Tag: FIFA

Memorandum of collaboration signed between Iran and Qatar

Iran and Qatar have signed a four-year football Memorandum of collaboration commencing before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The presidents of FFIRI Shehab Azizi Khadem and Sheikh Hamad bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of the Qatar Football Association, attended the signing ceremony earlier today (Thursday) in Doha.  According to the memorandum, the two federations will collaborate in holding friendly matches, exchange of training facilities as well as training camps at all levels of different age categories of their respective national football teams, including men and women. The long-term collaboration between the two sides, which will soon be implemented in various fields, is important due to the good relations between the two countries, ease of logistics and transportation, proximity, and cultural commonalities of the two countries.

With Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup, its state-of-the-art facilities and modern infrastructure will be available to National Iranian football teams in Qatar. In this meeting, Hamidreza Mehr Ali (acting vice president of the FFIRI), Rafiei (legal advisor to the president of FFIRI) and Dragan Skocic (head coach of the national team) accompanied Azizi Khadem. Also present at the meeting was FIFA’S Deputy Secretary-General Football, Mattias Grafström.   Last night on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the FIFA Arab Cup, Azizi Khadem had a meeting with Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, who is scheduled to travel to Iran in February 2022.

Azizi Khadem has traveled to Qatar at the official invitation of the President of the Qatar Football Federation. Qatar will host the Qatar FIFA World Cup in November 2022, and the Iranian national team is just one step away from qualifying for the tournament. With this contract, it can be hoped that the national team will take advantage of Qatar’s sports facilities to hold camps and friendly matches within a year of the tournament.

Skocic serves his sentence , but what about the cheaters?

Dragan Skocic, the head coach of Team Melli, got super excited after some tense moments during the match with the Lebanese national team. When Sardar Azmoun scored the equalizer, the Croat who was feeling immense pressure with his team a goal behind in the dying minutes of the match, jumped with joy running towards the Lebanese bench,  demonstrating his excitement while pointing towards the stretcher that the Lebanese players used umpteen times in the match.

The Qatari referee brandished the red card to Skocic and sent him to the stands.

The FIFA disciplinary committee issued its verdict and suspended Skocic for one match which he served against Syria. In addition, Skocic was ordered to pay 5,000 Swiss francs, which must be paid within 30 days of the date of notification.

Skocic will be able to lead Team Melli from the bench in the match against Iraq in January 2022.

While Skocic had no business encroaching into the opposing team’s area to demonstrate his anger at the host team that was not playing football like gentlemen and professionals, faking injuries, cheating, and simulating in a farce and obvious manner, the Qatari referee was an accessory, aiding and abated in this farcical act of deception. The fault ultimately falls on the world’s governing body to stop such ridiculous behavior in football. History reminds us that FIFA can and has acted before to stop such acts of anti-football. Cast your mind back to the game between Ireland and Egypt in  FIFA World Cup 1990.

The worst match at the most boring World Cup in history prompted football’s rule-makers to abolish the backpass, changing the game forever

Because of the Egyptian blatant time-wasting and killing of the game, it banned the passing of the ball to goalkeepers.

FIFA needs to act again. It is their full responsibility to act against teams like Lebanon and many others who use time-wasting by faking players’ injuries who drop dead with every tackle. There is no excuse for FIFA inaction. Anyone who has a passion for the beautiful game of football, must take a stand against such acts and make their voice heard against cheating.  While VAR and technology are being extensively used, it is about time that this type of technology or alternatives is also used to punish players who cheat. In this part of the world, there are aplenty.

Why is the match tomorrow in Azadi closed to the fans?

If you have been following the events of Iran’s football lately, you must have heard the good news of Azadi being opened for a limited percentage of its capacity for fans under the strict protocols. The requirement of AFC includes 2 shots of COVID19 vaccinations amongst a list of other requirements. The opening of the Azadi gate was given by  FFIRI President Aziz Khadem and the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sajjadi.

