Coach Afshin Ghotbi invited 30 players to Team Melli camp in preparation for the November 14 Asian Cup Qualifier against Jordan in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.
Team Melli will play friendly matches with Iceland on November 10 and Macedonia on November 18.
Iran is currently at the top of Group 5 of the 2010 Asian Cup qualifying groups.
Goalkeepers:
Mehdi [...]

Coach Afshin Ghotbi has left the door open for former Steel of Azin star midfielder Ali Karimi who retired from the international game earlier this year. 
Ghotbi who is dealing with one of the least talented pool of players in recent years may be desperate to bring back some of the veterans in the hope to [...]

Iranian Football Federation Vice President Mehdi Taj thinks that Team Melli needs new blood.
In an interview with Reporters Taj told reporters that he thinks new and younger players need to be recruited into Team Melli.
“I am generally happy with the progress that is being made in the senior team, but I think we need to [...]

The latest Iranian Professional League coach to take a potshot at Team Melli Coach Afshin Ghotbi is Saipa FC coach Nader Faryadshiran.
It is not unusual for any nation’s national team coach to become the target of other coaches. There are many reasons for such behavior. It could be honest professional disagreement with the direction [...]

Team Melli dropped two positions in the latest FIFA rankings landing on 62nd overall and 5th spot in the AFC behind Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, and Bahrain in that order.
This of course does not come as a surprise to those of us who have been flowing Team Melli’s recent performance going back to the [...]

Team Melli will play a friendly with Island in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.
Iranian Football federation Secretary Mehdi Mohammadnabi told reporters that the two federations had reached an agreement over the friendly that is to be taken place on November 10 in Tehran.
The friendly is scheduled four days before Team Melli’s Asian qualifier against Jordan. Island [...]

German coach Erich Rotte Muller who served as Ali Daei’s consultant while Daei was in charge of Team Melli had an interesting interview with reporters this week.
Rotte Muller was asked what he thought prevented Team Melli from qualifying for the World Cup. His response, as published in the article, seems to be very [...]

The Iranian Football Federation officials including the president Ali Kaffashian and Vice President Mehdi Taj, Team Melli Coach Afshin Ghotbi, and a number of coaches attended the annual meeting between the coaches and officials. Interestingly only half a dozen of the 18 top league coaches showed up for the meeting.
As usual there was lots of [...]

The new head of Iran’s National Physical Education Organization, Ali Saeidlou, met with Iranian Football Federation President, Vice President, and Head Coach Afshin Ghotbi had a meeting on Sunday. I have no idea what they talked about as they did not talk to reporters afterwards, but I can tell you that the meeting was scheduled [...]

Team Melli Coach Afshin Ghotbi was in city of Qom over the weekend to watch the match between home team Saba and Pas of Hamadan.
In a brief conversation with reporters he talked about Iranian football in general and a bit about Team Melli.
“This is the best time for us to start building [...]