According to Tasnim news agency, the year 1401 has ended for football in our country with all its bitterness and sweetness; Although the dark spots of this year for Iranian football can be considered more colorful than the bright spots.
Of course, in 1401, Iranian football also faced a challenge called elections. While there were many rumors about this election, in the end Mehdi Taj won the title in competition with Aziz Mohammadi and Mirshad Majdi, and for about 2.5 years (due to the unfinished presidency of Shahabuddin Azizi Khadim) he was on the chair of the Football Federation. be
Beginning with a bitter incident
This year started with the tragic incident at Imam Reza Stadium in Mashhad. The Football Federation decided to hold the match between Iran’s national team against Lebanon in the framework of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Mashhad instead of Tehran, but preventing women from entering the stadium and using tear gas caused unpleasant scenes. The incident progressed to the point where high-ranking officials of the country, such as the President and Speaker of the Islamic Council, demanded to deal with the perpetrators of the incident.
Elimination of 3 teams and the successful participation of Foulad
The spring of 1401 was accompanied by the group stage of the Asian Champions League. Esteghlal and Persepolis did not participate in this tournament due to not receiving a professional license, and Sepahan and Foulad participated in this year’s Champions League on behalf of Iran. Sepahan, which has not been able to repeat the memories of its golden era in Asia for several years, failed to advance to the elimination round.
Despite having a difficult group, Foulad made it to the round of 16 without defeat. The unexpected resignation of Javad Nekonam after defeating Al-Faisali, who competes in the first league of Saudi Arabia, brought the hopes of football fans to the lowest possible level before the meeting with Al-Hilal. Under the leadership of Hamidreza Rajabi, Foulad Men played a great game against the Asian champions, and wasting opportunities and inexperience was the reason for the 1-0 defeat and elimination of the Khuzestan team from the Asian Champions League.
A waste of money for a big failure
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the most important event of the world football last year, which was associated with defeat for our country. Receiving 6 goals from England in the first game extinguished the hope of Iranian football fans for promotion. The 2-0 victory against Wales revived hopes. The national team needed a draw to advance, but the loss to the United States dashed the dream of advancing from the group stage for the first time. Portuguese Queiroz refused to return to Iran without being responsible for these failures.
This was while escaping the humiliating loss against England and the defeat against the United States left billions of Tomans in the hands of the federation members, and they replaced Dragan Skocic with Carlos Queiroz to prevent what happened. From April, whispers of the Croatian man’s dismissal were heard, and the dissatisfaction of the players with the management of the technical staff in the Qatar camp sent Skocic to the edge of the abyss.
Failure of youth to advance to the World Cup
Another important tournament of the year was the qualifying round of the 2023 U19 World Cup, which led to Iran’s failure. The youth of our country under the head coach of Samad Marfawi did not have a good preparation to participate in the Under-20 Asian Nations Cup, but they finished the group stage with the top spot. The loss against Iraq caused Iran to be absent from the World Cup for the second time in a row, and the defeat in the semi-finals in 2016 was considered the best performance of this team in the last 10 Asian Nations Cups.
The sad story of VAR and 9 months is never ending!
The video assistant referee case remains a confusing one. In the Premier League matches, there are impressive mistakes from the referees, which due to the lack of facilities such as the radio system, we cannot expect more from them. The lack of VAR can be considered the main problem of our country’s football, which the managers of the football federation commented on at different times, but did not open this issue. The introduction of VAR helps to reduce refereeing errors and significantly reduces refereeing objections.
Khodadad Afsharian said about VAR in July 1400: “The first meeting related to the introduction of this technology has been held in the federation, but the process of using it takes time. Currently, there are no problems except educational and administrative issues. All working groups are following the relevant process and the desired letter has been sent to FIFA. With this process, it is expected that VAR will be used in Iranian football by the end of the second half of the season (21st League) in the next 9 months!
This is due to the fact that the country’s sports officials, including the Minister of Sports and Youth, had promised three months in this regard, but these promises never came true.
Fights, statements and a permanent ban!
The lengthy interviews of some coaches against the referee, the fights between the benchers and the issuing of statements against the opponents and the referee were repeated episodes of a regular series in 1401. Even a coach like Mohammad Rabiei, who was known for not speaking against the referee, showed a different face in this year’s league and rushed to the referee many times. Ricardo Sapinto, the head coach of Esteghlal, was banned by the disciplinary committee many times and has been a constant on the platforms of the stadiums!
In 1401, some teams were more involved in writing statements and somehow instead of competing in the green rectangle, they had a paper and cyber competition!
fan pocket; Managers’ strategy for the problem of lack of money
Financial problems are a patch that still cannot be separated from Iranian football. The players of teams such as Esteghlal, Persepolis, Naft Masjid Sulaiman, Sanat Naft Abadan, Mes Kerman, Mes Rafsanjan complained about the non-payment of their demands and it seems that this problem will continue in the coming years. The persistence of Andrea Stramaccioni, who brought Esteghlal close to the brink of relegation, gave the Blues into the lap of the fans, whose payment also did not help to pay the Italian man’s demands. In fact, the managers had an eye on the pockets of the fans to solve the problem, even at the peak of economic problems!
Seven months of uncertainty of hopes
Omid football team is still undecided like VAR! According to the calendar of the Asian Football Confederation, the Asian Under-23 Nations Cup qualifiers will be held in September 1402, and even the selection of the manager of Omid’s team is in an aura of uncertainty! The hopes have not had any practice or friendly match since August 1401 and they refused to participate in the games of Islamic countries. The Football Federation is silent about the selection of a new head coach.
Early destruction of an Asian
Shahr Khodro, under the ownership of Farhad Hamidawi, was one of the leaders of the Premier League and won the Asian quota in 1998. However, the decline of Khorasan Razavi province’s representative began very soon, and after winning the ninth place in the 20th league table with Mehdi Rahmati, this team had a predictable relegation to the first division league. Shahr Khodro left the statistics of 9 defeats and 46 goals in 9 weeks of League One, and by missing two matches, they withdrew from the table of competitions to bring an early end to one of Iran’s successful teams.