Tag: Iran

Bangladesh FF proposes a friendly match with Team Melli.

The Daily Star

Sport reporter

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is in discussion with its Iranian counterpart for a FIFA Friendly ahead of the two teams’ first match of the World Cup Qualifiers in September.

A high-placed BFF official yesterday confirmed that they have sent a proposal to the Iranian Football Federation regarding a friendly match in Doha, Qatar in the first week of September, however, the fixture is far from set.

“We have contacted Iran Football Federation regarding a match, and their initial reply is a positive one. However, we have a few other teams on our list and the fixture is not finalised as yet,” BFF’s general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag told The Daily Star.

“Since our first match of the qualifiers in on September 10, we would like to have an 8-10 days’ training camp in Doha after a few days’ training in Dhaka. We are planning for a friendly match against a national team during that time in Doha. The match could be held on September 4th or 5th, so that the team can fly straight out of Doha for the first qualifying match against Afghanistan,” Shohag added.

Tehran Times, a leading Iranian newspaper, earlier reported that since both the teams have their first matches on September 10, a September 5 fixture between Iran and Bangladesh is being negotiated by the two federations.

Iran are the highest-ranked Asian team at the moment, currently 20th in FIFA Rankings. Bangladesh, on the other hand, is ranked 183rd.

Bangladesh last met Iran during the 1990 World Cup qualifiers in 1989. Bangladesh lost both matches, 2-1 in Dhaka and 1-0 in Tehran.

Three places drop in Team Melli’s FIFA Ranking

IN the latest ranking published by FIFA, Iran dropped three places to No 23 while solidly maintaining its top AFC ranking.

Team Melli lack of competition plus the continental competitions in the Americas and Africa has resulted in many teams getting points while Iran remaining stagnant on theirs.

Team Melli is in the 23rd spot with 1518 points

Iran is one spot behind USA (1548 pts) and one above Wales (1514 pts).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the continental ranking, Iran is still at the top of AFC ranking ahead of AFC Asian Cup runners up Japan which lost 5 places, Korea Rep and Australia.

 

FIFA WC 2022 Asian Qualifiers Draw

The Round Two draw of the Asian Qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 concluded in the Malaysian capital on Wednesday.

The draw, conducted by FIFA Director of Competitions Christian Unger and Australian legend Tim Cahill, saw Asia’s top-ranked team Iran pooled in Group C alongside Iraq, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Cambodia.

Iran will be aiming for a third consecutive appearance in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, having narrowly missed on qualifying for the knockout stage in Russia 2018.

Japan, Asia’s best performers in the 2018 FIFA World Cup where they were defeated by Belgium in the Round of 16, were drawn in Group F with Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Myanmar and Mongolia.

The Korea Republic, who have appeared in every edition of the FIFA World Cup Finals since 1986, will have Lebanon, DPR Korea, Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka in Group H of the Asian Qualifiers.

Saudi Arabia, who defeated Egypt 2-1 to end their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign on a high, will face Uzbekistan, Palestine, Yemen and Singapore in Group D.

Australia, who became the record fifth Asian team at a World Cup Finals after going through the Inter-Continental Playoff to earn a berth in Russia 2018, will go up against Jordan, Chinese Taipei, Kuwait and Nepal in Group B.

Qatar, who will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, were drawn in Group E alongside Bangladesh, Oman, India and Afghanistan in their bid to defend the AFC Asian Cup they won in spectacular fashion in the UAE last February.

China PR, the host for the AFC Asian Cup 2023, will have to navigate past Syria, Philippines, Maldives and Guam in Group A their bid for a second appearance in the FIFA World Cup Finals.

Group G had a distinctly Southeast Asian flavour as ASEAN rivals Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia were all drawn together, with the United Arab Emirates completing the cast.

The eight group winners and four best runners-up will advance to the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Finals and the final round of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The next best 24 teams from the second round of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining 12 slots in the 24-team AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

Speculations about Azmoun transfer to Lazio!

A few days after some websites reported that Team Melli and Zenit St. Petersburg striker Sardar Azmoun is wanted by the Italian Seria A club Lazio, no confirmation has been issued by either sides or the players himself.

