The Cabinet has given the nod to the privatization of two top Tehran football clubs, Esteghlal and Perspolis, by the Iranian Privatization Organization.
The organization has been tasked with conducting the privatization process, including evaluation, pricing and setting conditions for the deals, Fars News Agency reported.
A day later on Monday, Mir Ali Ashraf Abdollah Pouri-Hosseini, the head of IPO, said his organization is planning to complete the pricing process within two months and put them up for auction by the fiscal yearend (March 20, 2019).
Perspolis (locally known as The Reds) had a private owner before the 1979 Islamic Revolution but the club was put under the control of Physical Education Organization (now the Sports Ministry) after the revolution.
The other popular Iranian club Esteghlal (locally known as The Blues) met the same fate. Since the PEO chief used to be directly appointed by the president, the policies of the clubs have been set by politicians.
Several attempts were made in the past to privatize Perspolis and Esteghlal, but to no avail. The baton has been passed by one administration to another.
Lawmaker Ali Motahari, who is as vocal about football economy as he is concerned about political issues, once said, “I’ve come to the conclusion that the government is not willing to hand over the clubs to the private sector and wants to keep this political, social capital. This is a feature of all governments so the parliament should intervene, create competition and end corruption.”
Hossein Selahvarzi, the deputy head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, says the private sector is capable of buying the capital city’s major football clubs provided that the conditions of "real" privatization are met.
By "real" privatization, he was referring to the fact that many state-owned enterprises have been transferred to quasi-state entities after the revolution.
"The transition of these two clubs from the government to the private sector has been talked over several times, but to no avail because the conditions of doing so have never been transparent and logical," Selahvarzi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Since more than a decade, when the Asian Football Confederation insisted on the privatization of professional football clubs, no state-owned clubs would be tolerated and deadlines have been set for reforms.
Following AFC’s warning, different scenarios have been considered for the two clubs, including listing them on Tehran Stock Exchange or Iran Fara Bourse. But the clubs’ accumulated debts and ambiguous financial situation have prevented such an outcome.
Mohsen Safaei-Farahani, a veteran politician and economic expert, who led the Iranian Football Federation from 1998 to 2002, believes the football business in Iran is the “full-length mirror” of the country’s economy.
“You can witness the same financial indiscipline you see in Iran's state-run economy in our state-run football clubs,” he said.
