office and will be looking for a new job.

Two Team Melli legionnaires shine for their teams.

It was another sweet week for Team Melli player in Europe.

Yesterday, Mehdi Taremi was the Man of the Match for FC Porto in the 3-1 win against FC Famalicão

Porto got themselves started with Taremi’s first-time goal in the 13th minute before the Iranian’s goal was canceled out seven minutes later through Jhonata Robert’s penalty. Sérgio Oliveira scored from the spot-kick too just moments later, dispatching Porto’s second of the night and giving his side a 2-1 lead going into the break.

Mehdi Taremi once again displayed his quality and added greater comfort to the visitors’ lead in the 57th minute, looping a header into an unattended net to grab a second for himself and make it 3-1.

Famalicão aimed for a final push but, in times of desperation, Porto proved to be ruthless on the counter, adding the finishing touches to a 4-1 victory with a precise drive from João Mário, fresh off Sérgio Conceição’s bench.

Taremi has scored 6 goals in the Primeira Liga so far for Porto.

Today, yet another nearly forgotten Team Melli player made the headlines for his team. Saman Ghoddos, assisted in the first goal while scoring the second and the winner for his club Brentford in the third round of the FA Cup in London.

Ghoddos, who is still not a fixed starter for the Championship side that is aiming to win promotion to the Premier League, has shown enough quality and skill to challenge for a starting place. In today’s match, he was chosen as the Man of the Match, and with this 2-1 win against Middlesbrough, Goddos has helped his team to a place in the FA Cup fourth round draw.

Everton rumors about Ali Daei

Everton FCIran

The Portuguese star,  Cristiano Ronaldo is on his heels. However, the Iranian Ali Daei may return to the international football stage in a new role.

Once a Bundesliga goal scorer, soon in the Premier League? Ali Daei.Once a Bundesliga scorer, soon in the Premier League? Ali Daei.imago images

The former Iranian international and Bundesliga pro Ali Daei is apparently about to return to international football. According to information from kicker, a club from England is interested in working with the 51-year-old current coach. Rumor has it that it is Everton FC. So far it remains unclear in which role Daei could work for the Premier League club.

The World Cup participant from 1998 and 2006 moved to Arminia Bielefeld a good 23 years ago together with his compatriot Karim Bagheri. From 1997 to 2002, the striker scored 19 goals in a total of 107 Bundesliga games for East Westphalia and then for FC Bayern and Hertha BSC. In the Iranian national team, the metallurgy engineer, who was born in Ardabil in northwestern Iran, achieved an unprecedented record: With 109 goals in 149 international matches, the multiple “world scorer” is still at the top of the ranking of all national players. The Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo is currently hot on his heels as the first European to surpass the 100-goal mark in international matches in November. The Juventus star is currently at 102 goals.

Allahyar Sayyadmanesh scores the winner against in Leicester City Europa League

The young Team Melli striker Allahyar Sayyadmanesh came from the bench and scored the winner for his Team Zorya against a leading English Premier League side Leicester City.

Sayyadmanesh who was subbed in taking the place of Oleksander Galdkiy in the 84th-minute score after three minutes assisted by Denis Favorov.

Leicester tasted defeat for the first time in UEFA Europa League Group G on Thursday evening after the late 1-0 loss to Zorya Luhansk at Slavutych Arena in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine

The goal from a low cross into the box from Denys Favorov was turned in at the back post by Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, who is on loan to Zorya from the Turkish club Fenerbahce.

Leicester City leads UEFA Europa League Group G on goal difference ahead of Portuguese club Braga. Zorya is third ahead of AEK athens who have Karim Ansarifard on their roster.

Arsenal ‘closing in’ on transfer of Sardar Azmoun with the help of former Gunner Andrey Arshavin

  • 15 Jun 2020, 10:44

ARSENAL are reportedly in negotiations with Zenit Saint Petersburg over a deal to bring Sardar Azmoun to the Emirates.

Dubbed the “Iranian Lionel Messi”, the 25-year-old has previously attracted the interest of Liverpool as well as Celtic, and now the Gunners are said to be in for the forward.

Andrey Arshavin could help Arsenal sign Zenit Saint Petersburg striker Sardar Azmoun
Andrey Arshavin could help Arsenal sign Zenit Saint Petersburg striker Sardar Azmoun

According to Area Napoli, the North London giants have made contact with former fan favourite Andrey Arshavin over a move to sign Azmoun.

Arshavin is currently in charge of transfers at the Russian side, and it has been claimed that Arteta is hoping his friendship with his former team-mate could lead to the potential signing.

It has been stated that further talks between the two are planned as Arteta looks to sign a striker in the upcoming transfer window.

The report also adds that Arsenal are weighing up whether Azmoun would suit the Premier League.

Should they decide to press ahead with a move, Arshavin could help fast-track negotiations between the two clubs.

Along with Arsenal, it has been said that West Ham and Leicester are keeping tabs on the striker while the Italian club Napoli have been asking question recently but decided that the player is too expensive for the club budget.

Azmoun is a remarkable player by any standards. He is the only Iranian player who has yet to play a single minute for any Iranian club in the league. While still in the youth team of Sepahan Esfahan and on the brink of making his full debut in the Persian Gulf League, the Russian club Rubin Kazan offered Sepahan a relatively substantial amount to get his services.

Azmoun has scored 32 goals in 50 international for Team Melli. A remarkable feat for the youngster. He has already scored in the European Club competitions. Azmoun is a great header of the ball too, the type that the English football take a pride in.

