UPDATE -  Afshin Ghotbi has taken Iranian Club Persepolis FC to the final day of the season, winning 2-1 and taking the Championship.

Big ups to Afshin for sticking to his morals after being royally screwed by the Iranian Football Federation.  First he had been named the Head Coach of Iran, the next it was Ali Daei.

When Fifa.com talks, I listen and if there was ever a lead to follow, it would be from them. Today it was announced that Iran Football Federation chief Ali Kafashian has been quoted saying that he approved of Iranian-American Afshin Qotbi (Ghotbi) becoming the next head coach of Iran’s National Team. After already making great headway as coach of top Iranian side Persepolis who are once again leading the pack, some thought because of Ghotbi’s American ties that he would never be considered.

Ben and I have personally known Afshin since we were early teenagers playing with or against his youth club AGSS in Southern California in the later 1980′s through the mid 1990′s. Afshin has widely been credited with the development of players like John O’Brien and Pete Vagenas and has seen time at the highest coaching levels as an Assistant under Guus Hiddink and South Korea for the 2002 World Cup, Steve Sampson at MLS’ LA Galaxy in 2004, before going back to South Korea until 2007 before going off to Iran with Persepolis.

Ghotbi was also a part of group that was behind the software that was introduced before the 2002 World Cup which tracks player performance during matches. Examples such as team ball possession, player passing tendencies and amount of distance covered by each player are now used for every match and can be seen regularly during Champions League matches.

image via Iran-Daily