Iran must fulfil FIFA regulations, says football caretaker

DPA – Tehran - Iran must fulfil FIFA regulations or face problems in the future, the interim chairman of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI)said Saturday. Football's world governing body last week reiterated that they would not accept Iran's vice-president and head of sports affairs, Mohammad Ali-Abadi, as new FFI president as this would be governmental interference in Iranian football and hence against international regulations.

"There are certain rules on who can and who cannot run for federation presidency - the country's sports chief and main policy maker of sports affairs is one of those who can definitely not," Mohsen Safaei-Farahani told Fars news agency.

"The objections by FIFA should therefore be removed so that no ban is imposed on Iran," the FFI interim chairman said.

Ali-Abadi was one of the three candidates registered for elections scheduled for December, which however were postponed as FIFA said they would not recognise the election results if Ali-Abadi did not withdraw.

Iran however says that as FFI is internationally classified as a non-governmental organization, Ali-Abadi could be both FFI President and sports chief.

The issue also has a political aspect as Safaei-Farhani belongs to the reformist faction of the country while Ali-Abadi is a close aide of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and member of the ultra-conservative faction.

While referring to the Safaei-Farahani, Mehr news agency quoted Ali-Abadi as blaming "certain local football circles of giving false information to FIFA" and hence blocking progress of the country's football.

"Iran would stand decisively against all problems and will eventually solve them," the vice-president said, indicating that he would not accept FIFA interference in Iranian football.

The main problem of the country is however that until election of a president, the Iranian national football team would remain - as the only side in Asia - without a coach.

Sports insiders say that most of the foreign candidates - such as German Winfried Schaefer or French Jacques Santini -have already rejected the Iranian offers or are no longer willing to wait.

Insiders therefore believe that the most suitable option would be Afshin Qotbi who is currently coaching the league's leading team Persepolis.

Qotbi is an experienced coach, who was South Korean assistant coach during two World Cup campaigns and has turned Persepolis after several crisis years into a top team again.

He is therefore believed by many football experts as a far better option than what they call "second-grade" foreign coaches.

"It would be a great honour for every trainer to serve his national team and I have proven that I could be a good coach for the national team and lead it to the World Cup 2010," Qotbi himself said.

Iran has so far attended three World Cup finals - 1978, 1998 and 2006 - and had six defeats, two draws and one win against political arch-foe USA in the 1998 games in France.