DPA - The Iranian Football
Federation (FFI) on Wednesday approved Ali Kafashian as its new president,
ISNA news agency reported. Due to differences with football's ruling body
FIFA over governmental interference in football affairs, the FFI has had no
president since after the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
After the FFI agreed to approve new regulations for stopping any
interference by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration in football
affairs, FIFA gave its green light for the elections.
As his sole challenger, the pro-government candidate Sahahrokh Shahnazi,
surprisingly withdrew his nomination on Tuesday night, there was no need for
an election and Kafashian was simply approved by the assembly as FFI
president.
The election ceremony was held under the supervision of representatives of
FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation.
Iran's vice-president and sports chief, Mohammad Aliabadi, boycotted the
election ceremony in protest against his rejection by FIFA as FFI
presidential candidate.
Another prominent absentee was national team skipper Mehdi Mahdavikia who
preferred to stay at the training camp of his club team Eintracht Frankfurt
in Portugal rather than coming to Tehran.
The first task of the new Iranian FFI president is to appoint a new national
team coach to lead the team to the 2010 World Cup qualification games
against Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
The favourite is Portuguese coach Artur Jorge who has already held initial
talks with the FFI transitional committee, but Kafashian refused to finalize
the deal before the elections.
The two other options could be French coach Jacques Santini and German Peter
Neururer, but Jorge is said to have demanded much less in salary than the
other two and therefore has better chances of being appointed.