48 hours before the match, there was a U-turn as FFIRI announced that Azadi will not be open to the fans after all. The football federation did not specifically mention the reason for the change of heart but leaks from FFIRI headquarters insinuated that due to some administrative difficulties, the FFIRI is not in full compliance and therefore no fans can be allowed to enter the stadium for the match against Korea Rep which has to be conducted behind closed doors.

in a matter of minutes, accusations of incompetence, lying, and downright ineptitude were thrown at the football federation in social media plus some semi-official media outlets leading the masses to believe that the failure to adhere to the AFC health protocol is the direct responsibility of the federation with their late application for authorization being one of the main reasons.

 Somehow, this account of administrative failure did not make sense. Many sources, including the FFIRI itself, have declared that the application was sent ahead of time, so there was no question of delay. Like always in Iran, one has to dig quite deep to get to the truth and this one is no exception.

ISNA sport corrospondance said

“While Team Melli fans were rejoicing and preparing to buy tickets to enter Azadi Stadium and celebrate the end of the two-year absence from the stadium, the Football Federation, after two months of storytelling, was finally unable to exercise its full right of hosting, and now Team Melli will be deprived of the support of the fans in one of the major Asian classic encounters.”

“It seems that mismanagement and lack of planning have taken root in Iranian football and this football is not going to breathe new life by changing its management. In the absence of infrastructure and financial resources, the fans are the only important and reliable assets of Iranian football. Thanks to the shortcomings and empty promises of the managers of the Football Federation, Team Melli will be deprived of this valuable capital in the match against South Korea. In the World Cup qualifiers, Iran is only host on paper.”

There is no argument about the incompetence of the federations managers, as the ISNA reporter rightly stated, but after some in-depth inquiry and insiders info, this time it seems that the federation was not that incompetent to be unable to get the process right for a straight forward authorization application from AFC. It is not rocket science after all as even FFIRI can complete it!.

So, what is the real reason for preventing the fans?

There are several theories but the one that is closet to reality in our opinion is the FIFA pressure on Iran to allow women entry into the stadium.

It was only in June that FIFA applied pressure to ensure that Iran allows female fans and expected the authorities to comply, or else. Under Rouhani women were allowed for a couple of matches, but now with Ebrahim Raisi in power, a hardline cleric who was previously head of the country’s judiciary, and has ultra-conservative political views the situation has changed, to the worst. Images of Iranian females waving flogs, taking selfies, wearing lipsticks, or cheering their national team, do not fit the bill. It could also be due to pressure from his hardliner peers’ which has forced the authorities from rescinding the agreement or the promise given to FIFA.

Allowing women in stadiums in Iran in 2019 for the first time since the revolution. was a personal triumph for the Chief of FIFA after a strong reminder from the World Football governing body that Iran would face expulsion from the World Cup if they do not follow the FIFA rules. “Fifa’s stance on the access of women to the stadiums in Iran has been firm and clear: women have to be allowed into football stadiums in Iran. For all football matches,” Fifa had said in a statement at the time.

So, Covid is one great convenient and timely excuse for the authorities to dodge the issue and close the great Azadi for everyone.  Technically speaking, Iran has not broken FIFA rules on women in stadiums.

It can be easily said that Iran has outfoxed FIFA, AFC, Infantino, and everyone else by this simple step. Iran cannot be sanctioned because this step does not target women only but everybody.

After all, the west has experienced firsthand the cunning and skills of the Iranian while negotiating the JCPOA. The Iranians managed to settle everything and agree on terms in 2015 only for one not-so-smart Donald Trump, a shallow person, an inexperienced politician,  to tear it off thinking that he can outsmart the Iranians by quitting the pact and exerting more pressure demanding more strict terms.

