Tag: Qatar

Four countries compete in hosting AFC Asian Cup 2023

the-afc.com
Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has received Expressions of Interest (EoI) from four AFC Member Associations (MAs) to host the AFC Asian Cup 2023™ final competition.
Following the AFC’s invitation to all MAs to express their interest in hosting the flagship men’s national team tournament on May 31, 2022, the following AFC MAs have responded by the extended deadline of July 15, 2022, and expressed their interest to bid for the hosting rights of the AFC Asian Cup 2023™:
·       Football Australia
·       Football Association of Indonesia
·       Korea Football Association
·       Qatar Football Association
In accordance with the bidding process, the Bidding Regulations were distributed to the MAs on June 17, 2022, and the deadline for Bidding MAs to submit the Bid documents is set for August 31, 2022.
Following this, an overall evaluation of the bids will be undertaken by the AFC Administration prior to the selection and announcement of the host for the 24-team competition by the AFC Executive Committee on October 17, 2022.

AFC U23 : Iran-Turkmenistan match preview

After settling for a point against Qatar on Matchday One, head coach Mehdi Mahdavikia wants Iran to improve their sharpness in front of the goal after mustering only three shots on target from a total of 14. In a performance that was more worrying than encouraging, the Omid Team (U23) lacked sharpness, and finishing touch in a performance marred by fundamental defensive errors. A better team than Qatar would have inflicted some damage on Team Melli.
“My players had a lot of opportunities in our opening game against Qatar but we couldn’t convert our chances and this is a problem,” said Mahdavikia. “We lost two points even though we were the better team in terms of possession. After conceding late in the second half, we managed to salvage a point and we must do better against Turkmenistan.”
The former Iran International stressed his team must remain focused on Turkmenistan as the three points are crucial.
A failure to win the 3 points will put the Iran U23 team in a difficult position as they are going to face group leader and host Uzbekistan in their final group match.
“The game against Qatar is finished now and we must stay completely focused on the next match. We started our recovery and we are looking forward to getting the three points against Turkmenistan. We respect all teams, but we need to get the three points against them.”
Meanwhile, Ahmet Agamyradow’s Turkmenistan faces another litmus test when they meet Iran in their AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Uzbekistan 2022 Group A tie on Saturday.
Turkmenistan, who are appearing in the AFC U23 Asian Cup for the first time, held their own against hosts Uzbekistan on Matchday One but were undone by a penalty as they fell to a 1-0 defeat.
Agamyradow, while satisfied with his players’ performance against Uzbekistan, admitted they have to be smarter in decision-making during matches moving forward.

“We made one mistake during a set-piece situation and that caused us the game,” said Agamyradow. “This is football and now we have to switch our attention to our next opponents. In our opening match against Uzbekistan, we used up plenty of energy to defend and we lacked ball control in certain situations.”
Turkmenistan almost equalized in added time with Muhammadqodir Khamraliev sending his free-kick just wide and Agamyradow wants his players to have the same fighting mentality against Iran.
“I was very happy with how my players responded when we were trailing by a goal. They showed determination and almost scored in the end with the set-piece situation. I want my team to play with the same intensity as they did against Uzbekistan.
“It’s the first time we are playing in the AFC U23 Asian Cup and to start off with a defeat is difficult for any team. We had a day’s rest and will regroup for our next match against Iran.”
Turkmenistan v IR Iran
Venue: Bunyodkor Stadium (Tashkent)
Kick-off: 18:00 (UTC +5)

Shahriari saves Iran against Qatar.

Tashkent: Iran and Qatar settled for a 1-1 draw following late drama in Group A of the AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Uzbekistan 2022 at the Bunyodkor Stadium on Wednesday.
Qatar looked to have sealed the points through Ahmed Al Ganehi’s 87th-minute effort, only for Erfan Shahriari to salvage a point for Iran with his strike in stoppage time.
Determined to redeem themselves after their group stage exit in 2020, Qatar were the first to have a sight on goal when Osamah Al Tairi beat the offside trap in the third minute, before pulling back for Moustafa Tarek who, however, struck directly at goalkeeper Parsa Jafari.

Iran, who had scored nine goals in the Qualifiers, responded immediately with captain Yasin Salmani collecting Ahmad Shariatzadeh’s through ball into the box before beating two defenders only to see his shot deflect off Ahmed Suhail’s back heel.
That was to be the turning point as Team Melli Omid controlled possession and had a handful of opportunities through crosses into the area, but Salmani and Shariatzadeh were unable to lay the finishing touch.

