My thoughts on latest events regarding our World Cup Qualifying campaign

[Kiarash]

I don't regularly create non-match threads, but I would like to share my concerns regarding the latest events occurring before the crucial game against Guam. I will summarize what has been bothering me for a while. I put the main points in bold. To keep it short, we are getting treated like garbage by our AFC counterparts lately, a simple lack of any respect.

-It started with the Koreans changing their venue to Ulsan back in June 2013 because they knew it was very humid there and unfamiliar for Team Melli to play in. This, while we had to win that game in order to qualify, knowing that was our most important game in the entire campaign. I looked up the entire schedule of the WCQ 2014, and not a single other team has done this other than South Korea against us. All this, to hinder our possibility to progress.

-It continued when Turkmenistan decided to play against us in a city named Dashoguz. They were aware of the fact that their main venue Ashgabat is a little bit too close to our own border, so they wanted to get us out of our game by letting us travel longer. As you can see, it partially worked as they got a tie.

-To top it off, Guam are acting like incredible thugs considering their status in football. They complain to FIFA to undo their decision to play their home match in Iran and they got the venue rescheduled as a result. After that, they deny giving visa's to our players which makes it obvious what their intentions are. It gets even more extreme that they moved the kick-off time earlier in the evening which is clearly a responsibility of FIFA to take care of that instead.

My question is, where does this behavior come from and why our federation isn't taking action? How can we make this stop? It's actually a really serious case since I am worried that the teams we will face in the next round think that this is totally normal to behave against Team Melli when facing us. If we don't address this problem, it will give us serious headache in the most important and final World Cup Qualifying round.

What is even more mind boggling is that we can't get anything done, while a small tiny country like Guam can pull it off! It gets to the point that we actually have zero influence in FIFA / AFC or we just are really incompetent or too lazy to take action. It will break us at some point, I fear. Not to mention what our ACL teams have to go through when facing Persian Gulf teams, I remember footage from Persepolis training in the hotel. What has this to do with football?

Right now it seems as if other teams are making use of our federations incompetence because they know we will never complain or take it to the court like CAS tribunal.

I probably forgot more dirty tricks by AFC opponents during ACQs or WCQ's, if you remember any please share so that we can talk about it.

Just wanted to share this, hope you guys see the pattern.

[PersianLegion]

Lack of financial support and English speaking experts on sport in IFF is another factor which led IFF not complain or at least does not provide the proper evidence so their case will be dropped so easy. We need to make friends and allies and stop making enemies everywhere. For cuting extreme influence of Persian Gulf Arab countries in AFC we need to cooperate with their possible opponents.

Australia is a team which was targeted by this gang, so they are a natural ally for us if we know how to handle their ego. Japan is a good and friendly nation so having them at our side always helps. Central Asian countries minus Afghanistan (their vote can be bought very easily by KSA) can be another bloc against them. Syria and unfortunately Iraq are also other candidates who get treated harshly by Saudi gang. Oman is also a good neutral country. We need to build up relations and we need to work hard. Kaffashian is doing this behind the scene and building bridges. Giving venue to Afghanistan and Iraq was a right step in that direction. With very small effort we can have Uzbekistan and Tajikistan at our side. Uzbekistan is a good footballing nation which is in our division. Growing influence of Central Asian teams can help them find a better position in AFC as well.

[Hormozgan]

Right now it seems as if other teams are making use of our federations incompetence because they know we will never complain or take it to the court like CAS tribunal.

Thanks, Kiarash. The quote above kind of sums it up, at least partially. For all we know the federation (or fractions of it, since their not on the same page) might even encourage anything that would hinder progress for Team Melli. Nothing would surprise me regarding these incompetent decision makers.

Lack of financial support and English speaking experts on sport in IFF is another factor which led IFF not complain or at least does not provide the proper evidence so their case will be dropped so easy.

"HELLO GUAM PLZ AKSEPT & FOOLOO VISA-YE HAJSAFI. TANKS"

[shahin2000]

Once again we have excuses before a match.... the wind is blowing sideways rather than headway... come on man enough with these stupid excuses.. if we are as good as we think we are, then we should prevail under any possible circumstance.

[arvin_guzoo]

Once again we have excuses before a match.... the wind is blowing sideways rather than headway... come on man enough with these stupid excuses.. if we are as good as we think we are, then we should prevail under any possible circumstance.

seriously its guam. forget dont under estimate your oppenets blah blah......like dude seriously....... its guam we are playing....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam_n..._football_team
Their squad is literally a bunch collegiate level athletes. If we cant beat them in conditions like this we don't deserve to be in the world cup. The team knows they have to hustle, they'll be fine.

[Nokhodi]

Once again we have excuses before a match.... the wind is blowing sideways rather than headway... come on man enough with these stupid excuses.. if we are as good as we think we are, then we should prevail under any possible circumstance.

