According to Mehr reporter, referring to the holding of the National Olympic Committee elections and Mahmoud Khosravi Wafa’s high chances for these elections, he said: “It is impossible to say now.” Khosravi Wafa has a long history and has shown his ability in the Paralympics. Bagherzadeh and other options are the same. It is the assembly’s discretion as to who will be elected.
He considered the most important priority of the next president of the National Olympic Committee to be the support umbrella of the government over the head of this committee and coordination with the Ministry of Sports and added: I don’t know if these things were done behind the scenes or not. They should see it wide. During Salehi Amiri’s time, there was a good relationship with the government and good budgets were injected. Hardware and good facilities were given to federations. Even the strongest person cannot do anything without a support umbrella.
Regarding the confirmation of Mehdi Taj’s qualification for the Football Federation elections, Kafashian stated: “The president of the Football Federation is important to them all over the world.” Because football is important to people. I was in the athletics federation since 1359 until I got to football, which gave me a technical blow! People are interested in football and we have to respect people’s wishes.
The former president of the Football Federation reminded: People’s desire is for good football. Therefore, all over the world, the heads of federations are strongly supported by the government, and the heads are capitalist and capable people.
Regarding the fact that the people’s demand regarding the Wilmots case regarding Mehdi Taj’s participation in the elections is something else and the interferences and recommendations in this regard, Kafashian said: It was from our time as well. The Ministry of Sports or some high-ranking officials interfere because it is the demand of the people and the media. Sometimes they have interests in football. In our time, one of the heads of the physical education organization said that someone should come – select a coach – who must have had a strong team in the previous World Cup. Or someone said to hire a good Iranian coach.
The former president of the Football Federation clarified whether these talks were recommendations or orders: It is a recommendation, but if you do not follow the advice, they will not support you and you will be annoyed. The last minister of sports gave a lot of advice and we did not act, and he was angry with us. He neither gave us funds nor allowed us to enter the Ministry of Sports. For one year, they did not allow me to go to the Ministry of Sports and to the meetings of the heads of federations, which, of course, had no effect.
Kafashian continued: They had different recommendations. They said change your vice president or bring that one. I said that I can’t change on my own because I have an assembly and a board of directors. He was also loitering and creating these issues.
Stating that he has worked with all three candidates for the current presidency of the Football Federation – Mehdi Taj, Azizullah Mohammadi and Mirshad Majdi – he said: All three candidates are capable, but it is not important to be elected. What is important is that when I step into management, how do I interact with the media, the judiciary, the legislature, the executive, and the Ministry of Sports and that they support me, not for myself, but for football. It is my experience that when we won, they said coach and when we lost, they said head of the federation. Those who come should have space to work comfortably.
“In this way, it can be said that the conditions will be difficult for the next president of the federation because these interactions do not exist.” In response to this sentence, Kafashian said: Now they say that qualifications should be checked. The first qualification must be according to the constitution, for example, the candidate for the presidency must have a letter of introduction from five members of the assembly and it is related to experience and education. The second qualification is not to see whether there is a document or a case in the judiciary. If there is a case, the judiciary will vote and execute it there.
He added: “The open case is important for FIFA, but on the condition that a verdict has been issued.”
Referring to the priorities of the next president of this federation, the former head of the football federation noted: What is important is that now that you have become a candidate, what is your plan and will tomorrow, for example, the cultural committee of the parliament not create problems for you? For example, once the Syrian youth team came to Mashhad; The Minister of Sports had said not to let the match take place and this team was not even allowed to enter the stadium. When he gets angry, he will go this far.
Kafashian recalled: For the third term of my presidency in the Football Federation, everyone said to come and voted for me, but I saw that my stay was not in the interest of football. When there was an allergy – for me there was an allergy – and now we are breathing easy and having fun away from football!
He, who had the experience of working with Carlos Queiroz during his time in the federation, said about the failure of Mark Wilmots in the national team: Wilmots was a coach with a good history who did not respond. They should have kept him so that the case would not have reached here. This money goes from the pocket of the federation.
“If you were Mehdi Taj, would you still participate in the elections of the federation?” In response to this question, Kafashian emphasized: I would not have registered either for myself or for Taj.
The former president of the Football Federation also emphasized on continuing to work with the current head coach of the national team and said: I think Skocic should stay until the end of the World Cup. Don’t be bitten twice by the same hole like Wilmots story. Skocic has worked hard; Now, luck or no luck has taken us to the World Cup. Have you put a World Cup game on it? We did not have a federation to play at all. I am against Skocic leaving until the World Cup. Any coach we bring must be up to 4 years later. It will be Skocic until the World Cup and then they will decide on the next coach.
Regarding the fact that he had said in an interview a few months ago that he had something to say that he would say if something happened to him, Kafashian said: “This has not happened yet.” It is as far as the issues behind the curtains related to football and that did not happen!
In the end, he answered the question whether he has an open judicial case. He said: Is it possible for someone to have worked in football and not have a case? Finally, there are cases. There have been problems that the inspection of the entire country took me and said why you did or did not do a certain thing. These can be solved.