Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Our U17 boys accomplished something that the senior side has failed to do in three tries; they made it to the second round of the U17 World Cup.

They defeated the European heavyweights Netherlands 1-0 to win the group. They now await the results of the other group matches to see who their opponents for the next round are. Their second round match is scheduled for November 5.

Our boys will go against one of the third place teams in groups A, B, or F, that are Germany, Brazil, or Uruguay in that order.

Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Team Melli Coach Afshin Ghotbi denied rumors that he and his staff were getting paid under the table for including players on the national team roaster.

In recent weeks unidentified sources have been spreading rumors intended to damage the reputation of the Team Melli coaching staff. A few Iranian tabloids, which due to lack of proper regulations are not held accountable for anything they print, have been picking up and helping to spread these rumors.
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Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Hey football fans,

Did you watch the marquee match of the day today? I am talking about Liverpool vs. Manchester United. I am not a fan of Liverpool, but I think Rafael Benitez is being unfairly criticized. Considering the screwed up ownership situation, I think Rafa has done an excellent job. So this morning at 7:00 am sharp, I got my cup of coffee and situated myself comfortably on my couch and what followed in the 95+ minutes of football (Yes, there were plenty of injury time minutes) did not disappoint. Gerrardless Liverpool won 2-0; the second goal was scored in the winding minutes of the injury time as Man U was pushing up for the equalizer.

Alright, now let’s switch over to the match that I really want to talk about, Barcelona vs. Zaragoza. I’d watch Real play a goalless draw against Sporting Gijon on Saturday. So, I was hoping for a Barca victory that would extend their lead at the top of the table to three points, and boy I was not disappointed! A hat trick by Keita, a double by Ibra, and a single by Messi gave the Blaugranas a 6-1 victory.

Watching this Barcelona team is such a threat, you’ll see everything, individual brilliance, excellent teamwork, a lot of hard work, and plenty of smooth and precise passing. Teams like this come around every 10 years or so, so catch a few of their matches if you want to see good football.

On Wednesday Barca will play their Copa del Rey opener against minnows Cultural Leonesa.

Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Former Team Melli Coach Heshmat Mohajerani believes that Afshin Ghotbi has a tall task ahead.

Speaking in Tehran’s International Media Conference Mohajerani, who coached Team Melli from 1976-1978, told reporters that the low quality of the Iranian domestic league does not leave many options open for the current Team Melli Coach Afshin Ghotbi, and will force him to stick to the veterans many of whom are passed their prime.

“In the first thirteen rounds of the league competition so far, we have not seen any outstanding young players; based on that, I must admit that Ghotbi has a tough road ahead towards the Asian Championships” said Mohajerani. “Iranian football is like a building that looks nice from the outside, but everything in it is in bad shape!”
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Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Paraphrasing Peter Clemenza in The Godfather, UEFA Champions League Matchday 3 sleeps with the fishes, but before it did some funny stuff happened.

We start at the Bernabeu where visitors AC Milan pulled an upset over Real Madrid thanks to a late goal by Pato. The first half was a snoozer, but in the second half things picked up a bit.

Pato’s goal was a nice one. Watch it if you can find the clip.

Juventus squeezed passed Maccabi Haifa by a single goal, and Manchester United did the same with CSKA Moscow without Rooney. Chelsea, however, demolished Atlético Madrid, and in the arguably craziest match of the day Bordeaux defeated Bayern Munich.

Here are the results of the rest of the matches:

FC Zürich 0-1 Olympique de Marseille
Wolfsburg 0-0 BeÅŸiktaÅŸ
FC Porto 2-1 APOEL FC

Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

The biggest upset of the tournament so far came in Camp Nou where the Russian champions Rubin Kazan defeated Barca 2-0. Barca were clearly sub-par for the day, and Rubin were at their best. Barca missed a few good chances but Kazan keeper and the goalpost came to the Russian side’s aid. With that said, give them their due. They did something that bo visiting team had done in years.

Click here for full report and highlights.

Next I had predicted an exciting match in Stuttgart. Well the match ended 3-1 for Sevilla, and came close to be exactly what I had predicted had it not been for the match between Fiorentiana and Debreceni VSC. The Italians took a healthy lead but the Hungarians came back and made it very tense for their opponents.

