PLDC - Tehran, After Esteghlal's goalless draw against Gostaresh Tabriz, Amir Ghalenoei said, “Esteghlal did not play well and only in the short time that we made some changes and sped up the play, the conditions became a little better. We didn't have much opportunity and on the whole we did not play well.”

In response to the statements made by Goran Lovre, the Serbian player, who had compared the head coach of Esteghlal with the main character of The Godfather movie, and said that Ghalenoei had asked for some money, Ghalenoei underscored that, “I don’t want to answer this question. I will only say that I have paid his money from my own pocket and by borrowing money from my friends, because I believed that he was a stranger in Iran. I have not yet paid the money I borrowed back to my friends (to pay the club's debts).”

He added, “If Lovre has said such a thing, I will certainly sue him.”