Ardabil province aims more Ali Daeis via VA

AFC – ARDABIL, Ardabil province in Iran is aiming to produce more football greats like homegrown legend Ali Daei through Vision Asia, AFC’s continent-wide development programme.

Ardabil FA President Farhang Rahimi said his side believes in the Vision Asia programme and feels that it is very important to have a big change in football in stages.

“Through the implementation of Vision Asia, we will improve football development and we can introduce many players like Ali Daei.

“It should also be noted that team work is the biggest factor to reach our main aim which is football development in the province,” he said during the closing ceremony of AFC’s assessment visit to the province on October 9, 2010.

According to Rahimi, Ali Daei is famous in Iran, Asia and the world as a top goal scorer and has a great impact on the people of Ardabil.

“Ali Daei is a living legend respected by families in Ardabil province and he can encourage them to expose their children to football.

“Moreover, by motivating youth in football, we can raise many players like Ali Daei in Ardabil and introduce them to Iran football and the world,” aspired Rahimi.

Ardabil was eager to implement Vision Asia, therefore they had taken their own initiative to learn from an established Vision Asia project in Fars province to get an early understanding of the project.

Rahimi said: “We have followed the Vision Asia activities in the other provinces and their progress and see how Vision Asia has helped football development there.

“Vision Asia is very useful and important for football development and before we joined the program proper, we had a relationship with Project Fars and got guidance from them to prepare ourselves to join the Vision Asia programme.

“We saw their progress in referee and coach education as well as grassroots and youth. We followed exactly the programme covering these disciplines as done by Project Fars.

“We feel so happy to have joined Vision Asia finally, since by this programme, we can move from the traditional structure to the modern one, which can help improve our football affairs,” Rahimi said.