FOOTBALL

Football vs other sports in Iran

you have good points: football can grow regardless of a State's and/or a country's conditions.
Iran is such a peculiar country: 1. other branches of sport in Iran enjoy grow to some degree, but football is not going any where. the reason other sports are relatively doing well in Iran is only because the State does not mess with them. 2. football is a huge industry. the amount of transaction in European clubs is astronomic, and (i've heard)it's second to the oil transaction. nonetheless, the privatization of football clubs in Iran (the biggest obstacle for the Iranian football growth), does not attract the politicians in Iran since it requires talent and constant scrutiny of the financial transactions by owner(s). now, if you put yourself in the islamists politicians shoes you'd realize that you can make easy money by DALLAALI rather than hard work of managing a competetive enterprise. 3.the other obstacle, and this is the major one, is that football attracts millions of people. it can literally bring together more than 100,000 young people in one place. can you imagine one "wrong" move of this energetic crowd can do in Tehran (=Iran)? dictators always try to imply that they are strongest, but live with fear. the fear of losing control is like a Damocles sword hovering over their head day in day out; we are talking about their existence here. Iran is a volatile place for the islamists, unlike other Arabian countries. look how the youth is behaving: nothing they do resembles islamic. 4. also, the private sector, aming for the financial prosperity of the sport, will need to please the youth to be able to progress financially. they need innovative ways to get the youth involved.
i guess these are factors that intimidate the heck out of the regime to take a chance and privatize the industry. now, they have full power. why even bother and risk an unknown and very dangerous consequence, right?

Iran's Football management

Over all a nice article. However I am not a fan of generalizations. Iranian athletes have done very well and the growth of sports in Iran is very impressive.

As a comparison Volleyball is a prime example. Martial arts, track and field, basketball and other sports are growing and doing well. However when it comes to football there seems to be a peculiar disease thats indemic to this sport.

Those who are in charge of football in Iran are mostly uneductaed former footballers themselves. The most educated of them were Pas players who had military training and education like Hassan Habibi and Asghar Sharafi. They understood tactics, strategy, technique, discipline and physical fitness but they were not part of the predominant football culuture of Iran which is mostly occupied by the suppoters and former players of the red and blue.

These individuals for most part are uneducated, lack linguistic abilities, do not understand the science of nutrition and modern training, are clueless about proper management and contractual and lagal processess, are alien to the psychology of the sport they so much love, and do not really see the big picture and their destructive role in it.

This is the disease of our football. If you guys recall most footballers were uneducated when we were kids in Iran however things have slowly changed amongst the players. The younger generation players are more educated, have seen what can be done with proper management and coaching and want the same thing for Iran's football.

The likes of Ali Daie, Mahdavikia, or Hashemian are needed in Iran's football to slowly change the nature and character of our favorite game.

When someone who like Mr. Farahani who was a capable manager, smart politician was put in charge of the federation with all his connections he could not handle these people and was forced out enethough during his time Iran's football was moving in the right direction.

Ghotbi is not the only coach to be pushed out, for me the best and the biggest hope for Iran's football was Tomislav Ivić, by far the best coach form theory, science and training aspect of this game who was rudely pushed aside eventhough he performed miracles during his short helm. I totally attribute the performance of the national team in the 1998 WC to what he had done while a coach. Mr. Ghotbi was no Tomislav Ivić.

Do remeber that untill these guys expire and are repalced by better educated former players then this sport will not go anywhere.

Just to mention a basic set of facts:

1- Brazil, a third world country, poverty, prostitution and corruption wide spread and yet world champions in football and produce great athletes in other sports like volleyball, boxing, basketball and ....

2- Argentina, another 3rd world country which struggles with the same issues as Brazil yet highly ranked. Argentian was in the grips of a bloody dictatorship in the 70's and 80's yet it was at the height of its football power.

3- Britain, a 1st world country and a former imperial power, cant win a sigle international tourney at the national level and there are no real world class english players nominated for best footballer of the year.

4- Germany, 1st world country, one of the best in the science of sports and coaching yet unable to produce a sustained level of powerfull international football.

5- Holland, the home of legendary Johan Cruyef (my all time favorite player), magnificent football academies and clinics, play great soccer but have been absent from the top 4 in a long time.

The list is rather long but you can deduce anything u like and generalize it if you like but thats not accurate or true.

With all said and done Iran should decide once and for all if they want reputable foreign coaches with full authority for the adult team all the way to the juniors or just go with the domestic coaches. As this has caused major rifts inside the footbal body.

Those who want a foreign coach and those who oppose it. This is has also led to a lot of political machinations and back stabbing that becomes intolerable for the coach who just wants to work and enjoy his team and finds himself in the middle of a storm that he doesnt undestand or know nothing about. 

