He praised Sepahan FC for being the best example of a true professional club in the country. He even went as far as suggesting that other IPL clubs taking lessons from how Sepahan is managed.

Kaffashian later attended a meeting of the State’s sports official, in which he spoke about the challenges facing the Iranian Football Federation. He admitted that the country’s sports federations are not able to take advantage of the raw potential that exists because …… now hear this ……… the sports federations are not organized enough. He then went on to say that working in the football federation is difficult because it is a very large organization!

Yes, the man who is in charge of organizing the country’s football is saying that it is difficult to get the work done because the federation is too large.

Fans, do not hold your breath waiting for something good to happen to our football as long as this guy is running the show!

Well, that is exactly what Ali Kaffashian told reporters yesterday! Granted that Kffashian is not exactly known for his sense of humor, or intellect for that matter, but you would like to think that a man in his position would know better. During its forty one year history the integrity of the Tehran Derby has always been questioned by skeptics who think the results are prearranged. Ali Kaffashian’s comment will not help to ease the matter.

For the record 30 of the 66 encounters between these two teams have been draws; Esteghlal has won 20 and Perspolis 16.

As usual there was lots of talking, but nothing substantial was decided on or said. Perhaps that is why the other 12 top league coaches decided to skip the meeting!

Anyway, Team Melli coach Afshin Ghotbi tried to play his usual conciliatory role by inviting all the coaches to get along and not to take their differences to the media, but immediately after the meeting talking to reporters Bushehr Coach Mahmoud Yavari said “For certain reasons I am Ghotbi’s biggest critic!”, he went on, “But I will do all I can to help Team Melli”.

That was not all, Mohammad Mayelikohan told reporters that he was beefed at IFF Cheief Ali Kaffashian for referring to him as a “Good boy” because he is older than Kaffashian. So he proudly announced that he called the Chief a “Good kid” in return!

There are a whole bunch of other examples of childish behavior after the meeting, but they are not worth the space they occupy here.

And we wonder why our football sucks increasingly more year after year! ….Sigh!

Don’t ask me why the head of the sports organization has to be there to welcome the president, but that is the way it was.

Anyway, apparently coach Ghotbi discussed his plans with the NPEO chief. I am sure that will do our football a lot of good …………. Not!

Mr. Farahani was arguable one of the more successful Iranian football chiefs in the last 30 years. He was in charge of Iranian football from 1998 through 2002.

Mr. Farahani was arrested on June of 2009 during the aftermath of the presidential elections.

All the votes are counted, Ahmadinejad is re-elected, and you know what that means! This motley crew will have another four years to bastardize our once promising football.

Don’t for a moment kid yourselves. Iranian football is one hundred percent political. Kaffashian, Taj, Akhoondi, and the rest would have been out of there along with Mohammad Aliabadi and his boss; but no such luck!

Only a couple of days after an IFF official announced a friendly with Thailand at Azadi stadium, the IFF Chief announced its cancellation due to Thai League scheduling conflicts!

This leads me to believe that either these guys in the IFF announce arrangements before they are finalized, or they just don’t know how to plan! Either way, this is yet another example of their inexplicable inability to schedule friendly matches for the National Team.

Iranian Football Federation is something of a cross between the Three Stooges and the Keystone Cops! Remember those silent clips where the guys were running all over the place in a completing chaotic scene? Well that is how the IRIFF is run! Then comes Mohammad Aliabadi, one of Ahmadinejad’s VPs who is also in charge of the National Physical Education Organization (NPEO) that oversees the football federation (don’t believe for a second that football federation is an independent entity!). He plays the role of Moe! Someone in the IRIFF says something stupid and Aliabadi comes out slapping their faces, pulling their nose, and twisting their ears!

I have not figured out what role the IRIFF Chief Ali Kaffashian plays yet, although he seems to be one of Moe’s favorite targets! The guy seems to be so out of touch with what is going on under his nose! Just the other day the news leaked that a few top flight coaches in Iran were going to be indefinitely banned from football because of corruption allegations. Note, I said “allegations”; nothing has been proven yet!

Today Kaffashian came out and denied all of this. He said that these are all baseless allegations and no investigation has been done to prove any of them. When a reporter pointed out that according to Kaffashian’s own deputies there has been an investigation on this matter, he response was that he had been out sick and if there was anything done during his recovery period, he wouldn’t know!!

What a mess!

Ghotbi is set to replace Mohammad Mayelikohan who replaced Ali Daei who took most of the blame for the first ever Team Melli defeat at the hand of the Saudis on Iranian soil.

Ghotbi is very well like character amongst the fans, but he has a tough task to accomplish. Fortunately for him Team Melli is still the master of its own destiny. If they win their remaining three games, they are certain to go through as one of the top two teams in the group.

Ghotbi’s challenges are not limited to the football field; he also has to work with a federation that is arguably one of the most incompetent in the Iranian football history.

You football and music fans out there remember the year when the Grammy for the best Heavy Metal band was awarded to Jethro Tull at the expense of Metallica? Well, the I RIFF is the Jethro Tull in this equation!

To their credit, Ian Anderson and the rest of the Jethro Tull band publically acknowledged that they had never fancied themselves to be a heavy metal band, but no such luck here.

You IFF guys get on boasting about this ridiculously undeserved award you just received. The fact remains that the true judges of your performance, the Iranian football fans, who see you fall short month after month, know better.