The other big upset in the day was Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to their French opponents Olympique Lyonnais. Rafa Benitez is not a happy camper right now!

Finally, the Italian Champions Inter Milan and their colorful Portuguese coach and to settle for a dingle point against Dynamo Kyiv.

For the rest od the matches click here.

Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Hey football fans,

UEFA Champions League Matchday 3 is here; don’t miss out on all the fine games!
Alright, there may not be many hot matchups for you today uless your favorite club is playing. Mine is Barcelona, so I am good, but outside of that you may want to check Inter vs. Dynamo Kiev, or Kyiv as they say. Another match that has the potential to be a wide open attacking game is Stuttgart vs. Sevilla.

Tomorrow, however, we have a dandy; Real Madrid vs. AC Milan. Although Milan have fallen on hard times as of late, their history and that of their opposition's is enough to make the game something special.

For the schedule of the rest of the matches click here.

Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

What do Team Melli Head Coach Afshin Ghotbi and Estil of Azin Captain Ali Karimi have in common this last weekend? They were both hackled by Tractor Builders’ fans during Estil Azin’s round 12 match against the Tabriz team.

The match was in Tehran’s Takhti Stadium where Estil of Azin plays their matches; however, almost 75% of the attendees where Tabriz fans who had made their way to Tehran to support their team. They had so obviously outnumbered the local fans that they were jokingly welcoming them as they made their way to their seats.
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Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Earlier this week the Iranian National Broadcasting Agency and the State and City government of Bandar Abbas reached an agreement on broadcasting the home games of one of the city’s league teams.  

 That may sound like a routine negotiation until one reads the terms of the agreement.

Bandar Abbas Municipality FC has agreed to pay, yes pay, the local broadcasting company (a government agency) 30 million Rials (US$3,000) to broadcast each game!

This may sound ridiculously funny, but it is wrong in so many ways.  

Firstly, three thousand dollars may not sound much, but for the majority of lower league clubs in Iran, paying such a sum thirteen times a season will see their budgets disappear pretty quickly.  

Secondly, the overwhelming majority of Iranian football clubs are directly or indirectly subsidized by the government or its subsidiaries.

So it seems odd that the National Broadcasting Agency, Bandar Abbas State and City governments, and Bandar Abbas Municipality FC (all government entities) should negotiate a method of payment. Their budgets are all allocated from the same pool.  

But these two are minor issues compared to the third – clubs paying the broadcasting companies for airing their home matches.

Football is a product, a popular one at that. People tune in their televisions and radios to watch and hear the game broadcasts, creating opportunities for advertising. This is how the rest of the world’s football and broadcasting bodies collaborate.

This is how football clubs bring in most of their revenues. They sell their product (e.g. football matches) and get paid for it in return.

Furthermore, in most cases it is the national football federations and leagues that strike a deal and then distribute the revenue between the clubs so that smaller clubs are not left out to dry.  

Other sources of revenue for football clubs are ticketing, sponsorship, merchandizing, and selling talented players to bigger clubs. 

In Iran, most clubs do not get a share of the ticketing revenue, the municipality gets it all. Sponsorship is a joke because, as explained above, advertising revenue is nominal, and most of the industries that have the money to pay for sponsorship are government subsidiaries anyway. 

That leaves selling young players as the only legitimate source of revenue. But then the laws protecting the clubs’ rights in these cases leave something to be desired. So often at the end of each season richer clubs descend upon smaller clubs and sign their best players. 

The roots of Iran’s football problems run deep into its economic model. An estimated 60% of the economy in Iran is directly controlled and centrally planned by the state. That figure quickly grows even larger if the state subsidiaries are also included. 

In such an economic model, ideas such as competition and advertising for products are almost meaningless. The government produces or imports most of the consumer products, and it is the government that sells the same products to consumers.

Therefore broadcasting companies that are funded by the government do not have large advertising revenues, and as a result they don’t have any incentive to purchase the right to broadcast soccer games.

Every year these government entities get an annual budget and whether they run a profitable operation or not the process is repeated the following year.

Of course there are ways to make the system work better. There are other countries with large public sectors in which the football establishment is doing just fine but in Iran there is no incentive to improve the system as long as the government dishes out the oil revenue every year. 

It is hard to expect much improvement in Iran’s football infrastructure unless it is done in the context of larger economic reform.