History says Iranians did not budge and did not accept the blackmail while it witnessed Trump’s failure. The businessman President of the USA could not outdo the Iranians and it seems like FIFA, a much less of an adversary to the Americans, will see the same fate. After all, they are dealing with carpet merchants with a tradition dating thousands of years.

Gelareh Nazemi The Iranian female futsal referee.

In the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021, Iran is not only being talked about in terms of wonderful goals, being the only Asian team amongst the best 8 in the world, wonder goals by Asghar Hassanzadeh and Mahdi Javid, there is also a lady presence that has enhanced the name of Iran amongst the global audience.

Gelareh Nazemi, the Iranian FIFA futsal referee has been short-listed for the ne3xt round of the competition until the final match. 15 referees are in the list while the rest have to say farewell to Lithuania and depart to their homeland.

In an exclusive interview with Tehran Times, the Iranian official talked about the experience of officiating in the men’s competitions:

“It’s a great feeling to be the representative of Iranian futsal – and football– in the World Cup. It was the target that I set for myself after whistling the final match of the 2018 Youth Olympics Women’s Futsal Tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now I am grateful that I’ve been able to make my dreams come true.

“I have officiated in the men’s futsal competitions in the past. It is more difficult than whistling in women’s matches. In terms of physical contact and the game’s speed, you will face more challenges in male competitions.

“Also, as a referee who has worked both in football and futsal, I can say that refereeing in futsal is much more difficult than in football because it’s full of clashes and you have to decide in a fraction of a second!” she said.

Nazemi has also officiated in the AFC Women’s Futsal Championship and the UEFA Women’s Futsal Euro 2019 semi-final contest between Spain and Russia in Portugal.

She explained the difficulty that she has faced on the way to glory: “It is a path that I started 20 years ago. During all these years, I tried with perseverance and motivation to fight all the problems in my path because I believed in my goal. People have often said that women aren’t good referees. I used it as a motivating tool. I’m sure that it will not take 20 years for those who have followed this path after me, and they will reach their goal much sooner. It is because that some of the problems that I faced in my career have been solved over the years. However, the situation is still difficult for the Iranian female referees,” Nazemi concluded.

Practicing sport with the whole cover Islamic outfit is not to the taste of everyone in Iran. In some sports, they really look quite ridiculous and handicapped thus depriving them of their true potentials. Despite the claims of the regime’s propaganda that Islamic outfit is no hindrance to practicing sports, the reality and physics say otherwise . Gelareh Nazemi, however, is the odd one out. In spite of her Hijab and refusing to shake hands with men, a tradition in a sport that has been practiced for centuries, she does look the role and hardly out of place with her uniform

Nazemi is a confident referee who was not intimidated by the occasion and the atmosphere around her In the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021. Selection for the final rounds of the tournament is a sign of approval by world Futsal Governing body FIFA for the quality of her work. Nazemi has done her country proud.

Mehdi Mahdavikia appointed as Head Coach of Omid team

Mehdi Mahdavikia was officially appointed as the head coach of Iran U23 (Omid team) and received his ordination from Shahabuddin Azizi Khazem, President of the Football Federation.

Mehdi Mahdavikia, who is working in Germany where he is based, arrived in Iran to complete the formalities of his appointment.

Meanwhile,  in addition to the coaching appointment, the former Team Melli player will also work as the technical advisor of the Football Federation. He will advise the federation president and various committees on technical issues for the improvement of the national teams and football league.


Mehdi Mahdavikia was working with Hamburger SV as a youth coach, and also manages his own youth academy, FC KIA.

Mahdavikia currently represents Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in the Football Advisory Panel of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), joining the body in 2019. On 15 May 2013, Mahdavikia was appointed as AFC Grassroots Ambassador.

Apart from being an icon of Iranian football, Mahdavikia is the first recognized Iranian coach wh is actually qualified by attending FIFA and German FA recognized courses.

His appointment as Head Coach of Omid Team is remarkable progress by FFIRI after a series of disastrous haphazard appointments of coaches, the result of which was total humiliation of Iran’s Omid Team and failure to qualify for the Olympics once again.

