11/6/2007
Kaveh Mahjoob, goal.com

The Iranian club Sepahan will meet Japanese side Urawa Reds in Isfehan on November 7 in the first leg of the Asian Champions League final. This is the first time that Iran and Japan have contested the final.

For many decades, Iranian club football has been dominated by the two popular capital teams of Persepolis and Esteghlal. These two teams have huge national followings and for a long time have established themselves as the most popular teams of Iran. While Perspolis and Esteghlal receive most of the ink among the many sports papers based in Tehran, over the last six years, it is Sepahan that quietly has turned in the most successful report card.

Over that period, Sepahan has won the Premier League once and the Elimination Cup (Hazfi Cup) three times. This year, Sepahan is participating in the Asian Champions League for the third time and now has advanced to the final.

Founded 63 years ago, Sepahan is one of the oldest football clubs in Iran. Over the years, Sepahan has managed to establish itself as a force in Iranian football. In recent years and with club’s multiple successes, Sepahan has turned into “the third power” of Iranian football.

Most of the recent success should be attributed to the long term planning and thoughtful execution of the current management team. Club Chairman, Mohammad Reza Saket, spoke proudly in a recent exclusive interview with Goal.com.

He began by reminding how the club operates as a multi-sports institute and how in many different sports , in men and women sports, they are Iran’s champions. Mr. Saket talked about how extensive Sepahan’s infrastructure is and how the system operates.

The club has seventeen different age group teams practicing and playing under licensed coaches. With a sister partnership arrangement with Italy’s Inter Milan, coaches and players receive annual training by the Italians. While most Iranian clubs suffer from a large turnover of players season to season, insufficient budgetsand unprofessional training facilities, Sepahan is the proud owner of a fully equipped new training facility, consistency in players’ tenure and a management team with a solid road map.

Mr. Saket reminded me that last year alone, Sepahan football teams were the champions of six different age groups and the B team won the second division and is now playing in the first division, one level below the premier league. While Sepahan’s organization, infrastructure and management are top notch in Iranian football, the club has managed to provide a constant group of national team level players over the years.

Among the current players, Capitan Moharam Navidkia is well known. In Iran, Navidkia is known to be one of the best playmakers who can change the flow and the result of a match with sharp and precise deep passes. 25 years old Navidkia spent some time in Germany with VFL Bochem but injuries restricted his appearances.

In offence, Mahmood Karimi is a veteran striker for coach Luka Bonacic and is expected to pressure the Japanese side’s defence in Wednesday’s game. The one player that has shone unexpectedly is the young keeper Abbas Mohammadi.

As a club, Sepahan has had no reservations bringing non-Iranian coaches to run the show. Last year, Croatian Luka Bonacic took over from Brazilian Edson Tavares. Bonacic is known in Iran as a tough and disciplined head coach that drives his teams hard toward success. While Bonacic’s level of discipline was a foreign concept to most Iranian players, implementing it and abiding by it has turned Sepahan into the most successful Iranian club of this decade.

The Chairman supports his head coach and told Goal.com that “ this year the players understood how Luka operates and as a result showed much better results.” Since Luka took over the club, Sepahan has won two Elimination Cups, is chasing favorites Perspolis for the first place in this year’s league title and now eyes the Champions League -the club's third attempt. This time, the club is ready for success.

“We have played together as a team for several years and the team has achieved a high degree of familiarity with one another. Add to that Luka’s (head coach) football program for the team mixed with his belief in team discipline and the fact that we gained valuable experience in the prior two showings in the competition," said Saket.

"When the champions league started, we aimed to become the champions and that goal is what we have been shooting for the entire year.”

Playing in the final matches is not the only honour Sepahan has earned this year. By making it to the finals with a Japanese team, the hosts of the FIFA World Cup, Sepahan has already qualified for the FIFA competition. This is a major event for the players.

Mr. Saket called it: “perhaps the most important professional event of their (players) football career to participate and potentially meet AC Milan in the semi-final."

Not everything is rosy for Sepahan however. Despite the success, Iran’s football federation has not shown the support one would expect for a team that just qualified for the final. Coincidently or not, within hours after Sepahan defeated Al Wahda in the semi-final and was picked to play Urawa Reds, the club was handed strong disciplinary penalties for earlier fans behavior and other incidents at a home match.

For unknown reasons, until recently, Iran’s TV network didn’t pay attention to Sepahan’s successes and treated them lightly.

“We need to break the two-club tradition and introduce the third alternative,” said Mr. Saket.

Luka Bonacic continues on his path to build a strong team. His straight forwardness in providing answers to controversial questions is well appreciated in Iran. When asked if he felt his club was lucky against Kawasaki Frontale of Japan in the quarterfinals, Luka simply agreed that “we were lucky but luck is a part of the game.”

Luka is one of the new coaches in Iran football that brings the wind of change. He, Ghotbi (Perspolis) and Daei (Saipa) work with their beliefs and march their clubs to their own tunes.

Although they are struggling this year, Saipa won Iran’s Premier League last season. This year, Ghotbi and Luka are fighting for the championship. It is entirely possible to see Sepahan and Perspolis play in the last week of the season for the Cup while it is very probable the Yellow Jersey players of Sepahan will capture the much sought after Asian Champions League in the coming week.

Mohammad Reza Saket and Luka Bonacic have created an unlikely partnership that is guiding Sepahan to a bright future.

kaveh_mahjoob@hotmail.com