Azmoun has been linked with a sensational move from Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg to Italian Serie A giants SS Lazio.

Sardar performance this season with Zenit since his January transfer from FC Rubin Kazan , was nothing but sheer excellence. He has scored 12 goals in 16 games helping Sergei Semak’s side lift the Russian Premier League title and qualifying for the UEFA Champions Leauge 2019/20.

While the striker was missing for the Team Melli two friendly games against Syria and South Korea for a slight knock, the speculations were rife about plans for his transfer to Italy.

Azmoun, who has been previously linked with the Italian club in the past seasons, has recently signed a contract with FC Zenit which would make such transfer little complicated for Lazio.

It is quite unlikely for Azmoun to leave Zenit after such a short stay.

Wilmots will continue his offensive style for Team Melli

Team Melli’s head coach said that his team will continue playing an offensive style.

Marc Wilmots said in a post-match press conference after drawing 1-1 with South Korea ” although it was a friendly game , in my opinion, it was a highly competitive match played at high level in front of a capacity stadium. Both teams showed a lot of resolve. I think the fans were quite satisfied and happy to watch such a match, in which  lot of opportunities were created by both teams.

Wilmots spoke about his experience in confronting South Korea in the 2014 World Cup and the difference between the two games: “I think the conditions are not comparable to this game. Currently, the league has ended for several weeks, but the Korean league is ongoing. Nevertheless, Iranian players were able to play a great game. They fought for every ball and were truly competitive.

The team’s head coach noted that “our team will continue to attack. The Iranian team is a complete team and everyone is important and influential.” Wilmots also said: “We had a good game. Although the match was friendly, it had a high quality. Congratulations to Bento on this game because his team had a lot of coordination and played good football. We observed how both teams wanted to win and saw an offensive display. My team prevented the Koreans from controlling the game. It’s good that we had almost 10 scoring chances.”

In response to a question about Iran’s four wins against South Korea since the last time Korea won, Wilmots said: “These match can not be compared. The atmosphere of each game is different. Each game can have different conditions and circumstances. We tried to win this game. In the future, the same attitude will continue, and we will be offer more offensive options.”

The AFC broadcast award special for Saudi Arabia !

If there was the slightest doubt that the Asian Football Federation is a highly politicized body with members supporting the wealthy such as Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf countries in general, all those doubts have been eliminated with the recent move by AFC in the award of broadcasting right. 

The TV broadcast right of the Asian Competitions for Middle East and North Africa has been awarded to Bein Sports for the last few years. The Qatari owned broadcasters had a virtual monopoly on all the competitions including the FIFA World Cup, AFC Asian Cup and the AFC Champions League.

After the Saudi-Led boycott of Qatar and the break of diplomatic and economical relationship between the two countries leading to severe animosity, the Saudi’s were not pleased to have a Qatari organization control the broadcasting of football matches and major sporting events in their country. By hook and crook and in defiance to all International laws and regulations, they established their own station, albeit a pirate station and stole the FIFA and AFC matches that were exclusively awarded to Bein Sports without any consent or rights award.

Despite the outcries , condemnations, threats of legal actions and loads of other statement against piracy and intellectual property by the Americans and Europeans, the Saudi continued defying the international copyright laws with no fear of reprisal. The pirate stations that is broadcast on Arabsat which is based in Riyadh , continues its piracy unabated till the writing of this article. The AFC has condemned this piracy but practically has done nothing to stop it because it is Saudi based. There were always suspicions that the Saudi would not have carried out such piracy without support or consent within the governing body of Asian football, AFC and perhaps FIFA too.

Yesterday, the AFC issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for its package of football media rights for the 2021-2024 cycle in Saudi Arabia only!! Currently the rights are not country specific but regional. The Saudi case is an exception to the rules.

There are a lot of legality involved in such a move but the main question that begs itself is on what basis the AFC awards a broadcasting right for one country only? what if the Saudi government is displeased with the winning tender and decides it wants to change it to broadcaster of a much more friendly obedient state government?

