Davari debut in March in doubt

PFDC – BRAUNSCHWEIG, Polish-Iranian goalkeeper Daniel Davari of Bundesliga 2 leaders Eintracht Braunschweig might have to postpone his international debut for Iran yet again, after he already had to decline an invitation from Carlos Queiroz earlier this month.

Davari has been under Queiroz’s observation and reportedly not only the player has agreed to play for Team Melli, but also the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) has already finished the necessary paperwork with FIFA.

However, due to bad scheduling in Germany Davari had to turn down the invitation for the recent Asian Cup qualifier against Lebanon in Tehran (5-0), but announced he’d be ready to go against Kuwait in the same competition in March.

But meanwhile the qualifier in Kuwait City has been postponed from March 22 to 26 in order to allow both teams better preparations for the match. Although March 26, like March 22, is an official FIFA matchday, Bundesliga 2 implicitely pressures players to remain with their clubs, having scheduled some games, among them Braunschweig’s clash against Dynamo Dresden, for March 27 already.

Although the clubs are legally unable to prevent players from joining their national team squads, this scheduling puts immense pressure on players to decline invitations to matches involving longer travel distances.

With Davari having become Braunschweig’s number one keeper last season, he still is under pressure from former number one keeper Petkovic, who is still aiming to win his former starting spot back at the team which is on its way to German Bundesliga next season.

Such incidents confirm Carlos Queiroz’s recent attack on FIFA in which he explained the FIFA ruels and calendar are only benificial to the big European and South American teams.

After Iran’s number one goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati recently surprisingly resigned, Davari would have had excellent chances to establish himself as Team Melli’s new starting goalkeeper, but might have lost this spot to Rahman Ahmadi now, who played 90 minutes between the posts against Lebanon.

Meanwhile reports surfaced that FIFA is also unwilling to reduce Carlos Queiroz’s two-match-ban, which he had received for criticising the referee and South Korea’s skipper Kwak Tae-Hwi during Iran’s 1-0 World Cup qualifier win in October.

Kwak had repeatedly elbowed Iranian players during the game and had caused a fracture in the later red carded Masoud Shojaei’s face without punishment.