Qatar’s best chances of the opening half came through corner kicks, none more so than in the 43rd minute when Hashim Ali was left unmarked near the post but failed to keep his volley on target as both sides went into the halftime break level.
Shahriari, who replaced Arya Yousefi at the start of the second half, came close to connecting to Mohammad Khodabandelho’s chipped effort into the box six minutes in before heading wide moments later.

While Qatar were pegged back in their own half for the most part, the young Maroons had a chance in the 62nd minute following a swift counter-attacking move with Yusuf Abdurisag threatening the Iranian backline, but his twist-and-turn effort lacked precision.

In an effort to bolster their midfield presence, Qatar head coach Nicolas Cordova sent on Al Ganehi and Andri Syahputra in the 72nd minute, which proved successful in not only pushing the Iranians back but also paving the way for the opening goal with Al Ganehi collecting Tarek’s pass in the box and slotting past Jafari in the 87th minute.

However, Qatar’s celebration only lasted three minutes as an unmanned Shahriari latched onto a stray ball in the box, before slamming home from close range.

Iran will face fellow Turkmenistan next on Saturday, while Qatar take on Uzbekistan in the day’s later kick-off.
Iran Line-up:
P. Jafari ; M. Hashemnejad, M. Kor, A. Jafari, S. Fallah, M. Khodabandelou, A. Sadeghi (80′ B. Arazi), Y. Salmani (90+3 Y Rostami) ,A. Shariatzadeh (74′ Sabet),M. Ghorbani, A. Yousefi (46‎’ E. Shahriari)

Prospects of Omid Team in AFC U23 Asian Cup 2022

Mehdi Mahdavikia embarks on a difficult journey to qualify the Omid (U23) team for the next Olympics in Paris. Iran’s football has failed to qualify for the Olympics for 42 years. The last time Iran qualified was two years after the revolution in 1980, but even then the Team was no show due to the ill-advised boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games.

The players Mahdavikia selected are those who can be available to make it to Paris except for a few whose age will limit them.

Unlike most of the new Iranian coaches, Mahdavikia took the right path in qualifying as a coach. He has attended several courses and had his on job training experience at Hamburg SV as a coach of age group teams. His experience is valuable for Team Melli teams, but there will always be a disconnect between him and his players because of the different football cultures the domestic player have been playing under.

The Difficulties.

The Omid team players are mostly a product of Iran’s domestic league. The majority of them play for the middle of the table or lower clubs. Iran’s domestic league at best is a poor league and of a lower standard than the more advanced Asian teams such as Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Qatar.  This standard of the league reflects directly on the team, so Mahdavikia has the challenging task of upgrading the capabilities of the players by teaching them skills and modern techniques they have not been exposed to before.  A better standard of coaching in Iran would have helped, unfortunately, in Iran, the coaches are even poorer than the league itself. Most of them retire as players and turn up the next day as coaches of the youth teams, the worst possible scenario in football.

The mental toughness and emotional condition of Iranian players have always lagged the others. Such weakness leads to defeats that would have been avoided, however, Mahdavikia has limited options to make his players unlearn years of poor training and mental preparation in a matter of days. If he can even partially overcome this perpetual problem then Omid Team stands a chance to make it to the semifinals at least. Basic behavior such as goal celebration is eccentric and at times embarrassing and petulant. The team needs a certain level of maturity and learning to behave under all conditions.

Discipline is another issue that hindered Iranian players at all levels. In fact, football is not immune from society, so indiscipline is quite rife. If there is no firm disciplinary measure, the problem will even intensify, and the results can be catastrophic like not even making it from the group level. That is a tough job for the Head Coach who is never been known to be a tough guy. It remains to be seen if his European career experience will have an effect on the squad and help sort out the young players.

The Positives.

A winning mentality is engraved in Iranian culture. You can count on every Iranian team to fight to the end and not give up. This is quite important especially when the team is behind.

The physique of Omid players is at a decent level, they seem to be strong and solid. A physically weak team is at a disadvantage from the word go and even more, skillful teams can suffer if the opposition is physically stronger and wins tackles around the pitch.

