Courtesy: Fars News Agency


Iran Named World Best Futsal Team

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian national futsal squad ranked best national team of the world in 2009 following good results in last year's futsal tournaments.

Futsal Planet, the source website for the world futsal, and other sites named Iran as the best national team of the world in 2009.

"In order to choose the best futsal team of the year, let us take a tour of the ancient continent, Asia, and the ancient land, Iran," the website wrote in an article.

"On dominance of the Iranian futsal over its Asian rivals there is nothing new to be mentioned as the ambitious National Iranian Futsal Team managed to defeat strong teams like Japan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and the rest of the Asian teams, one after the other," the article added.

"The noticeable point is the role that the Iranian Futsal is playing in the futsal world, which began with the 2008 Futsal World Cup and continued till achieving great results throughout 2009," according to the Futsal Planet.

"This team's results in the past year show that the legacy of the team's former head coach, Mohammad Reza Heidarian has not gone astray, with introduction of new talented young players at national team level almost every day," the Islamic republic news agency quoted the website as reporting.

"After its historic defeat at the quarter final of the 2008 games, in 2009 the Iranian National Futsal Team began with beating Slovenia in a good game, but their 2-2 tie versus the world champion Brazil gained the admiration of the world futsal fans for the Iranian stars," the article said.

The peak for the Iranian futsal was in July 2009 though when only the host team Brazil could create an obstacle for the students of head coach Hossein Shams at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Everything was set for the National Iranian Futsal Team's celebration there, but that happened later on at the first round of the Confederations Cup in Libya not much later.

Glorious championship of Captain Vahid Shamsaie and his teammates in competition against the Solomon Islands, Guatemala, Uruguay and the host team, Libya was fit only for the National Iranian Futsal Team.

Iran ended the year 2009 with two away victories in games versus Slovenia, followed by the victory of the Iranian under 23 year olds team as the Asian Futsal champion.

In World Stars Team versus Brazil, too, Iran's Mostafa Nazari and Vahid Shamsaie were among the main players, while the team's caretaker was the head of the Iranian Futsal Committee Abbas Torabian.

At the 10th round of choosing the best futsal team of the year, the Brazilian National Women's Futsal shared the best team of the year rank with Iran.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com