March 26, 2021
Shahabeddin Azizi-Khadem has been elected president of the Iranian Football Federation, easily defeating former soccer star Ali Karimi, who came in distant last in the four-man race.
According to news reports. Azizi-Khadem was the choice of the Rohani Administration, whose officials lobbied hard for votes. That is not likely to please FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, which demands that governments keep far away from soccer operations in their countries.
In the first round of voting, a candidate had to have more than half the votes of the 87 federation officials to win. Azizi-Khadem earned 35 votes, followed by 24 for Kiumars Hashemi, 18 for Mostafa Ajorloo and a mere nine for Ali Karimi, who had long played professionally in Iran. His critics, however, said he had no managerial experience.
The top two candidates then moved onto the second leg of voting, where Azizi-Khadem got 49 votes to 38 for Hashemi.
IranWire said Karimi never stood a chance given the politics of national soccer management. It said Ajorloo, who came in third, was backed by Majlis Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and his political faction, while Hashemi was backed by the Judiciary and Azizi-Khadem by the administration, and especially Sports Minister Masud Soltanifar.
FIFA has long balked at the Sports Ministry’s control over Iranian soccer and demanded that the Iranian federation change its constitution to put the government at considerable distance from the sport. FIFA even threatened to suspend Iranian soccer from international play if it didn’t make itself independent of the government.
Last May, FIFA rejected a proposed new constitution for the federation. Only then, did the federation propose to drop the seat on its board reserved for the sports minister. FIFA then accepted the new constitution although the concession appears now to be mere window dressing.
The Iranian federation has other problems with FIFA. A year ago, ex-national team coach Marc Wilmots complained that the Iranian federation had committed “serious contractual violations” by not paying him all he was due when he left the team.
FIFA has ordered the federation to pay Wilmots $7.5 million as compensation for breach of contract, and, following the announcement, the State Inspectorate Organization of Iran reportedly referred eight members of the federation Board of Directors including former President Mehdi Taj to the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office. Meanwhile, the public has been screaming about soccer officials’ signing a contract that would provide for such a huge payment.
Azizi-Khadem referenced the “disorganization” of past years in a speech after his election.
“First of all, I want to thank everyone who voted for me,” he said. ” Today’s elections showed the manifestation of democracy.
“We will move forward with consensus and take steps with the aim of improving soccer in the provinces.”
He said, “We are going to make a plan for soccer, because our soccer has suffered disorganization over recent years.”
Iran has also faced criticism over its policy of banning women from stadiums.
Azizi-Khadem was silent on that issue, but pledged to support women’s soccer.