FIFA Copies an Iranian Proposal to Hold the Finals Tournament

 

In the Name of God
Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)
(Extracted from Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) Website)
Saturday May 12, 2018 News Code: 97022211613

 

FIFA Copies an Iranian Proposal to Hold the Finals Tournament

 

FIFA has recently announced its plan to hold the Finals Tournament or the Small World Cup, a tournament previously proposed in detail to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) through football diplomacy by an Iranian named “GOLZANG.”

According to ISNA, a proposal to hold a competition entitled the "Finals Cup (or the Peace Tournament)” was submitted to FIFA by an Iranian in 2007 and 2016 for the first time in the world’s football. The plan was to hold a tournament around the world every year in the early summer and after the end of football competitions, during which the teams that won the championship would meet so that the best and strongest football team of the year could be recognized. 

Given that different cups are held on different continents every year, champion teams will enter this cup with a combination of national and club teams.

According to this plan, in order to better determine the champion of this Super Cup, the participating champion teams must meet one by one so that at the end of the tournament, all the teams present would have played with each other and been tested. Accordingly, each match in this cup will be a final, and given that this cup is a complete cup, there will no longer be a need for similar and miscellaneous cups and tournaments such as the Confederations Cup, the Club World Cup, etc.

Having presented the proposal to the former and new FIFA president for several times, the developer of this proposal had corresponded about the executive quality of this proposal and the possible conditions for its implementation, but he has received no response. Finally, without commenting on the background of this idea, Infantino has recently announced that FIFA intends to hold the Finals Tournament (or the Small World Cup).

Through correspondence with FIFA, "GOLZANG,” the designer of this idea, has sought to reserve the scores and income of this tournament for the Iranian designers. In addition, according to the initial proposal, it had been decided that Iran would have priority to host this tournament every other year. But with FIFA copying this proposal without informing its original designers and without naming them, the designers have announced that they consider it their right to prosecute this important issue against FIFA at any time and place so that all material and intellectual rights and privileges of holding this tournament could be secured.

“The initial spark of the idea about this kind of tournament popped into our mind in 2006 and 2007,” said Mr. GOLZANG, the original designer of the proposal and the manager of GOLZANG, while speaking to ISNA, “and at the same time, we submitted the proposal to FIFA as well as to the Iranian Football Federation. It also became a media topic in those same years, whose documentation and correspondence are also available. Albeit, the purpose of this correspondence was to register the proposal in our name so that we could obtain the necessary permits, and we were seeking to attract a sponsor.”

“After a long time and following the management changes in FIFA,” he continued, “again we officially resubmitted the proposal in a letter registered under number 4121395 to the new management of FIFA via email, mail, and fax on February 22, 2017, in which we noted that proposals have already been submitted to the former management of FIFA as well (smart ball, biennial World Cup, increase in the number of referees, etc.) Unfortunately, now it seems that FIFA has betrayed our trust and registered the proposal in its own name.”

“Interestingly, our proposal is being implemented by FIFA while it is going to be held only by renaming it the ‘Small World Cup.’” GOLZANG continued, “A copy of this proposal was sent to the Iranian Football Federation in 2016 as well. But unfortunately, the expert and the technical committee wrote under the letter that this proposal was not technically feasible and justifiable. Now, with FIFA putting forward the proposal, there is talk of $25 billion of sponsorship to secure the proposal.”

He then emphasized that in order to defend the Iranian identity of this proposal, they will send their complaint to the Minister of Sports, the Iranian Football Federation, the Asian Football Confederation, FIFA, the Supreme Court of Sports, and the IFAB organization, and that they will pursue the realization of the intellectual and executive rights of this proposal.