The Former Team Melli coach, Branko Ivankovic, is being considered to take over from Hamid Derekhshan as the head coach of Persepolis club.
The Croat was one of the most successful foreign coaches of Team Melli. His achievements in the 4 years stint included winning the Asian Games Gold Medal in 2002, third place title in the AFC Asian Cup 2004 in China and leading Iran to the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany.
Ivankovic was considered for several key jobs in Iran in the last few years but he has an outstanding issue with the tax authorities from his last time employment in Iran. His tax arrears have not been paid and unless he clears the issues, he would be in trouble with the law.
Persepolis on the other hand , has been an organization in real turmoil. Under a coach with less that modest abilities, the club has been struggling in form and results. Derekhshan , himself an ex-Persepolis player and Captain , has never coached at high level clubs and his attempts at coaching for lessor clubs has not yielded good results. His modest CV is reflected in the weak result of Persepolis. Derekshan took over afer Ali Daei was sacked from his post.
Currently Persepolis is lying 10th among 16 clubs, a position that has led to mass exodus of fans. The most popular club in Asia, and for the first time in its history, can hardly attract 5000 fans at home games in the great Azadi stadium.
Persepolis’s problems are not only technical, as the club is deep in red financially. There are virtually untold number of cases against them in Iranian courts and FIFA. Their chairman has been in jail for a few months now, and the club is running in handicapped mode since. Yesterday, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the official owner of the club , has appointed an acting chairman Mohammad Hossein FalahNejad to run the club affairs. The new chairman did not waste much time in acting to revive the club’s fortunes.
It was FalahNejad who broke the news of Ivankovic deal. The acting chairman has also said that he met with Derekhshan and his assistants today and explained to them the intention of the club to recruit Branko Ivankovic. Up to that time the deal is finalized with the Croat coach , pending the settlement of the tax issues, Derakhshan can keep his job, according to FalahNejad.