Tag: Valencia

Héctor Raúl Cúper under FFIRI Radar.

After the failure of Team Melli in reaching the next round of FIFA World Cup 2022 and elimination from the group stages, the bench of Team Melli has been vacant.

With Carlos Queiroz’s failure to achieve anything of significance for Iran, his continuation and extension of the contract to be at the helm of the team for the AFC Asian cup 2023 have been in doubt.

The contract of Portuguese Queiroz has ended and it is unlikely that his contract will be renewed due to the opposition by th executive members of FFIRI despite some attempts to keep Queiroz under the pretext of team Stability.

It is almost certain that the Football Federation will opt for yet another foreign coach as secret negotiations have started with some coaches abroad.. One of these options is Héctor Raúl Cúper the Argentine football manager and former player. Cuper (67 years), has declared that he is not interested in working at the club level and intends to remain focused on coaching national teams. The Arabic-language website Kooora claimed that Cuper has attracted the interest of Iran’s FFIRI and had sent signals to test the waters. Cuper has also received an offer from Ghana. Before leaving Egypt, Uzbekistan, and Congo, Cuper also had a coaching experience at Inter Milan in Italy and Valencia in Spain. The last team under Cooper’s leadership was Congo.

Munir El Haddadi appeals to switch to Morocco

10 April 2018, 16:29

Deportivo Alaves forward Munir El Haddadi has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in his bid to switch allegiance from Spain to Morocco.

CAS said in a statement that Munir had appealed jointly with the Moroccan Football Federation (FMF) after Fifa turned down his request on March 13.

The appeal included a request for a decision by mid-May “in order for the player’s sporting nationality to be decided prior to the commencement of the Fifa 2018 World Cup,” said CAS.

Fifa rules bar players from switching allegiance once they have played a competitive international even if they hold dual nationality.

Munir, 22, made a single appearance for Spain, in a European championship qualifier against Macedonia in September 2014, when he came on as a substitute and played less than 15 minutes.

“This was my decision and I knew what I was doing. Since I was young I have played in Spain and this was my idea,” said Munir at the time. “I spoke with people in Morocco and told them that I wanted to play here instead.”

Munir, who was born in Spain and has a Moroccan father, was raised at Barcelona’s famous youth academy where he made his professional debut and is currently on loan at Alaves.

He has also spent one season on loan at Valencia.

Fifa’s stakeholders committee is studying a proposal to make the rules more flexible in such cases.

Cape Verde’s football federation suggested the rule be relaxed in cases where the player has played only one or two games for his original national side but has no realistic chance of a recall.

“It’s a good time to have a look at this and see if there are solutions, without hurting the integrity of the game,” said Victor Montagliani, head of the stakeholders committee, in October.

Spain and Morocco have been drawn in the same group at the World Cup alongside Portugal and Iran.