It is safe to say that Omid Team and Mahdavikia have no star players on the team. However, in captain Yasin Salmani, the team has a strong leader and quite a skillful player who has already scored spectacular goals in the domestic league. The absence of Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Mehdi Ghaedi will be felt, but since they are both playing outside Iran, their availability was an issue.

Prediction

Anything above qualifying from this group is progress for Iran’s Omid team in this tournament. There are already two tough teams in Uzbekistan and Qatar so their qualification from the group is not assured.

With so many good teams in this edition, it is not very easy for Iran to make the final. A semi-final is the best the fans can hope for, but like they always say, football is unpredictable.

Asian U23 Asian Cup 2022: Iran vs Qatar preview

Tashkent: Islamic Republic of Iran and Qatar have promised their best when they kick off their AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Uzbekistan 2022 Group A campaign on Wednesday.
The Bunyodkor Stadium will feature a tie between two teams who have made it past the group stage in previous editions, and both head coaches are aiming to secure an early advantage in a tough group that also includes 2018 champions Uzbekistan and debutants Turkmenistan.

MATCH PREVIEW

IR Iran   v   Qatar
AFC U23 Asian Cup
KO
Wednesday 1 June 2022 14:00
Venue: Milliy Stadion
Head coach Mehdi Mahdavikia has named a squad with an average age of just 21, but the legendary former Team Melli defender is confident the youngsters can step up to the plate.

“We are here with a very young team but with big goals,” said Mahdavikia. “This will be a great experience for us. There are a lot of difficult teams in our group, but we will do our best to have the best results.

“We have the tournament hosts Uzbekistan, a powerful team in Qatar and a respected team in Turkmenistan. We respect all our rivals, but we want to have the best results in the group.”
Mahdavikia will be missing several players who impressed in the Qualifiers, goalkeeper Alireza Rezaei among them, but the coach doesn’t believe this has weakened his side.

“We don’t have any problems, we have many talented players in all the positions. We believe in them and that they can achieve our goals.”

#AFCU23 | Know Your Group A Teams : IR IRAN

The likes of Almoez Ali and Akram Afif first impressed in the 2018 AFC U23 Asian Cup before going on to steer Qatar to the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 title and head coach Nicolas Cordova, who took over the reins from Felix Sanchez, is confident his new generation of players can make their mark as well.
“We know that it’s going to be a tough tournament,” said Chilean Cordova. “The qualification itself was tough. All the teams have the potential to win the tournament.

“We have a good young generation. Still, we have to take into consideration that we’re participating with a younger team than usual, which is part of our long term project to prepare them. I’m sure the future will be the same, where we have good players moving to the national team.”

#AFCU23 | Know Your Group A Teams : QATAR

Cordova said Qatar, who finished third in 2018, had prepared well for the tournament, including having played several friendlies.

“We are generally satisfied with the games (friendlies), because we always look for opportunities to improve and be better. “The teams in this tournament are very good, but it’s about ourselves and competing in our best way.

“We can’t talk about the minimum (target), but the maximum target is to prepare for each game in the best way and to be ready and competitive. If we are well prepared, we can aim to go far.”
Islamic Republic of Iran v Qatar
Venue: Bunyodkor Stadium (Tashkent)
Kick-off: 18:00 (UTC+5)

AFC invites members for hosting of AFC Asian Cup 2023.

Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has today issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) invitation to all the AFC Member Associations (MAs) to host the AFC Asian Cup 2023™.
Following China PR’s decision to withdraw as hosts of the AFC Asian Cup 2023™, the recent 32nd AFC Congress 2022 had provided the mandate to the AFC Administration to define the terms and requirements of an expedited bidding process to find a replacement host for the competition.
Following the conclusion of the bidding process, the AFC Administration will submit a report with its recommendations to the AFC Executive Committee, which will then select the new host of the AFC Asian Cup 2023™.

The deadline for interested MAs to submit their EoI to host the AFC Asian Cup 2023™ is June 30, 2022.

Such a short deadline surely means that there is one country only that can host the Asian Cup and that is Qatar. Although after the World Cup, Asin Cup hosting will be a formality, it is only logical to award it to Qatar unless the gas-rich Persian Gulf country is exhausted from hosting major tournaments and needs a break.

Ecuador is the second opponent for Team Melli.

