Editorial: Fast & Furious

Our Football Federation without a President for 15 months, Iran Football Federation suspended by FIFA in Nov 2006 due to direct government interference in Iran Football Federation Management, A new Transitory Board forming to set up a democratic and autonomous Football Federation Election in Iran for the first time in more than 3 decades. They all sound repetitive, don’t they? So here is another one to add more salt on every Iranian fans' wound; The head of Iran Physical Education, who is one of President Ahmadinejad’s deputies, hijacks the election campaign in dying minutes of Registration deadline with his nomination for IFF Presidency. If this is not a sad joke, then what is?

According to the new rules agreed by FIFA, Iran Physical Education and Transitory Board members, each have one vote in IFF Election. Now with Physical Education chairman as one of the leading candidates, what are the odds of Iran Physical Education not voting for its own chairman, AliAbadi?! 

The Final list of IFF Presidential Election candidates were as follows: Ali Aliabadi, Ali Kafashian, Hasan Bayadi, Mostafa Ajorlou, Mohamad Maylikohan, Hasan Afshar, Keyvan Niknafas.

Among those, Aliabadi was directly appointed by National Government, and Ali Kafashian was directly appointed by head of Physical Education, to be in charge of Iran Olympic Committee. Their managerial experience speaks for itself: In Aliabadi’s case;  Appointing Amir Ghalenoie as the head coach of Iran National football team in his first move upon taking charge, followed by Iranian team’s poor preparation and early exit from Asian Cup 2007, and in Kafashian’s record; Iran football Olympic team’s two consecutive campaign failures in qualifying to Olympic Games.

IFF Board of executives consisting 17 members, have the majority of power to appoint Iran’s next Football Federation President, along with IPL club representatives. IFF Election candidates need to receive at least 10 votes to qualify to the second round of voting process. In this process, earlier this week, AliAbadi and Kafashian managed to win the majority of votes to compete in the 2nd round of Election race. Mostafa Ajorloo, former Pas club chairman in 2000-2006 ,who in fact seemed the most qualified candidate among the list, was the leading IFF Election contender before Aliabadi stepped up to the race.

Credibility of Election voting count process has truly cast doubt among experts with stories of double voting, and voters changing their vote depending on candidate's success chances.

Mostafa Ajorloo, has filed a complaint to Transitory Board for frauds in casting votes by members. In fact, he has provided the proof of one of the club, simultaneously faxing two votes; one for Ajorloo and another for Aliabadi. He has also claimed many club representatives change their votes to AliAbadi under the pressure of Iran Physical Education Organization.

Monday, Oct 15th, will shed the light for millions of Iran football fans to recognize their new Football Federation President after 15 months of chaotic incidents for Iranian Football with the excuse of uncertainty in Iran Football Federation Management. While the likes of Japan, Saudi Arabia and Australia teams have already faced Friendly challenges against Cameroon, Switzerland, Ghana and Argentina, and Iraq appointing former Norway caretaker, Egil Olsen, to prepare for World Cup 2010 qualifiers, Iran National team is yet to play a single preparation game due to Football Federation's uncertain fate.

One thing is clear though, the new President will not be a new face to the football fans, and certainly not a shocking one, as AliAbadi is the likely person to win ‘IFF Election Coup’. With Iran National team’s qualification at stake, there is high possibility of AliAbadi extending Amir Ghalenoie’s contract as the head coach for the remainder of Iran’s WCQ path. Aliabadi , previously attempting to secretly extend Ghalenoie’s contract for one year prior to Asian Cup 2007, was faced with Safaei Farahani’s objection to legality of his attempt. When taking charge of Iran Football Federation though and with Transitory board officially ending their 15 month duty on Oct 15th, Aliabadi, who prefers a “local home-grown coach” as he put it in his interviews,  will enjoy full authority to extend Ghalenoie’s contract without facing resistance by out of power Transitory Board. In fact, Ghalenoie or not, Iran National Football team will certainly not host a foreign coach for the years to come, jeopardizing the progress of Iran National team.

The future outlook projects a very limited time to be spent by AliAbadi in IFF, due to handling two simultaneous Management jobs as the head of Physical Education and also head of Iran Football Federation. While only 20% of his time at helm in office can be spent on managing IFF, a sincere football fan would ask if this would be enough time for managing the troubled Iranian Football. When former Full time IFF Presidents such as Mostafavi, Farahani and Dadkan failed to avoid Iran’s football campaign failures, one would wonder how a Part time IFF President would manage to help, if not damage, the state of Iranian football.

So lets express our sincere appreciation from FIFA, Transitory Board and IFF Executive Board, for paving the way for a fast and furious ‘Coup d'etat in IFF Election, effecting Iranian football's fate for the years to come. Indeed, thank you FIFA and thank you Transitory Board members for assuring 'the autonomy of IFF Election from any government interference'! All Iranian Football Management lacked before, was an incompetent government deputy with poor football Management records to be the new president of Iran Football Federation. Now we can have that luxury. That didn't need 15 months to implement, did it?

On a bright side, we will no longer have to worry about Head of Physical Education sacking IFF President and hence facing suspension from FIFA, as occurred in Dadkan’s era in office, because AliAbadi cannot sack himself!