Why camp in Spain?

The noble idea of organizing one of Team Melli’s training camps in Europe where a number of Team Melli members play their club football sounds very good at the face of it, but the key element to making the camp a success is timing. But unfortunately for Team Melli, it appears that the officials know very little understanding of the importance of this key element.

The team is scheduled to camp in Spain in two weeks; however, the timing is such that none of the four European based players will be able to attend.

German based Vahid Hashemian has already announced that he must stay with his club Bochum. He has not been given much playing time as of late. Mehdi Mahdavikia, who also plays in Germany, told reporters yesterday that his club Eintracht Frankfurt’s schedule will make it very difficult for him to participate in Team Melli’s training and he plans to ask the coaching staff to allow him skip the camp.

Midfielders Masoud Shojaei and Javad Nekounam, both of whom play for Osasuna of la Liga, have been very skeptical about the possibility of joining Team Melli for reasons not too dissimilar to that of Mahdavikia and Hashemian.

Considering that the proximity of the camp’s location does not help any of the four to attend, one wonders why the always cash starved IRIFF has taken on the cost of taking the team all the way to Europe.