Azadi is confirmed as the venue for the Syria game, without the fans!

After several years of struggles and follow-ups, Tehran is finally confirmed as the host of Iran’s home matches in the FIFA World Cup 2022  Qatar in the qualifying round.

Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem, said about the plans of the national football team: “an important event just happened after years as we finally gained our right to host the first game against Syria in Tehran, which can help Team Melli a lot.”

Azizi Khadem, then went on to brief the reporters about the preparation plans for the game He added: “With intensive and scientific planning in the new management of the federation and the official support that we have realized, it is now possible for our fans to watch their national team in a competitive match. A lot of effort has been made in this regard. I would also like to thank the Radio and Television Organization for its excellent cooperation with us in this regard. We have set up a special staff to prepare for the World Cup, and Mr. Foroughi is present on behalf of the IRIB. We hope that other government officials will be added to the committee in our headquarters. Football is the manifestation of our national unity.”

The president of the federation said ” all the work of the issue of visa to attend for the Syrian delegation has been carried out and handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Syrian team will arrive on Monday, August 28th. Observers and the refereeing team will also travel to Tehran. Everything is well planned and we are all ready for the game in Azadi against Syria.”

Azizi Khadem then carried on praising the effort of his management is arranging the match in Azadi, suggesting that many countries have been deprived of hosting due to Covid19.

Regarding fans’ attendance, Azizi Khadem stated regarding the presence of spectators in the matches hosted by Iran: in consultation with AFC, which has its own restrictions,  in order to comply with the regulations and satisfy the public opinion, it is unlikely that the fans will be allowed.

“After that, we have to travel to Doha, and the third game is in the UAE and the fourth game is here against South Korea, we will probably be able to allow those who were vaccinated with a special card to gain entry. “

The president of the FFIRI substituted the fans who are customarily considered as the 12 players at home games, with the Head of IRIB!!!

He said: “The twelfth friend was the emphasis of the president of the Radio and Television Organization”

Aziz Khadem’s praise to the head of IRIB that has never paid a single dollar for TV broadcast rights and practically owes football tens of millions of dollars in back pay is a true sound of desperation in a country where the one and only broadcaster considers itself above the law.

This time, there was no other option. It was either IRIB pays for the broadcast to AFC and FIFA or Iran will not be granted any rights to play its home game in Tehran. It is not clear if FIFA is compensated by IRIB for illegally broadcasting official matches without paying the right.

Team Melli jumps 5 places in FIFA Ranking.

Iran’s Team Melli jumped 5 places up to reach the world 26th in the latest FIFA World Ranking published today, Thursday.

with 1522 points, Iran sits behind Japan who is up to 24th in the world, and 7 points more than Iran. This ranking of Iran, one of the highest in many years, has been achieved with a perfect record of results in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Second Round qualifiers. All the matches played in Bahrain with Iran managing to get 4 out of 4 wins.

The Korea Republic, which shares Iran’s group in the third round qualifier of the World Cup, is in 4th place in Asia and ranked 36 in the world with 1475 points. UAE, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon follow in Ranking. Amongst the 6 teams of Group A of the third round qualifiers. Lebanon has dropped 18 points while Syria dropped a single point in the new ranking.

AFC
FIFA

Country
Total Points
 Previous PTS +/-
1
24
Japan
 Japan
1529
 1509 20
2
26
IR Iran
 Iran
1522
 1500 22
3
35
Australia
 Australia
1477
 1457 20
4
36
Korea Republic
 Korea Republic
1475
 1460 15
5
42
Qatar
 Qatar
1455
 1398 57
7 68 United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates 1362 1330 32
8 70 Iraq Iraq 1355 1353 2
11 80 Syria Syria 1303 1304 -1
16 98 Lebanon Lebanon 1238 1256 -18

Team Melli complexion is changing rapidly.

