Iran Blog Back in business

Okay boys and girls, we are back in business!

Bob kindly let me to get back in here and pick up where I left off in July of 2006 when Team Melli so unceremoniously headed back home from Germany.

Whole bunch of things have happened in the last 13 months, and I try to give you a very compact recap. Ready, set, go!!

Team Melli flew back to Iran. Branko headed back to Croatia. Zandi was left stranded in Germany. IFF chief Dadkan and his crew were made the scapegoats and fired. The parliament wanted Branko to come back and explain why Team Melli failed to impress. Branko laughed and said don’t hold your breath! FIFA did not like the politicians’ interference in football, so they formed a transition committee charged with fixing the mess. Turkish coach Mustafa Denizli became Perspolis coach. Ali Daei took over Saipa after their German coach unilaterally terminated his contract with the club and left Iran for Turkey. As the season progressed, Foolad of Khuzestan sank to the bottom and was eventually relegated, Esteghlal of Ahvaz climbed towards the top and contended for the title. Perspolis hovered in the middle. Saipa and Esteghlal of Tehran fought for the top spot and at the very end Saipa and skipper/coach Ali Daei became the champions of the Sixth Iranian Professional League. Mustafa Denizli left Tehran for a second time in two years.

Amir Ghalehnoei replaced Branko as Team Melli’s head coach. After a few unimpressive friendly matches, especially a miserable loss to Mexico, they went into the Asian Cup tournament with high hopes only to get eliminated by South Korea in the second round.

Now, Seventh Iranian Professional League is about to start, Ghalehnoei is still the coach, and there is no hope of improvement in sight! The only exciting thing about Iranian football is watching young coaches like Ali Daei, Khodadad Azizi, and especially new Perspolis Coach Afshin Ghotbi (I will write more about him later) go against Sepahan FC’s Croat coach Luka Bonacic and other established IPL coaches.

So here it is in a nutshell. Let’s hope we have lots of fun.