According to the sports reporter of Tasnim news agency, the football federation headed by Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem, whose managerial life has not passed yet, seems to be very interested in magnifying and performing propaganda maneuvers. It does not matter how accurate these advertising maneuvers are or not at all.
If we go back to the past and before March 31, 2017 and review the interviews and the program of the President of the Football Federation, we will reach interesting and, of course, strange cases.
Azizi Khadem made some remarks during his presentations and when he appeared on televised debates. Leaving aside the € 10 million-a-year revenue – which still remains unspoken and unrealized – we come to circumvent sanctions. The president of the football federation, which works in the field of economics, spoke about the circumvention of sanctions, but it was not long before he said on the same TV program, “Sanctions are such that we can not even import a sock.”
It is as if Azizi Khadem did not live in Iran before the presidency of the federation. Was he not aware of the sanctions, which changed his position a few months later? What other name can this issue have besides the annual revenue of 10 million Euros, except for advertising?
The promise of using the elite, doing things according to the law and with collective wisdom, add transparency and accountability to the above to get to other issues.
Recently, the Iranian women’s soccer team qualified for the Asian Cup for the first time, a historic event that should definitely be taken into account. However, the policy of the Football Federation in this matter was a bit strange. Excessive magnification, the promise of double rewards, and the use of the Football Federation’s media to magnify the issue, even as the women’s team finished last in their group with a 12-0 goal difference, gave the impression that the federation was sensitive to the issue. The women seized the opportunity to launch a media game and a publicity stunt.
There is no doubt that the women’s team should be taken care of and the best conditions should be provided for the growth and flourishing of the talents in this field, but a look at the positions of the federation officials and media shows that such a strategy is on the agenda.
All this was happening while the national beach soccer team, which was the runner-up in the Intercontinental Cup a few months ago, has not yet received a single rial.
“We have been back from intercontinental competitions for three or four months,” Mohammad Ahmadzadeh, the captain of the national beach team, sharply criticized Tasnim officials. We became the runner-up in these competitions with the worst conditions and facilities, but we did not receive a thousand tomans. They did not reward us during the tournament, nor did anything happen after our runner-up. We are also talking to the chairman of the beach soccer committee and the head of the team, who says that the federation has no money. Are we slaves to the football federation? The federation says it has not even rewarded the players of the senior national team. “The players of the adult national team are our crown, but their club contract rejects one billion, and the club players’ club contract is 50.60 million tomans.”
It should be noted that the federation was unable to provide clothes and bonuses for the national football team until recently, and this issue provoked strong protests from the national team. In addition, consider the lack of clothing for the judges to better understand the fact that the federation was looking for in the case of women.
The last scene of the Football Federation’s propaganda show goes back to FIFA’s congratulations on the measures taken to amend the statute. An issue that is clearly against the law and paragraph one of the federation’s statute must be approved by parliament. On the other hand, there are rumors about the content of the letter sent by FIFA, and it is said that this letter is not all that the federation has announced. Isn’t it better for a federation with a slogan of transparency to publish FIFA’s letter?
Azizi Khadem has used the word “knowledge-based” for the federation many times in his speeches and interviews, but it seems that with the set of actions taken, the federation is more “show-based” than knowledge-based. A federation in which the promotional game plays the main role and it seems that there is a room in the federation with this name!