Stunning bicycle kick from Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

For the second successive game, Alireza Jahanbakhsh was left in almost stunned disbelief, this time after scoring the goal of the decade.

For Frank Lampard and Chelsea, it was an all too familiar feeling of frustration as their attempts to build momentum were checked once more.

Their failure to grab a second goal proved costly, though, and left the door open for Jahanbakhsh’s jaw-dropping late heroics, a sensational overhead kick to cancel out Cesar Azpilicueta’s landmark opener.

Their failure to put Brighton away when they had the chance to do so was punished in stunning style by Team Melli winger Jahanbakhsh.

The Iranian winger arrived in the summer of 2018 under Chris Hughton as a £17m club record signing having just won the golden boot in Holland with AZ Alkmaar.

To say he had failed to live up to his price tag would be an understatement. His first 26 appearances produced a grand total of zero goals and sparked talk he would be loaned out this month to kickstart his career. His agent claimed that many clubs were seeking Alireza’s service, but the player insisted on remaining with Brighton and proving his worth to the coach who has not been too keen to play him in Brighton colors.

But Jahanbakhsh broke his duck against Bournemouth on Saturday, a moment that reduced him to tears, then topped that against Chelsea.

The highly talented Iranian was a substitute for the Chelsea match. He replaced Aaron Mooy in the 68th minute. On the 84th minute, he scored the stunning goal. He was also instrumental in a near goal right at the end when he passed to Maupy but for a spectacular save by Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizbalaga.

Finally……Jahanbakhsh scores.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Brighton and Hove Albion and Team Melli winger, finally opened his scoring in the 3rd minute of the match against Bournemouth in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Jahanbakhsh, a record signing for the Brighton club failed to score any goals last season. With a  new boss in-charge at Brighton, Jahanbaksh was relegated to the bench but on many occasions, he did not even make the bench in the Premier League matches. opportunities.

Today’s match line up by Graham Potter was a Pleasant Surprise for the Iranian International as Jahanbakhsah was not even in the squad for the last match Brighton played the Premier League. On the third minute, Alireza smashed a powerful diagonal shot into the bottom far corner of the Bournemouth goal.

Jahanbakhsh was clearly emotional during his goal celebration with all his teammates surrounding him. Finally, he broke the jinx and scored. Not only he opened his account with the club, but he also set the record for the earliest goal in Brighton’s history in the Premier League.

Jahanbakhsh went on to play until the 84th minute when he was then substituted to receive a standing ovation from the appreciative Brighton fans at the American Express Stadium.

Jahanbakhsh has have been left out of the Team Melli squad in the last two matches. He missed both the defeats against Bahrain and Iraq.

 

“I expected more from myself.” Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Alireza Jahanbakhsh says he hasn’t shown his best form for Brighton & Hove Albion yet and admitted he expected more from himself in his first season in England.

The Iranian winger joined the Seagulls for a club record fee, reported to be £17m, last summer but failed to register a goal or assist in a campaign which he said had ‘a lot of ups and downs’.

A hamstring injury and the Asian Cup saw Jahanbakhsh miss three months of the season from November to February before he started eight of Albion’s final 11 Premier League matches.

Reflecting on his debut campaign in England, the 25-year-old said: “It was a little bit up and down, to be honest. At the beginning I was trying to get into the team as soon as possible and play games.

“Obviously, as everyone knows, I played a couple of games and then got an unexpected injury. It took me out for a while and then I had the Asian Cup. There were some things which kept me away from playing games.

“The last couple of games I played, made progress and got used to the competition.

“The Premier League is a high quality league and different to what I’m used to. It (the season) wasn’t what I’d planned for and what I was expecting from myself but it’s gone.

“I’ll have a good pre-season hopefully and will have a good season (next year) which I expect from myself and what everyone expects from me.”


Jahanbakhsh admitted his season left him unsatisfied and he said: “It was tough getting used to a new environment and moving to somewhere with a totally different culture and facing new stuff, which I’ve never been challenged with.

“There were a lot of ups and downs but there were a lot of times I enjoyed and played a lot of minutes.

“But it wasn’t something which makes me satisfied, nor the fans and people who expect more from me.

“I know the reason why I’m here and I was expecting more from myself obviously. I wanted to play more, be important for the team statistically but that was something which didn’t happen this season.

“Next season I’m going to work with double energy and with the mindset of what I have from the Premier League right now. Hopefully I’ll bring more quality to the team and show what I can do.”

Jahanbakhsh, who played 24 times in all competitions, feels Brighton fans are still to see the best of him: “Definitely. There’s been some games I’ve really enjoyed playing with my team-mates but my best hasn’t happened yet obviously.

“I expect more of myself and I know I can show more. That’s the reason I’m not really happy with this season.

“It has gone and next season I’m going to do everything to get into the best shape.”

Brighton finished 17th in the Premier League and also reached the FA Cup semi-finals in Jahanbakhsh’s first season with the club.


He said: “For the team it wasn’t that bad a season. The last seven, eight, ten games it’s been a little bit difficult with being down there and stressing about relegation.

“We made it difficult for ourselves because there was a stage of the season where we were 11th, 12th position in the table. We’d been doing a great job and got to the the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

“We lost a few points which made it more difficult in the last couple of games but luckily we are staying in the Premier League.

“We have to plan for next season which we know is going to be even more difficult. We are going to do our best to have good preparation in pre-season and to have a good season.”

Jahanbakhsh now has a rare summer off with no international commitments and he said: “Now is a good time to have some time off, refresh my mind and come back in good shape for pre-season.”