Iran is competing in
the first stage of the World Cup Qualifying matches.
Iran's football club championships began last week.
Iran is to play Germany's national team in Tehran in October. Proceeds of the
game will go to Baam's earthquake victims.
Football in Iran is
as popular as ever and World Cup qualification fever is
heating up. With Iran's victory over
Jordan on September 8th, Iran is in a position to advance to the next stage of
qualifying matches by winning its next two games against Qatar and Laos. Iran
beat Qatar in Tehran 3 - 1 in their first qualifying meet earlier this summer
and was victorious against Laos 6 - 0.
 The power of football
is beyond its importance as a simple game in our society.
In our society, football is as powerful as any
other phenomena.
Football unifies the
country for a common goal; hopefully an end result common
joy. Football mobilizes an entire
nation behind their national
team.
We rarely celebrate
an event as one nation with all of our different religion,
political and ethnicity backgrounds. Come to
think of it, during my entire life,
I can only recall football related moments that have brought
such celebrations to all of the population identifying
themselves as Iranians. Well, OK,
sports moments and the new year; Aide-Norooz.
In the game
of life, moments that would
forever bring smiles to our faces are few and far in between. We therefore
should cherish such moments. Think back to the day Iran
played the United States in
the 1998 World Cup. By then, for two decades, we as Iranians have not had
much reasons to celebrate so whole-heartedly and feel so
united, so close, so at home.
A team of young men were the messengers of joy, of peace and most importantly
of hope.
This is the introductory
article for this column discussing Iranian sports at large
but most often football. The current hot topics for football
fans are the World Cup Qualifying matches and the Iranian Professional
Football League (IPL).
World Cup Qualifying
Matches
For the 2006 World Cup
Qualifying matches in Asia, Iran is grouped with Jordan,
Qatar and Laos. A simple
scenario of two victories and Iran will be placed in
the
next stage. Any other result
and there would be a good chance that we have to sit on the sidelines
for another four years and regret.
This is the 7th time
Iranian
national team is making a
serious campaign to advance to the world cup.In 1974 and 2000, Iran
came within a game from qualifying.
In 1974, Australia stopped
Iran on a 3 - 2 home-away aggregate. In 2000, Republic
of Ireland was the spoiler with a 2 - 1 home-away aggregate.
Iran made it to
the 1978 World Cup in Argentina and made a name for itself in the
1998 World Cup in France when it defeated the United States
2 - 1.
This time around,
winning against Laos in Tehran is a foregone conclusion. The
main battle will be in
October in Qatar. A win there and we would play in the next qualifying
round in 2005.
More to come on this topic as the games get closer.
Iran's Professional
Football League (IPL)
 IPL's 4th season started last week. 16 teams,
2 more than last year, will fight it out over 30 weeks to determine which team
is the top team. The bragging rights and championships are typically for the
two most popular Tehrani teams of Perspolis or Esteghlal although Paas of Tehran
has as much to say as any other teams.
For the longest time
in Iran's football, National Team players were either from
Perspolis, Esteghlal or Paas. That tradition has disappeared as more and more
non-Tehrani teams have shown promises and won championships. Only 2 years ago,
two teams from Esfehan, Sepahan and Zobahan, won both of Iran's
football cups. All and all, 8 cities are represented in IPL.
These are:
Tehran with
6 teams - Perspolis, Esteghlal, Paas, Saba Battery, Paykan
and Saipa
Ahvaz in
South West with 2 teams - Foolad and Esteghlal
Esfehan in
Center with 2 teams - Sepahan and Zobahan
Shiraz also
in Center of the country with 2 teams - Bargh and Fajr
Rasht (Pegah), Anzali (Malevan)
and Noshar (Shemushack)
in North around the Caspian Sea and Mashad (Abumoslem)
in North East each has 1 team.
The top team of IPL
would represent Iran in the
Asian Club
Championships
while the bottom 2 teams will relegate to the "First Division."
On weekly basis,
IPL's prior week matches will be reviewed in this column.
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