Editor: Majeed Panahi IPL Mid-season summary. The Mid-Season of Iran Professional League has ended on Saturday 23rd February 2002, with 4 remaining matches of the week 13 being played at different venues. Esteghlal Tehran capped a magnificent fortnight by overwhelming Malavan Bander-Anzali by 4-0, with Ali Reza Vahedi-Nikbakht and Ahmed MomenZadeh scoring their first league goals this season for Esteghlal. The other scorer was Fraz Fatemi who has seemed to peek at the right time for Esteghlal. The first ever professional league after the revolution has been a mix of every conceivable event in football. Refereeing controversies, crowd troubles, program inconsistencies and bad playing surfaces in the stadiums, where the highlight of the negative aspects of the league. While on the other hand, the performance of provisional teams, some excellent matches, and individual players standards were the positives of the season. Crowds Attendances. Crowds' attendances have been disappointing in Tehran, while on the other hand in the other cities, most of the games involving the big teams have been sell-outs. As a pi-polar footballing nation, both Perspolis (Pirouzi) and Esteghlal have enjoyed local support wherever they have played except for Tehran. The reluctance of the crowds to attend matches in Azadi is not fully analyzed although several reasons have strongly attributed to the disappointing attendance figures. The failure of Team Melli to win a spot in World Cup 2002 is a prime reason for fans abandoning football in Tehran. Inappropriate kick-off times, logistics, playing during weekdays, poor standard of some matches are also contributory factors for the lack of interest of the Tehrani's in making an effort to watch matches in Azadi Stadium. In the provinces, however, the picture is entirely different. Almost all the clubs enjoyed full capacity when the visitors are Perspolis or Esteghlal, although the majority of the fans would be supporters of the guest team. Matches between provincial teams had attracted mixed number of attendances. Crowd troubles Some matches in the provinces have been marred with crowd's trouble. Although the security measures seem to be tight, there are far too many events of object throwing and crowd's disturbances reported. One match between Foolad Khuzistan and Esteghlal Tehran was in fact abandoned due to unsafe stadium conditions, where stones and other objects were being showered on the filed threatening player and official. These incidents were also reported in Shiraz, Esfahan and Mashhad amongst others. League Organization As an initial professional league , there has be many organizational problems that had to be tackled, including the matches schedules itself, where the participation of the National team in the World Cup qualifying rounds and the clubs in Asian clubs championship created a scheduling headache for the organizers. However, the league managed to overcome these problems and the schedule was nicely balanced and stable by the end of the mid season. There are still a lot of question marks about the timing of the matches. Matches starting early afternoons and during weekdays attract the least number of crowds, and the league Organizers seem unwillingly to address this issue. The Clubs standards. The success or the failure of any league depends on the standard of the clubs. Eventually and as usual the teams from Tehran prevailed at the half way break. Although Zob Ahan , Sepahan and Foolad made some gallant attempts to threaten the big two (Perspolis and Esteghlal) dominance, their efforts were hindered by some poor results against other teams. In general however, the standards were not satisfactory to say the least. Lack of top class coaches with good knowledge of modern football coaching techniques has hindered the progress of the league in general. There were, however, a few numbers of good standard & exciting matches. With competition heating up and the league sustaining its progress, it is hoped that the standards are raised in the next few seasons. Financial resources have also been a major source of worry for the league clubs. Clubs with large organizations support seem to do better and have a much stable prospects, while others like Malavan Anzali , were just about to be disbanded before an 11th hour rescue plan and sponsorship from the Navy in Malavan assured the existence of the club in the league. Players performances Many new names have cropped up in the first half of the season and some brilliant individual performances were witnessed by the crowds. Apart from the established players, others such as Reza Enayati, the lanky Abo Moslem Khorassan player, Armanak Petrossian, the Armenian goal keeper of Foolad Mobarekeh Sepahan, Abbas Aghayee , the highly talented Pas Tehran forward and Javad Kazemiyan the young Saipa player have been among the best of the league players. Among the remarkable individual performances, older stars such as Ali Akbar Modir-Rosta the ex-National Team player must be mentioned. This player has rediscovered his scoring touch and his experience has tremendously helped his club, Paykan, in establishing themselves near the top of the table. A special mention should also go to the current Team melli player, Yahya Golmohamady, who not only been tremendous in defense with his club, Foolad Khuzistan, but scoring many goals as well, reminiscent of the goal he scored against Ireland in the last match of WC qualification. Although the league was marred by some unwelcome events, overall the positive results can auger well for the future of the league. Matches involving Esteghlal Tehran have been a delightful to watch. Abo Moslem have been playing fluid and superb football and are under the auspices of a young Iranian coach, Sepahan has been a solid team, Paas have excelled in attack and dented the pride of the other two big Tehran teams, Foolad has playing a well organized football throughout. Lack of consistency remains a problem for all clubs. Perspolis is a prime example. This team can easily win matches against tough opposition, yet they can falter badly a week later against modest teams. Perspolis peripheral problems and struggles to administratively control the club has also been a source of uneasiness and discomfort for the players and the staff. www.team-melli.com |
