Crisis In Iran - The Federation!

It took a long time for the two football decision makers of Iran to agree and hold an election. On one side, the Physical Education Ministry led by Aliabadi is responsible for all sports in Iran. On the other side stood the FIFA-appointed “Transitory Committee” which took charge of Iran’s football affairs once FIFA suspended Iran in late 2006.

After many debates and disagreements, these two bodies held the “election” on January 9th and the new head for the Football Federation (IFF) was chosen. The fact that the election actually took place, with one candidate and all, in itself is a surprise. For a variety of reasons, no less than a dozen times, “the election” was postponed.

Ever since the 2006 world cup, Iran’s football has been under a cloud of uncertainty. While FIFA, the world football body, understands that in most member countries the government funds and operates sports entities, FIFA also insists that the head of federations must not be appointed by the government. This paradox creates situations where a Crown Prince or a high ranking governmental officer runs the football federation and FIFA turns the other way regarding this.

FIFA’s excuse for not making noise about these instances is that the Crown Prince was not appointed by the government. Never mind the fact the Crown Prince indeed is the government.

FIFA and Iran Football

As it relates to Iran, the same “convenient” policy has been in place. When the previous head of IFF was fired during the 2006 World Cup, FIFA took a stand and suspended Iran’s football. Subsequent to that, the “Transitory Committee” was formed. FIFA appointed three members for this committee of five individuals whom they had confidence in including Safai Farahani who was the previous head of IFF. The Transitory Committee was then chartered with two important tasks. 

1 – Develop a constitution for the football federation

2 – Hold an election for the next IFF chief.

When the Transitory Committee formed, no one imagined that it would take over a year to complete the two tasks. On the other hand,  the Transitory Committee and its chairman found itself at constant odds with the Physical Education Ministry.There were many strange and hard to believe events during the IFF election process.

Perhaps the most important one was how a list of ten candidates was reduced to two a few months ago. Surprisingly, at that point, the head of the Physical Education decided himself to join the election process. This event did not sit well with FIFA as FIFA smelled government interference. After weeks of discussions and negotiations, the stage was set for a collision between the Physical Education ministry and the Transitory Committee whom saw itself as the FIFA representative in Iran.

The Election

Turn of events – pushed by Iran’s President, Physical Education Minister withdrew his candidacy.At that point, two weeks ago, there were two candidates left for the IFF chief position. Both candidates were Ali Abadi’s assistants. One was Ali Kafashian and the other Shahrokh Shanazi. Despite their allegiance to Physical Education Ministry, IFF could save face and claim that there were two nominees for the election.

Another turn of events – On January second, according to ISNA news agency from Tehran, Daadkan (former head of IFF who was fired during the 2006 world cup) and Ghamkhar (former member of the “Football Federation at large Committee”) met with the Iranian President’s brother. Ghamkhar then spoke to ISNA and among other things stated: “In this meeting, we discussed topics of interest about the past and present of Iranian football.” He went on to state: “Different suggestions and proposals about the future of Iranian football and her management were discussed.” Ghamkhar concluded by saying: “Very likely, the results of this meeting would be implemented in the future and these proposals will be all based on the football constitution.”

Then, 12 hours before the election, Shanazi withdrew from his candidacy and only one candidate was left. The election took place on Wednesday January 9th and Kafashian competed with himself and won.

Many questions are to be asked of the process, the meeting reported by ISNA and the election.

- Why did two individuals who have no role in the current activities of Iran’s football meet with President’s brother to plan for the future of Iran’s football? What are those proposals and decisions?

- The ISNA news release stated that former IFF head expressed interest to server football once more. Are there plans to bring Daadkan back to run IFF?

- Why a candidate for the IFF head, Shahnazi, changes his mind 12 hours before the election? Did he find out about some of the proposals of the “said meeting” that took place last week?

- A large contingent of FIFA and AFC members traveled to Iran to observe the election? What was there to observe with one candidate?

- Will Kafashian, the new head, take over for a short period of time, find a reason to change his mind, resign and let Daadkan take over?

- Will FIFA then step in and appoint Safai once more as the interim head of another transition committee to run Iran’s football?

The election is over. With one candidate running, the outcome was not in doubt.  If FIFA shows the green light to the results of this election, then Iran would have an IFF permanent chief for the first time in nineteen months.

News reports indicate that we have not seen the last chapter of this story. For years, Iran’s football has turned into a soap opera. Like a soap opera, more twists and crisis are yet to come.

Tune in next week as we enter a new chapter of “Crisis of Iranian Football.” As always, those who suffer are the fans of this beautiful game.

Kaveh Mahjoob
www.footballmedia.net