|
DPA – Tehran - Iran must
fulfil FIFA regulations or face problems in the future, the interim chairman
of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI)said Saturday. Football's world
governing body last week reiterated that they would not accept Iran's
vice-president and head of sports affairs, Mohammad Ali-Abadi, as new FFI
president as this would be governmental interference in Iranian football and
hence against international regulations.
"There are certain rules on who can and who cannot run for federation
presidency - the country's sports chief and main policy maker of sports
affairs is one of those who can definitely not," Mohsen Safaei-Farahani told
Fars news agency.
"The objections by FIFA should therefore be removed so that no ban is
imposed on Iran," the FFI interim chairman said.
Ali-Abadi was one of the three candidates registered for elections scheduled
for December, which however were postponed as FIFA said they would not
recognise the election results if Ali-Abadi did not withdraw.
Iran however says that as FFI is internationally classified as a
non-governmental organization, Ali-Abadi could be both FFI President and
sports chief.
The issue also has a political aspect as Safaei-Farhani belongs to the
reformist faction of the country while Ali-Abadi is a close aide of
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and member of the ultra-conservative faction.
While referring to the Safaei-Farahani, Mehr news agency quoted Ali-Abadi as
blaming "certain local football circles of giving false information to FIFA"
and hence blocking progress of the country's football.
"Iran would stand decisively against all problems and will eventually solve
them," the vice-president said, indicating that he would not accept FIFA
interference in Iranian football.
The main problem of the country is however that until election of a
president, the Iranian national football team would remain - as the only
side in Asia - without a coach.
Sports insiders say that most of the foreign candidates - such as German
Winfried Schaefer or French Jacques Santini -have already rejected the
Iranian offers or are no longer willing to wait.
Insiders therefore believe that the most suitable option would be Afshin
Qotbi who is currently coaching the league's leading team Persepolis.
Qotbi is an experienced coach, who was South Korean assistant coach during
two World Cup campaigns and has turned Persepolis after several crisis years
into a top team again.
He is therefore believed by many football experts as a far better option
than what they call "second-grade" foreign coaches.
"It would be a great honour for every trainer to serve his national team and
I have proven that I could be a good coach for the national team and lead it
to the World Cup 2010," Qotbi himself said.
Iran has so far attended three World Cup finals - 1978, 1998 and 2006 - and
had six defeats, two draws and one win against political arch-foe USA in the
1998 games in France.
|
