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Iran's Football Manager May Quit After Six Months — Without Pay

November 6, 2019
Payam Younesipour
6 min read
A Belgian newspaper reported that that Marc Wilmots, the new head coach of Iran’s National Football Team, intends to terminate his contract with the Iranian Football Federation
A Belgian newspaper reported that that Marc Wilmots, the new head coach of Iran’s National Football Team, intends to terminate his contract with the Iranian Football Federation

The manager of Iran’s national football team is leaving after only six months in the job following reports of erratic pay and disputes with Iran’s football federation. 

The news of Marc Wilmots’ departure, reported by Belgian news site La Dernière Heure (“The Latest Hour”) on November 5, will be a blow to the national team, as well as to football fans across the nation who cheered on as their team beat Cambodia in a World Cup-qualifying game in October [French link].

“Not even six months after taking office as Iran’s coach, Marc Wilmots is already about to resign,” the article said. “The former Belgian federation coach has not been paid regularly and has asked to cancel his contract. He is now waiting for a response from his employer. And from France comes the news that Laurent Spinosi [former goalkeeping coach of French football club Olympique de Marseille], who coaches Iranian goalkeepers, did not attend the latest [training] camp for the team.”

The Iranian Football Federation signed a contract with Marc Wilmots on May 29, 2019, after five months without a manager or head coach for the Iranian national football team. Wilmots, a former Belgian football starter and head coach of the Belgian national football team, replaced Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, who held the job for eight years.

There had been earlier reports of minor disagreements between Wilmots and the Iranian Football Federation over payments to him and the time that he has had to spend in Iran, though Iranian news agency Tasnim dismissed the disagreements as trivial. “Despite the visit to Belgium by the president of our country’s football federation, some Belgian media outlets have reported that the two sides have disagreements and it is possible that the contract will be terminated. However, there have been no disagreements in negotiations and the only thing that Wilmots is worried about is the question of transferring the money specified by the contract.”

A week before the agreement was reached, the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (“The Latest News”) website reported: “The Iranian Football Federation has presented Wilmots with a contract lasting until after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The federation president has already announced that there was an agreement but Wilmots returned to Belgium without a signed contract ... Despite an annual salary of 1.3 million euros, Wilmots may abandon the offer. The biggest stumbling block is the demand from the Iranian federation that Wilmots should settle almost permanently in Iran” [Dutch link].

 

Not a Penny Paid

But eventually the two sides reached an agreement in May 2019. The main compromise was that Wilmots would receive 50 percent of his pay when he arrived in Iran. A week later, Wilmots traveled to Iran — but after nearly six months he is yet to receive a penny of his pay.

Yet so far, the Iranian football federation has declined to comment apart from repeating a previous statement saying “FIFA is not paying what it owes us” after Iran qualified for the last two World Cups.

The federation’s claim about FIFA not paying is not true. Based on documents published on the international football federation’s website and also statements issued by a FIFA spokesman, Iran has been paid the full amount it was owed. The money was received either by federation intermediaries or by Carlos Queiroz, the former head coach of the Iranian national football team.

In February, IranWire received evidence showing that Iran’s football federation was trying to cover up the disappearance of a large portion of the sum it had received from FIFA. In just one instance, there was a gap of close to 1.307 million Swiss francs, the equivalent of over $1.306 million, between FIFA’s ledger and Iran’s. This amount in itself is larger than the total pay promised to Marc Wilmots in his contract. In other words, if the federation had not “lost” the 1.307 million Swiss francs that it had received from FIFA, it could have paid the whole salary of its new head coach in one fell swoop.

In addition, in a radio interview in July this year, football federation president Mehdi Taj told Ehsan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, a member of the parliament and one of the fiercest critics of the federation: “If you worry about football then get us that $9 billion that FIFA owes us.” However, FIFA’s total revenues from sponsors for the 2018 World Cup in Russia were approximately $6 billion, whereas Mehdi Taj said FIFA owed Iran $9 billion for advancing to the same World Cup.

Tasnim News Agency has referred to the Belgian website report about the possible departure of Marc Wilmots as “worrisome,” but also focuses on Iran’s financial problems as a result of sanctions and the difficulty it has had in transferring money to foreign countries because of sanctions. “The football federation has put together the money for the salaries of Marc Wilmots and his assistants and it has put the money in an account to be transferred to Marc Wilmots’ account, but the federation is looking for a way to send the money so that ... the account will not be blocked before the national team’s head coach receives it in his own account,” a Tasnim report said.

This, however, might not be the whole truth. In the past, when Carlos Queiroz ran the Iranian national team, Mehdi Taj had registered him with FIFA as the agent for the federation and FIFA had pledged to pay Queiroz the amount set by the federation as his salary.

 

“Unknown” Accounts

However, this time the football federation has not followed the same line because FIFA owes Iran absolutely nothing. In addition, the sums the sports ministry pays to the Iranian federation for financial assistance are also not deposited into Marc Wilmots’ account.

Not only does the Iranian football federation not help football clubs pay for outdoor advertising, over the last three months it has received more than 854 million tomans, over US$ 77,000, from them in fines for disciplinary violations. These funds are transferred to an unknown account.

Before the start of this season’s Pro League competitions, Sadegh Doroodgar, the head of the federation’s Football Financial Department, claimed that the minimum amount the clubs would pay for outdoor advertising would be 85 billion tomans, although Amir Abedini, the former head of the football federation, called this amount unrealistic and much less than what the Pro League Organization and the Football Federation had agreed upon. Regardless of the details, this means that the federation has made more than $7.53 million for outdoor advertising and promotion.

Yet the federation claims it cannot afford to pay Marc Wilmots’ salary, knowing full well that Wilmots could easily find a manager’s position with a reputable Belgian football club.

There has been speculation that the reason for the delay in the payment of Wilmots’ salary is that Mehdi Taj is trying to demonstrate he is faithfully adhering to the latest guidelines set out by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. This summer, in a meeting with Iranian medalists at international competitions, Khamenei called for Iranian coaches to be selected to manage national teams and sports clubs. He added, “Of course I am not interfering,” but then said there was “no necessity” to use foreign coaches in Iranian sports.

 

Related Coverage:

The Man Behind Corruption and Embezzlement in Iranian Sports, October 16, 2019

Football Legend Ali Daei Quits and Reveals Secrets, May 5, 2019

Corruption, Lies, and Iran's Football Federation, February 21, 2019

IranWire Exclusive: Iranian Football’s Million-Dollar Swindle, February 6, 2019

The Mystery of FIFA’s Missing Cash for Iran, July 17, 2018

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the Politics of Sports, January 27, 2016

 

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