{"id":10952,"date":"2010-02-02T14:41:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T22:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/02\/02\/local-ref-under-pressure-in-irans-famed-sorkhabi-derby\/"},"modified":"2010-02-02T14:41:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T22:41:20","slug":"local-ref-under-pressure-in-irans-famed-sorkhabi-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/02\/02\/local-ref-under-pressure-in-irans-famed-sorkhabi-derby\/","title":{"rendered":"Local ref under pressure in Iran\u2019s famed Sorkhabi Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"azadi-stad1\"AFC – TEHRAN, The Sorkhabi (Red and Blue) Derby is only hours away and, while the teams sweat over their players, everyone \u2013 fans, coaches, officials and players \u2013 are wondering about the referee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This will be the 68th clash between the two fierce rivals in a match that stirs passions of rival fans and guarantees a full house of more than 100,000. Indeed, this is the only match in which the Iran FA must appeal to fans NOT to come.<\/p>\n

Esteghlal versus Persepolis (Pirouzi) is not about winning points or moving up the Iran Pro League table. It has far greater importance for fans of the teams. It is nothing more than rabid pride.<\/p>\n

And this is why the issue of referees is so important. For 14 years, the Iran FA drafted in foreign referees for the match, including Singapore\u2019s former FIFA World Cup referee Shamsul Maidin.<\/p>\n

However, more recently, Iranian referees have been fighting back, demanding that they be considered for this clash, which has been ranked 22nd in World Football\u2019s list of the globe\u2019s fiercest derbies.<\/p>\n

The Iran FA agreed and Mohsen Turkey was put in charge of the past two matches, both of them draws.<\/p>\n

But the old saying: \u201cBe careful what you ask for \u2026 because you might get it\u201d comes to mind in this case. While local refs deserve to be in the middle of such a big match, the task comes with warning labels.<\/p>\n

It is like asking to be one of the five penalty-takers in the shootout of a FIFA World Cup final. It is an honour but the consequences of failure could mark you for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cPressure is sometimes beyond human tolerance,\u201d Enayat told the-afc.com. \u201cWe have many exciting derbies in the world such as AC Milan versus Inter Milan, the Liverpool-Everton Merseyside derby, or the El Classico in Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Tehran Derby puts tremendous pressure on the referees. The backlash of the Sorkhabi Derby is massive. A loss for either side could affect the referee\u2019s career, even his private life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foreign referees would arrive the night before the game. If he made a mistake, he would have left the country hours later without suffering at the hands of fans and the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big question is: who will it be? Wednesday\u2019s referee is expected to be from a list of six elite refs who have spent the past few days in Kuala Lumpur attending courses at the AFC Elite Education Seminar.<\/p>\n

They will know who has been picked once they return to Tehran. Turkey was among the participants, along with Masoud Moradi and Saeed Mozafari Zadeh.<\/p>\n

As for the match itself, both teams are hoping to break a run of six consecutive draws.<\/p>\n

Persepolis coach Ali Daei said: \u201cI do not think any team has the will to draw on Wednesday. I cannot accept any more draws. I know Esteghlal well. This match is worth more than three points for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esteghlal Coach Samad Marfavi said: \u201cI am waiting to break the jinx and win the game after too many draws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – TEHRAN, The Sorkhabi (Red and Blue) Derby is only hours away and, while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":10951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c14-ipl-league-persian-gulf-cup"],"views":5860,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}