Ghotbi viewed by Zendegifootball

i appreciate your comment about my article my friend.
you talk about sentimentalism and you refer me to Zendegifootball!? wow! what a reliable source. this site is notorious for conducting hysteria about Ghotbi since day 1, let alone its non-quality content of the rest of the articles, with the exception, of course, of the "cut and paste" news "journalism". just take a look at the articles on the right side of the site. almost 50% of the articles are against Ghotbi. the stories against Ghotbi are bluntly put: childish.
personally, i don't care much about Ghotbi employment in Iran. he is a professional coach (good or bad); getting hired and/or fired part of the reality of any professional coaches.
in my article, if you read it carefully, i did not mean to glorify Ghotbi; i just used him as an example. but since you seem to be alergic to Ghotbi (to a pedar-koshteghi level) your sentimental approach blinded you to see the main message of the article. my aim was to shed light on a failed management that is an enemy to our soccer industry. i hope you agree with me on this at least. cheers!

No Good Guy versus Bad Guys scenario!

//www.zendegifootball.com/newsdetail.aspx?nid...

Your article about Ghotbi is sentimental and non-realistic. It is good to tune up a well-defined mindset about whatever goes on in Iran, but it is not REALISTIC at all.

About a year ago, I had the same belief about Ghotbi in Iran as you propound now, but since reality is intricate and human relations do not always hold within a certain preset criteria I made more and more daily efforts to read about the situation and follow Iran's soccer, and finally I have come to the point that Ghotbi's hard times in Iran leading to his 'farar' to Dubai is not all due to the scenario of 'bad guys' bugging the innocent good guy until the good guy is fed up with them and flies to the good land!

It is rather a situation of bad guys bugging the equally bad guy until the bad guy makes a few big blunders which shows off his true nature and when the other bad guys get nastier 'our' bad guy can not tolerate anymore and flies off with a big handfull of MONEY to the good land!...

Read this article before you build on your usual rhetorics of whaever comes out of that 'kharab shodeh':

//www.zendegifootball.com/newsdetail.aspx?nid...

and the 1.5 millions!!!!

A week or so ahead the start of 85-86(07-08) football leauge in Iran, Mr Gohtbi took over the team from a Turkish coach,Mustafa Dinzieli who indeed is a professional with European level of expereince.The inintial contract was for 600,000 euro and another 200,000, if Perspolis had won the tournament. Perspolis started well and powerful; the players were in very good physical shapes and could run for 90 full mins, which was the indication of the pre-session strength building training gone well. Those who played or play football on the regular bases would know; a good squad's first priority would be its members' body strengths, without which no tactics or technics would be useful after first 30 mins passed. With a gap of 2-3 weeks for players to rest, the physical training is the first part of every professional squad's traning cycle. Mr Ghotbi was handed a ready-to-go team and an unbeatable offer-I want to see how much is going to be his next contract,if any-and he did well, for which I as a big fan was thrilled. Next session(86-87), Mr ghotbi asked for more for the coming tournament, $1,500,000 cash in his account somewhere outside of Iran, and he got the deal. So, where he is supposed to start from, strngth building, which one would think that is Ghotbi's strength, knowing that he has a relevant degree on the topic. well I guess, he hasn't done a good job, as I see the players can't run even the first 30 mins very well and that includes Karem Bgheri ,the strongest of all. After a year with Ghotbi, pespolis is any thing but the perspolis that Ghotbi got just one week ahead of the last session; however, Mr Ghotbi bank account is much much stronger now. Mr Ghotbi left pespolis, while he has no claim of personal or financial abuses. Ghotbi says:"I returned to Persepolis with great hopes but I think there is a conspiracy outside of the club to prevent the team’s success. I am the target of this conspiracy," "conspiracy!!" sounds like spy agencies were after him-I 'd love some of those "conspiracy" with 1.5 millions. He came to the promised land, where he could pick up some cash and guaranty his future, his wish came true.I cry just like the author of the above article, but for a different reason, 'the 1.5 millons'. There is also another Afshin in perspolis, who is now the head coach. Afshin Perovani, an ex-member of team meli with no eagle on his shoulder, is doing very well after he took over the team in second half of the league. Perspolis is on its way to recover after the dramatic start at the begining of the session, which was caused by the lack of professionalism and grid for money.

Shame...

The entire so called Football elite (IFF and etc.) in Iran are massively uneducated, corrupt and evil.The only way they can survive is to collaborate with the regime. They have adopted the very same methods the I.R. leaders have practiced in the past 30 years in IRAN and subsequently corrupted a huge members of public in every sector as well... Islamic survival....

People like Qotbi, unfortunately wont be allowed to operate in that evil system.

FREE IRAN

eivaal

dardeh deleh hama ro gofti.

What is the right term for

What is the right term for this kind of collective moral decline of a society?? Does anyone know the proper term?

Ghotbi

Thanks for writing it. Ghotbi came as a witness, the most credible witness, to the Islamic Republic decadence. His story is recorded in the mind and heart of millions of Iranian, somewhere not within the reach of the authorities and not subject to their manipulations.

Heartbreaker

Beautifully written, yet very sad. Full of love and disappointment. I hope Ghotbi and other competent individuals in football get to serve again one day.