It is official now; the decision on a new head coach has been delayed yet again! According to IRIFF Chief, Ali Kaffashian, there is “no reason to rush” the decision!

….What?!! There is no rush?!!?!?!

What the man is smoking is beyond me! Team Melli is scheduled to meet with Kuwait in
Kuwait City on March 26, and the man in charge claims there is no rush in hiring a head coach!!

Folks, here is a good reason why I personally do not buy the White House claims that Iran can be a nuclear threat in a year or two! I mean come on! Just take a look at how long it is taking these government bureaucrats to make a simple decision like hiring a head coach for the national football team, and then look me straight in the eye and tell me that you think the same bureaucrats can get their act together and make nuclear devices in two years!

I can see it right now; first they go over budget by 800%. Then the weapon becomes a 500 ton monstrosity that can not be moved out of the manufacturing area, and can be detonated only on the very same location; after it is properly cranked up of course!

They then will proceed to design and build Battleship Galactica so the device can be made airborne!

The Iran’s vacant head coaching job saga continues on. Today IRIFF chief Ali Kaffashian announced that there is a short list of three Iranian candidates for the job, and that a coach would be selected by the end of the day on Monday. However, it is now Monday in Iran and so far ……… nothing!

The football website goal.com did an interesting experiment with a set of questions to a few of us so called experts (unlike my colleagues who participated, I am far from being an expert). The 11 questions put to us all rotated around the current situation in Iran.

Click here to read the article.

 

There are two problems with this approach, first if the Iranian coach does well and takes the team past first round, even IRIFF will have a hard time pulling a switch, and second, who said it is a given that Team Melli will make it through to the 2^nd round?!

And third (I know I said only two problems but what the heck!), after what happened with Artur Jorge and Javier Clemente, which self respecting coach will return the call when IRIFF calls?

Don’t you just love the comedy/drama that is Iranian football?!

I have been following Iranian football for most of my life and I still can’t figure out who finds the characters that “manage” our sports.

The head of Iran’s National Organization of Physical Education oversees all the sports matters in the country including football. Mohammad Aliabadi, the character that has had the job under the fearless presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has decided that he wants to toss his name in the hat for the vacant top football job in the country, never mind that he actually supervises all the chiefs of all the sports federations in the country!

Aliabadi, who is most likely to be “elected” to fill the position, claimed a few months ago that he could manage IRI Football Federation with only 20% of his time. In another interview he claimed to have managed hundreds (He actually said over 7000, but I assume that was a typo!) of large scale projects in one year and fixing Iran’s football problems was just another project. No one dared to ask him to name only 10 of those projects, but I would be curious to hear why if he is such a capable manager, Iran’s sports have remained in such shamble under his leadership for the last two years.

The other day he told reporters that if he were elected as the IRIFF chief, he would fill the vacant head coaching job of the national team in less than 24 hours!

Hey, maybe I’ve got it all wrong and this guy is the superman of the management world. Better yet, maybe he is Winston “the Wolf” Wolfe, the character portrayed by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction who after getting an address on the phone famously said,” That’s thirty minutes away. I’ll be there in ten.” And he made it too!!!

Iran are in Group 5 of the Asian qualifiers. The group consists of Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Syria.

On paper that is not nearly as difficult as Group 1 which is dubbed “Group of Death”, but for Iran that neither have a Head Coach nor a Football Federation chief, any group would be the “Group of Death“!

Click here for Asia draw list.
Click here for the complete World Cup Draw List.

Ali Daei was in Durban, South Africa as one of the honorary ball-pickers for the Preliminary Draw for the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010.

Click here to read his interview with FIFA.com.

Despite not having fully recovered from a severe knee injury, Osasuna extended Iran midfielder Javad Nekounam’s contract until 2011. This shows how highly the Pamplona club thinks of the 27 year old midfielder.

Congratulations Javad, good luck and get well soon.

No Federation Chief, and no head coach, but that has not stopped Iran from scheduling a friendly! It seems like Costa Rica are coiming back to town again. The two had met in May of 2006 when Iran was preparing for the World Cup in Germany. Oh! And we did report on it back then too!

While Winfried Schaefer continues to claim to be the leading candidate for Team Melli job, others are turning it down.

Meanwhile Iran still has no football chief or no National Team head coach for that matter, and World Cup 2010 qualifiers are almost three months away.

Perspolis of Tehran got a big break when they defeated Saipa way into the extra time. Esteghlal of Tehran improved their position by winning their match. Sepahan stays in second place with a whooping 5 games at hand. They are well position to propel to the top as they make up for the games that were postponed because of the AFC Champions League scheduling conflicts.

The surprise team of the league so far remains Saba Battery. The team from Karaj has the best defense in the league with only 9 goals allowed, however, if they are to be serious contenders they need to stop dropping points with draws and start winning more games.

The other surprise is Malavan. An underfunded, small club from the northern port of Anzali who have been able to surprise a few by getting points against tough opponents.

Click here for the IPL week 14 wrap.
Click here for IPL Table.