There has been many critics of the AFC preferential treatment afforded to Saudi Arabia. The Iranians are one big victims of the flagrant Saudi bias. All matches involving Iranian and Saudi teams have to be played on neutral ground simply because of the Saudi refusal to travel to Iran. AFC simply obeys the demands of Saudi Arabia which is supposed to have 1 vote only. With moves such as that, every football fan is entitles to question the infiltration of politics in Asian football while AFC always claims that politics should not interfere in football.

Questions have been asked about AFC decision making process and whether the executive committee has any authority or it is acting as a rubber stamp for the Saudi-backed President of the AFC Salman bin Ebrahim ? The Bahrain President has been re-elected unopposed for another term with all candidates withdrawing before the election.

Iran climbs to 22nd in FIFA World Ranking

Team Melli has reached one of its highest FIFA ranking in history as it achieved the 22nd spot in the world while maintaining the top of AFC Asian ranking.

In the list that was issued today by FIFA, Iran climbed 7 spots from last month to accumulate 1516 points just behind Peru and one spot above Austria.

The credit to this success gores to the results of Team Melli in the AFC Asian Cup where Iran played 6 matches winning 4 , drawing 1 with a single loss.

Japan took the 2nd spot in Asia and 27th in the world with a whopping 23 places climb after reaching the Finals of the AFC Asian Cup 2019.

South Korea also had a very good rise with a 15 places climb to no 38 in the world and 3rd in Asia followed by Australia which lost 1 place to 42 and 4th in Asia.

The greatest climb was for Asian Cup 2019 champion Qatar who leapfrogged number of team and climbs an incredible 38 positions to 55 in the world and fifth in Asia.

 

AFC Rank FIFA Rank Team Points Previous Points Rank Change
1 22 Iran 1516 1481 7
2 27 Japan 1495 1414 23
3 38 Korea Republic 1451 1405 15
4 42 Australia 1441 1436 -1
5 55 Qatar 1398 1258 38
6 67 United Arab Emirates 1355 1309 12
7 70 Saudi Arabia 1344 1335 -1
8 72 China PR 1339 1317 4
9 80 Iraq 1310 1271 8
10 83 Syria 1286 1322 -9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Omid team loses to Tajikistan.

Omid Team lost its first match in the 4-side football tournament in Qatar.  In today’s match in Doha, Tajikistan overcame Iran’s U23 team 2-1.

Zlatko Kranjcar started the game against Tajikistan with a 4-2-3-1 formation with the following players:

 Shahab Adeli, Omid Noroufkan, Alireza Artah, Mohammad Moslemipour, Hossein Saki, Sina Zamehran, Mehdi Mehdi Khani, Mehdi Ghaedi, Vahid Namdari, Amir Roustai and Mohammad Reza Azadi.

The first half ended in a 1- 1 draw, but the Tajik team scored the winner in the second. Omid players failed to respond to that goal and the match ended in defeat for the team that is preparing for the Olympics Games 2020 in Tokyo.

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

Iran’s first Asian Cup opponent are blocked by Saudis.

Saudi Arabia has put up several barriers for the Yemeni national team on the eve of the Asian Cup, ISNA reported. The Yemeni national team, the first opponent of Team Melli in the Asian Cup, was scheduled to set a training camp in Doha as part of their preparation for AFC Asian Cup. That was canceled due to Saudi authorities preventing the squad from leaving  war-torn Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and UAE are leading a war against Yemen rebel Houthis who control the capital Sanaa. During the camp in Doha, Yemen arranged was supposed to play a friendly match against Tajikistan’s as reported by ISNA. However, the uncertainty and  delay  of the Yemeni squad in leaving their war-torn homeland resulted in cancelling the match in Doha .

A coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia imposed a historic land, maritime, and air blockade on Qatar. The measures were designed to strong-arm Doha to comply with a list of demands. Saudi Arabia has blocked Yemen’s national football team leaving to Qatar, preventing the Yemenis from setting a one-month camp in Doha including scheduled three friendly games, and  insisted that the camp to be set up and continues in the Saudi Capital Riyadh.

Yemen is Group D of the AFC Asian Cup  UAE 2019 which also includes  Iran, Iraq and Vietnam.