January 10, 2020
Fans of the Tehran Esteghlal soccer team are enraged and some even rioted—when their team’s Italian coach and his deputies left Iran because they hadn’t been paid.
Andrea Stramaccioni, 43, told reporters in Italy he was prepared to return instantly if the team’s ownership could work out the payroll problem. Soon he was paid—but he did not return and will not. It appears there were problems greater than getting his paycheck
Stramaccioni had won a loyal band of fans since taking over the team early last year and leading it to first place in Iran’s 16-team league.
Esteghlal is owned by the Iranian state and its payroll is paid by the Ministry of Sport. Iranian officials have said that US sanctions make it hard to make payments. But others say that is just an excuse and that payments can be made through Dubai whenever the government wants to make payments.
Stramaccioni previously coached at Inter Milan, one of the world’s leading teams. He quit Iran December 8.
Esteghlal’s goalkeeper, Hossain Hossaini said many of the team’s players have not been paid in months and some of those paid reported that the checks bounced.
Local news reports said hundreds of Esteghlal fans gathered at the team’s home grounds to protest after Stramaccioni’s departure was announced. The reports said a few dozen even entered the team office and beat up a staffer there.
A photo of a check made out to Stramaccioni was shown to the media. On December 26, however, the club announced it had given up trying to get Stramaccioni to return and was moving on.
It was unclear if Stram-accioni just said he would return if paid in order to extract the paycheck and really had no intention of ever returning.
Stramaccioni was not the sole foreign coach in Iran. The national team was coached until a few weeks ago by Marc Wilmots, a Belgian. Four of the 16 club teams have foreign coaches—a Turk at Traktor Sazi in Tabriz, an Argentine at Persepolis in Tehran and Croats at both Sanat Naft and Shahin Bushehr. The Argentine has said he has not been paid in a timely manner. The others have been silent.
In addition, there are few dozen foreign players in the Iranian league. Almost every year, some departing foreign player goes to FIFA and says he was not sent his final paycheck.
At the end of December, when Esteghlal gave up trying to get Stramaccioni back, the team had fallen from first place to fifth in the league.
Meanwhile, Mehdi Taj, president of the Iran Football Federation, was rushed to the hospital last month with heart problems and soon announced his retirement. Taj had been president since May 2016.