Absolutely, but it's a shame that everyone can walk all over Iran due to incompetence of IFF.
Its basically like a bully picking on a kid who has shitty parents, but can't take care of him/herself.

[Team Melli Fan]

As long as we have an incompetent government/federation, we will continue to have these problems.

[dariush-44]

rest assured that these visas will be accepted and we'll get to play - however; just another political maneuver - after a bit back and forth, they will get visas and show up late to the game, sleep deprived / jet lagged, play in bad conditions and WIN

[Doctor DOOM]

Basically when the country doesn't command anyone's respect in int'l community, then such mistreatment would be the next step and shed be expected. Not only that, but also the fact that such a country wont get many sympathetic ears to hear its complaints either.




Having said that, I think our clubs can take care of Guam. Let alone TM's reserves
But I agree on the principle of the OP that we are mistreated and have nowhere to take our case to. And we have OURSELVES to blame. Ourselves and our leaders

[Bessos]

Lack of financial support and English speaking experts on sport in IFF is another factor which led IFF not complain or at least does not provide the proper evidence so their case will be dropped so easy. We need to make friends and allies and stop making enemies everywhere. For cut extreme influence of Persian Gulf Arab countries in AFC we need to cooperate with their possible opponents.
Australia is a team which was targeted by this gang, so they are a natural ally for us if we know how to handle their ego. Japan is a good and friendly nation so having them at our side always helps. Central Asian countries minus Afghanistan which their vote can be bought very easily by KSA, can be another bloc against them. Syria and unfortunately Iraq are also other candidates who get treated harshly by Saudi gang. Oman is also a good neutral country. We need to build up relations and we need to work hard. Kaffashian is doing this behind the scene and building bridges. Giving venue to Afghanistan and Iraq was a right step in that direction. We very small effort we can have Uzbekistan and Tajikistan at our side. Uzbekistan is a good footballing nation which is in our division. Growing influence of Central Asian teams can help them find a better position in AFC as well.

Agreed, and I believe Kafashian has actually begun to see what mess is being thrown at our face.

As a first step, he made us leave the WAFF and instead created the Central Asian Football Federation. The creation of this new federation was on initiative of Iran, even though the current president is Uzbek.

As a result of this new federation, Kafashian was appointed as one of the vice-presidents of AFC. Good step.

With other words, I believe our federation has started to wake up but it takes time to get into position we want to be in.

[Nariman]

Once again we have excuses before a match.... the wind is blowing sideways rather than headway... come on man enough with these stupid excuses.. if we are as good as we think we are, then we should prevail under any possible circumstance.

See...this is one of the reasons, being careless and claiming these are all excuses. It starts with these little things and once they see Iran makes no resistances, they will slowly disrespect us more and more. Similar to a guy bullying you - if you never reply back & defend yourself, he will continue as you are the exactly the victim he was searching for.

It’s not about making excuses; it’s about fighting for your rights regardless whether vs. Germany or Guam - to show that nobody is allowed to mess with us.
We never refused to play, under any circumstances we went and played our game nonetheless. Throughout all the years Iran has been treated bad by both AFC & FIFA, but you see us still going. Are we not allowed to make a stand for once without people saying these are "excuses"?

Anyway,
some of our dear "officials/experts" only have the guts to attack our own national coach, but they are too weak and incompetent to stand up and defend Iran against AFC - bunch of cowards only feeling strong at home.

[TheBoss]

Haghighi also will miss the Guam match. Daran saremono miboran. This is not about whether we are good or not, we are good and we will destroy them on their shitty artificial turf, this is about the injustice happening here and not following fair play.

I advice Guam players to watch the 300 movie, which they love so much, again and see the end and this time pay attention to it. the Spartans were annihilated by Persian.

[04041374]

Haghighi also will miss the Guam match. Daran saremono miboran. This is not about whether we are good or not, we are good and we will destroy them on their shitty artificial turf, this is about the injustice happening here and not following fair play.

I advice Guam players to watch the 300 movie, which they love so much, again and see the end and this time pay attention to it. the Spartans were annihilated by Persian.

LOL, Haghighi's visa request was rejected, because he plays in Russia

http://www.varzesh3.com/news/1281511...8C%D9%82%DB%8C

I hope the players and CQ are motivated enough not to just beat Guam, but also trash them as bad as they can..

[Abtin]

LOL, Haghighi's visa request was rejected, because he plays in Russia

http://www.varzesh3.com/news/1281511...8C%D9%82%DB%8C

I hope the players and CQ are motivated enough not to just beat Guam, but also trash them as bad as they can..

Seriously, why don't IFF do something about this?

[04041374]

Seriously, why don't IFF do something about this?

They can call Zarif and ask him for help