7th Iranian Professional League

Iranian Professional League is about to start and as usual the spotlight is on the two Iranian giants Perspolis FC and Esteghlal FC of Tehran.

I already told you about Afshin Ghotbi, Perspolis FC’s new Head Coach. He has been in Iran only for three or four days and the Reds’ fans are already talking championship! Good luck to Afshin. He is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, but he has a huge job ahead of him.

The Blues on the other hand, decided to go with a proven commodity. They brought back Naser Hejazi who lead them to 2001 Azadegan League title. The following year Iranian Professional League was launched, and Azadegan League was relegated to its present role as the 2nd league.

Hejazi is a talker, and a quitter. When the going gets tough, Hejazi gets going …. Out the door that is.

Mind you, this is Perspolis fan you are reading here, but as bad and messed up as Perspolis has been over the last few years, Esteghlal has not been much better. Okay so the won the IPL title in 2006, but missing the AFC deadline for submitting their papers for the following Champions League, which got them disqualified, made them the butt of the jokes of every Perspolis fan.

I pick Sepahan of Isfahan to win the IPL title this year. Hejazi and Ghotbi (sorry to say) will not last through the season. Ali Daei’s Saipa will sink to the middle of the table, because they have lost to many key players in the off season. Same goes for Esteghlal of Ahvaz. Abu-Moslem will be fun to follow, just because of their out spoken coach Khodadad Azizi. The rest of the teams are just there to fill out the spots!