According to the Mehr News reporter, Team Melli will play against the Canadian national team in its first preparation match for the FIFA World Cup 2022  on the morning of June 6th in Vancouver. Continued negotiations with other possible opponents for a second match by the Football Federation, resulted in an agreement to play the Ecuadorian national team to be held in Canada. Ecuador coached by Gustavo Alfaro’ is in the first group of the World Cup with the Netherlands, Qatar, and Senegal.

Ecuador’s place in Qatar is under threat due to Chile’s complaint to FIFA over the Byron Castillo who is alleged to be a Colombian national who played for the Ecuador National Team during the qualifiers for FIFA World Cup 2022.

Hamid Estili, the manager of the Iranian national football team, confirmed the match against Ecuador. Dates and Venue to be confirmed.

China withdrawal from hosting Asian Cup 2023 may see it back in the west Asian region.

China’s withdrawal from hosting the 2023 Asian Cup could see the showpiece shift west to the Gulf, where new infrastructure and voracious demand for major events have made the region a magnet for international tournaments.

Having planned to hold the Asian Cup across 10 cities in June-July next year, China dropped the 24-team tournament due to “exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said over the weekend.

The AFC said it would name a new host in due course but provided no detail and declined to provide immediate comment to Reuters.

AFC member nations were in the dark on Monday about the next steps.

“This is quite an unusual situation and so there’s no specific process that we are aware of on how things could go,” a spokesperson for the Korean Football Association (KFA) told Reuters.

“We just know that China has given up.”

The AFC has little time to appraise candidates and may not have a diverse set to choose from.

Governing body Football Australia declined to comment on whether it would put up its hand to replace China but referred to its busy calendar in 2023 as co-hosts of the Women’s World Cup with New Zealand, which starts on July 20.

All India Football Federation general secretary Kushal Das said India, which held the 2022 women’s Asian Cup this year, was focusing on its bid for the 2027 men’s tournament and had not expressed interest in stepping in for 2023.

South Korea, which originally lost out on its 2023 bid to China, had no comment on hosting but said it would require further consultation with home authorities.

“Basically, to host an international game …. firstly there should be talks with the government and the local authorities, but we haven’t heard or held any discussions on that yet,” the KFA spokesperson said.

Apart from India, reigning Asian Cup champions Qatar, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have all expressed an interest or submitted bids for 2027.

Qatar hosts the 2022 World Cup from Nov. 21 at a raft of purpose-built stadiums and may be best placed to slot in for the Asian Cup.

The 1988 and 2011 Asian Cup hosts, Qatar’s ambitions of becoming a global sporting hub have been backed by its ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and underpinned by its gas wealth.

It may come too soon for Saudi Arabia, which has made an aggressive entry into the international sports hosting market in recent years. The Saudi bid for 2027 included the building of three new stadiums and the expansion of three existing venues.

The region’s searing summers would mean both Qatar and Saudi Arabia would need to ask the AFC to move the tournament to cooler months later in the year or in early-2024.

Should few clear alternatives emerge, the AFC would likely prove accommodating to such a request, sending the tournament back to the Gulf four years after the 2019 edition in the United Arab Emirates.

Kamranifar “Team Melli will be playing in Canada”

Commenting on the latest developments in the Team Melli camp, Hassan Kamranifar said: “We are closely coordinating with the head coach of the national team, Dragan Skocic. Our contract was finalized on Monday and will be announced to the public in the next two days. We will have a good preparation for the first Fifa day break including playing some friendly international games. This Fifa day will start from 30 May to 14 June and we will have a period of 14 days for the Team Melli training camp. We hope to play at least two to three friendly games.”

In response to the question, in which country will the Team Melli camp will be held, He stated: “It will probably be in two different countries. First, we go to a country other than Qatar and then we go will camp in Qatar on the next available FIFA day in September 2022. Kamranifar continued: “First we will go to Canada and then we will travel to Qatar. The venues in Canada have also been finalized. If you allow me, it will be finalized tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and we will announce the two more games.” The Secretary-General of the Football Federation said that it is better for the national team to play at least two games in Canada, despite the distance : “Yes, we talked to two other countries for friendly matches to play in Canada.” There is also the issue of stadiums because the distances between Canadian cities are vast. If we are going to fly for 5-6 hours for the second game, we will return to Qatar. I cannot name the opposing team at this time. They themselves have said that the nominal contract should not be finalized.”

Kamranifar also announced the possibility of facing the Albanian team and said: “European teams are involved.” The Russia game has been canceled. Albania has played against Russia and we are trying to play against Albania as well”

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.