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Ali Kafashian re-elected as Iran Football Federation president
Mar 6, 2012 3:35:00 AM
The incumbent president of Iranian football retained his position for another four years, as the important elections took place on Monday
In a surprising turn of events on Monday, Iran's Football Federation (IFF) executive committee opted to re-elect Ali Kafashian for four more years as president.This re-election mark the first time in the country’s history that an IFF boss has been re-elected.
In the past few weeks, there had been an expectation the government backed Hossein Gharib would succeed.
However after two rounds of the IFF executive committee's voting procedure, it was decided that Kafashian would be re-elected.
In the second round of voting, Kafashian managed to capture 47 votes - nearly twice as much as Gharib - to seal his victorious day.
“I am happy since the delegates trusted me," Kafashian told reporters. "We have to learn lessons from past. The federation has made some mistakes in the past four years but we are looking forward to move into a better position.
“IFF has a great task ahead but I hope that the Iran’s football society will help us to achieve progress and make people happy."
Other surprising results were the vote of no-confidence for second deputy nominee, Behrouz Montaghi. Also Hadi Ayatolahi replaced Mehdi Taj as the IFF’s new vice-president.
Following the re-election, victorious Kafashian emphasised on his mandate for clubs’ finances and commercialisation and vowed for “more independence for Iran's Football Federation then before”.
The 34th IFF election was held in one of the most crucial years for Iranian fooball, as the national team is eagerly vying to qualify to 2014 World Cup after not reaching the event since 2006.
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