Editorial: Shameless

In this editorial we look at the people who should take the blame, but are too arrogant and shameless to acknowledge their mistakes, or to take responsibility for their actions.

These people include Iran Physical Education, which is still the sole decision maker in Iranian football, Iran Football Federation officials, the so called IFF negotiators, and even Transitory Board officials. How shamelessly you all spectacularly failed in appointing the best foreign coach Iran could have ever had in the past three decades.

Iran Football Federation (IFF)
First on the list for their shameless actions are IFF officials. The moment the new IFF President, Ali Kafashian, won the prestigious IFF Presidency title, finally filling the two years vacant management spot, promised his "priority in appointing a foreign coach for Iran football National team", that just seemed too good to be true. But somehow it happened and not for a good reason. An observer would sense the smell of 'Asking for failure' in IFF's foreign coach appointment. Clemente clearly explained early in the negotiation process that his personal desire is to live in Spain during his coaching contract. However, it seems Shafagh, who was one of the leading negotiators in this process, and Kafashian himself showed immense inexperience at this level, and acted in an amateur fashion.

Weeks of contradictory comments each day by different IFF officials trying to pin Clemente's arrival to their own achievement, misguiding media and complicating the whole case, could all be quickly solved if handled by professionals. If Clemente's approach was absolutely unacceptable for IFF officials, why negotiations were resumed and dragged on for three weeks? Why another foreign coach was not pursued immediately to fit IFF's coaching criteria? Arthure Jorge still has "moral problems" in your opinion? In contrary, if appointing a foreign coach was said to be a 'priority' requiring compromise on Iran's side to facilitate Clemente's condition, why IFF officials added "two annual trips limit" clause to Clemente's already signed contract, to cause the deal to break off? Was the break off intentional or they were assuming they are dealing with an amateur 3rd-tier coach to accept modification in an already signed contract? One should ponder.

AliAbadi
Many see this man as the main culprit. He caused the most deliberate delays in the process of Iran National team coach appointment by stepping into IFF Election, originally due to be held on Oct 2007, causing it to be delayed twice, wasting three months of valuable time that could be spent on Iran National team World Cup Qualifying preparation. If it wasn't because of your arrogant insistence in running for IFF Presidency title while holding Physical Education Management position, IFF Election wouldn't be dragged until January 9 ,2008 instead of Oct 15, 2007.

Three whole months would mean a lot to Iran National team; Iranian team could have a coach by November, hold preparation games in December and January under the new coach to avoid the humiliating scoreless draw against Asia's 4th tier team at Azadi stadium on Feb 8. In fact, while we are at it, if it wasn't because of your destructive comment regarding Clemente appointment, calling him "a remote control coach" and rejecting his appointment on behalf of all football officials, the deal process wouldn't get jeopardized as it did instantly. The only word that comes to my mind to suit your disastrous effect in Iranian football, is "Shameless".

Transitory Board
Next on the list is Iran's Transitory Board and the very innocent sounding Safaei Farahani. The sole reason Transitory Board was composed by FIFA in Dec 2006, after lifting Iranian football Suspension, was to eliminate any government interference in IFF by Physical Education Organization or further up. How long did you need to ratify new regulations to eliminate the strong influence of AliAbadi and other government officials in IFF decisions? How long did you and Transitory Board members needed to appoint a successor to Ghalenoie? How hard was it to reach a deal with Winfried Schaefer for instance, three months ago? At the time that FIFA and AFC were closely monitoring Iranian football, following the aftermath of FIFA suspension, wouldn't appointment of the very same Javier Clemente take place without intervention of Iran's Physical Education Organisation?

Iranian Media
Last but not least; the Iranian print and Internet media that are 70 million Iranian fans' only source of information in the country. Thanks to your furious misquotes and bashful stance, starting from Clemente's agreed salary to his contract condition, you very well managed to pressure Iran football officials to not trust Spaniard's sincere promise to "live in Iran to train Iranian team as long as he is needed". You didn't even give him a managerial chance in a single match to evaluate his "failing long distance coaching approach", as you confidently claimed, before leading to break off of the deal. You shamelessly wreck the ethics of journalism by feeding your personal agenda to the readers, hiding Iranian football interest behind the lines of your articles. You have done it countless times before, Ivic and Blazevic are among few witnesses.

The shameless list is endless and time is scarce. The pain is too vast and mass of victims too large. The question is, are we in to witness far more shameless actions in Iranian football in future?