After the transfer of Sepahan’s and Team Melli Captain Ehsan Hajsafi to AEK Athens, Iran has just five players playing in the domestic Persian Gulf league. That puts Iran among the group of countries whose majority of the national team players play abroad. These countries, including World Cup holder France and FIFA Top ranking team Belgium, have only a few footballers that are based at home.

With the conclusion of the 2020/21 season of the Persian Gulf League in which Persepolis won the title for the fifth time in a row, 3 significant transfers were confirmed. Hossein Kanani from Al Ahli of Qatar from Persepolis, Payam Niazmand to Portimonense of Portugal, and Ehsan Hajsafi to AEK Greece from Sepahan, the last 23-man squad of Team Melli home-based players reduced to five only,

Vahid Amiri,  Milad Sarlak, Ahmad Nourollahi, Mehdi Torabi (all Persepolis), and Mehdi Ghaedi (Esteghlal) are the only players present in the World Cup qualifiers who are based in Iran. As for the latter player, Mehdi Ghaedi, his suitors have increased since his brilliant performance in AFC Champions League. Farhad Majidi announced a while ago, that he will not stop Ghaedi from seeking his fortunes in other pastures to improve his standard, which means the possible transfer of the best current talent in Iranian football to a foreign club.

The full list of Team Melli with 19 players

Team Melli legionnaires also include the following players who were not part of the squad for the return legs of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, who could be possibly invited to the next stage of qualifiers. These 6 players are as follow

In total 25 (83%) players are legionnaires out of 30

It is quite possible that under these circumstances, Iran will probably not have any players from domestic league playing for the country in the national team for several years to come, and there will be no trace of the old superiority and total control of Team Melli squad by the to poles of Iran football, Esteghlal, and Persepolis.

Several years ago, at the time of the decline of the domestic leagues of France and Belgium, all the players of these two powerful national teams were players working outside the domestic leagues. It seems that no player from the Belgian league was in the Red Devils’ starting line-up at Euro 2020 this year, and that was the case in France before the re-emergence of Paris Saint-Germain in France as one of the top teams in Europe.

The standard of Iran’s domestic league has fallen quite badly in the last few years due to several factors. Total government hegemony on clubs, chronic incompetent management, nepotism, poor coaching, politics, lack of resources, favoritism, corruption, and exceptional indiscipline have all resulted in a league that is relegated in the AFC Asian ranking to mid tables.

Iranian clubs have never won the AFC Champions League and the last time a club from Iran won a trophy was back in 1990/91 when Esteghlal won the Asian Club Championship, the predecessor of Champions League.

Iran granted hosting World Cup qualifiers matches.

Team Melli will host its home matches in the third qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Tehran.

According to the FIFA website, the venue for Iran’s first match against Syria is Azadi Stadium. FIFA has chosen Azadi to put an end to the speculations over the past few days and weeks about the hosting being taken away from Iran. Thus, Team Melli will play all five home matches in Tehran if the matches are played are to be played on Home and Away format rather than a round-robin tournament in a single country.

FIFA prefers home and away because it has always been played in this format since the inception of the tournament. There have been the odd times that teams played in a single venue, especially in Aisa due to logistics, but Home and Away is the standard that FIFA likes to adhere to.

The scenario of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is different, which has always been to deprive Iran of hosting its matches. These politically motivated moves are the results of Gulf Arab countries lead by Saudi Arabia, both to uphold its hostility towards Iran and also to gain an unfair advantage on the pitch!

In the second qualifying round of the World Cup, Bahrain was chosen as a host.  FIFA also agreed to approve Jordan to host Syrian national matches, but the venue for the Iraq Games has not yet been determined yet and it is not clear in which country Iraq will host its opponent in the qualifiers including the Iranian national team.

This arrangement could be nullified if FIFA or the governments of the participating teams apply strict entry conditions as a result of COVID19.