According to Tasnim news agency, the weekly meeting of the members of the sports working group of Mutalfa Islamic Party was held with the presence of Hossein Shahriari, the head of the support fund for heroes and veterans and the chairman of the board of directors of the Persepolis club. At the beginning of this meeting, Mohammad Reza Tehrani, the head of the working group, spoke about the special attention of the party officials towards sports and expressed his hope that the changes at the head of the country’s sports and the election of Kiyomarth Hashemi as the Minister of Sports can create serious and effective changes in the direction of advancing the goals of physical education. He also emphasized on the coordination and double efforts of the collections and subordinate departments in line with the policies of the new minister.
In the continuation of this meeting, the members of the sports working group expressed their views, points of view and concerns regarding the area of responsibility of the guest of the meeting. In this regard, discussions such as the need to target the activities of the fund in view of the emphasis of the Acting Ministry of Sports on double support for veterans, the reasons and reasons for the differences between the support fund and the Sports Medicine Federation, the lack of systematic performance of the fund, financial issues and problems of the Persepolis team, The existence of some inconsistencies in the technical affairs of the club and other such matters were noticed.
Hossein Shahriari, as the last speaker of the meeting, while expressing his gratitude for attending the meeting of the members of the sports working group, firstly pointed out his history of familiarity and cooperation with the Mutalfa Islamic Party, and then in connection with the issues raised, he said: Considering the existing sensitivities, first of all, a number of related issues I will tell the Persepolis club and then I will address the concerns of the friends regarding the fund. The fact is that the existing view of Persepolis and Esteghlal teams is as if these two clubs are the stepchildren of sports. Out of the 16 teams in the league, each one of them indirectly benefits from government aid, except Esteghlal and Persepolis, which do not benefit from this aid. Our hands are also tied and we do not have the power to maneuver so that we can be financed in other ways. In the short term, it is not possible to provide continuous income, there was no continuous income in the past, as a result, the accumulated debt has been left behind. When we came, the club had billions in debt, and on the other hand, the league organization has set a budget limit for us, which this year is 350 billion tomans.
He continued: We were able to attract about 160 billion through shirt advertisements. The Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Economy both claim the blue and red teams, but none of them provide the least financial support. If Persepolis and Esteghlal really belong to them, why don’t they support? What can be done under these conditions? Saudi clubs have closed teams with 400 or 500 million euros, and we have around seven million! In the matter of television broadcasting, nothing is out of our hands. We are not involved in the issue of the team’s shares, and the privatization organization continues to work, and so far only 10% has been handed over. The last word is that until the duty of Persepolis is clarified in the mentioned cases, the situation of the club will not change much.
The head of the support fund for heroes and veterans stated in another part of his explanation, referring to the activities carried out in this department: when the support fund was launched for the first time, it had good resources, and gifts were allocated to most of the heroes in the first year. At the same time, a statute was written for the fund, but no action was taken to approve it until a few months ago, when we followed up on the issue and sent a government delegation, and it was approved and sent to the honorable Guardian Council. I think it will be approved in the near future. On the other hand, I must admit that the Fund’s budget has not increased significantly in nearly two decades, for example, last year we had about 32 billion in budget. According to the follow-ups that were done, we increased this amount significantly, i.e. up to two times. During the talks we had with the honorable parliament, we are supposed to attract a figure of around 100 billion in this way. When I came, most of the companies supporting the fund were losing money, and we tried to solve the problems while examining the aspects of the work. In this regard, we were able to restore some of the company’s property and make it better so that they can support the fund in a way.
Shahriari continued: Another route that can bring significant amounts to the fund is the accident insurance card plan, which of course has been discussed by the medical federation. For this reason, there was resistance while they can have the support of the Ministry of Sports like other federations and allow the fund to seriously support veterans and heroes by attracting significant resources. The figure that is allocated to heroes and veterans is not so much, so that this figure seems very insignificant for some prominent figures, because basically they do not need two million tomans per month, for this reason, it is necessary to support the fund aimed at the majority. Let your veterans be and their income will increase. Until today, every one of the greats of the sport needed treatment or faced problems, they have been supported regardless of the received ceiling. I hope that the conditions of the fund will improve in the future and we will be able to support and support the dear veterans as much as we expect.