Regime selling stock in two biggest soccer clubs

March 25, 2022

         The sales began March 6 and will continue for 30 days.  The intent is to sell off 10 percent of each club to the public this month, assuming fans are interested in being stockholders and not just a cheering squad.

Over the next several months to September, the government seeks to sell off half the stock in each club.

It was more than a decade ago that the Asian Football Confederation ruled that governments could not own soccer clubs under the charter of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer.   But, in Iran, the regime just talked about a stock sale while putting off the actual sales year after year after year.

The shares are being sold on the Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), not on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).  The TSE has stiff standards on economic information that must be released, while the IFB has much more lax rules.  Since the Sports Ministry refuses to release basic financial information about the two clubs, their stock could not be sold on the TSE.

As per notices posted on the IFB website, both clubs are selling 10 percent of their shares this month with each buyer limited to 3 million rials ($12) worth of shares.

Esteghlal is selling 1.23 billion shares each priced at 2,910 rials (just over 1 cent). Persepolis is offering 1.034 billion shares, each at 3,387 rials (1.3 cents).

The sale is expected to generate 3.6 trillion rials ($14 million) for Esteghlal and 3.5 trillion rials for Persepolis.

Esteghlal (the Blues) and Persepolis (the Reds) had private owners before the 1979 revolution, but were nationalized after the revolution.

The regime is counting on fans, not real investors to buy the shares.  The debts of the two clubs and their limited and ambiguous financial statements make them unlikely candidates for investors.  News reports said Esteghlal has a debt of 2 trillion rials ($7.7 million) and Persepolis 1.5 trillion rials ($5.8 million).

Meanwhile, the Iranian Football Federation is facing a major clash with FIFA.  In 2007, the federation sent a draft of its proposed statutes to FIFA, which rejected the draft—and rejected multiple revised statutes sent to FIFA over the years.  In 2021, FIFA provisionally accepted the latest draft pending one change—guaranteeing that the Iranian Football Federation would be a non-governmental organization outside the control of the Sports Ministry.  Iran was given a deadline of March 31, 2022, to comply.  So far, the Football Federation has done nothing and thus faces disciplinary action by FIFA.  That discipline could, at the extreme, result in Iran losing its slot in next winter’s World Cup finals.