Mehdi Mahdavikia was highly critical of the commotion and the controversies created in the aftermath of the Sepahan Perspolis match. The ex-Team Melli player who has recently retired from football was speaking to the ISNA reporter about the progress of Iran’s U-17 team which is currently in a training camp in Germany.
Mahdavikia was asked to express his thoughts about the storm created by Perspolis coach Ali Daei and the club CEO Mohammad Rouyanian after the duo explicitly accused the referee of the match against Sepahan , Mohsen Ghahremani , of corruption, bribery and favoritism. the ex-Perspolis player , who spent most of his professional career in Germany , said “Unfortunately, all the news we hear nowadays about Iranian football is negative. Instead of promoting the beautiful side of football, these people are creating controversies and ugly side of the game. Problems exist in many countries where football is played, but it is dealt with by civilized and dignified manner. If there are cases of suspicion of corruption, it has to be pursued legally and in quiet manner with the appropriate authorities.”
“In Iran , it is all different. Because of the popularity and influence of the club, these people utilize the media, as the newspapers seem to be more than willing to use hot news, to talk and I mean only talk about so-called corruption in football. In doing so , they are publicly prosecuting a person and put him on trial without following the proper procedures or use ethical means. If these people are genuine and have a case, then they need to refer the case to the authorities by using legal channels. They do not need to create a storm of controversy. By such improper action, all they achieve is to give the wrong impression to the fans and especially the young ones about the affair of football. This puts the football’s reputation of the country in disrepute” continued the soft-spoken Mahdavikia
“About the scene that created all this controversy, in the limitation of the TV angle, it looked like Sepahan defender committed the initial foul, built it is difficult to say for sure. The referee was close to the scene and he is the only person who can call the shots and it is what the referee saw that resulted in his action. If it is only dependent on the TV angle, then it seems that the referee made a mistake.”
Mahdavika was asked about his role in preparing the training camp for Iran’s U-17 team in Germany. The reporter asked “ what do you have to say that if it was not for Mahdavkia using his influence and connections, this camp would not have been arranged.?”
The ex-Hamburg and Eintracht Frankfurt player said” I have a lot of respect for Doustimeher. He was my coach and mentor and I owe my success to him. It is repay time and I am honored to be in a position to help him set up the camp. The problem, as many people are aware of, is the football federation financial situation. The federation is in a dire financial situation which does not enable it to support many of its plans. I have been working with Doustimer for some time now and he informed me that we might end up going to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in October without a camp or meaningful friendly preparation matches.”
“On a visit to Germany, I sought the assistant of a good friend of mine, Dr. Naraghi in Germany, who is in food processing business, and Mr. Hedayati in Iran and we managed to arrange and finance a training camp for the young players in Germany. I am personally very happy that we have managed this achievement under the difficult circumstances. We also succeeded in picking up some good teams for friendly matches. They are in an older age group than our U-17 team; nevertheless they will be good tests for our boys”
Asked about his role with the U-17 team, Mahdavikia said that the federation has included him in the technical team and he will be accompanying Dousitmehr with the team in the UAE for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Mahdavikia also said that the project of arranging a farewell testimonial match for him with Perspolis is cancelled. The Ex Perspolis Captain said that he did not want to put any pressure or undue burden on Perspolis which having its own share of financial problem. “As such I am not willing for the club to arrange a testimonial match in Tehran. Instead that testimonial match will be arranged by Hamburg SV probably in Germany.”