An intriguing enigma has developed lately in Iran’s football that might be the beginning of a new era, at least from the fans side of the, if not with the whole of the system.

Iran has the largest football fan base in Asia, even more that China that has several folds more population. People just love football in this country and if you have ever missed it , you should look at the attendance of the local derby between Perpsolis and Esteghlal , the two highest fanbase teams in Iran and beyond. It is always one of the biggest match attendance in the world.

Persepolis and Esteghlal are the two most popular teams in Iran.

Like many other countries, football fans in Iran have more loyalty to their clubs than the national team. For decades these two teams had a monopoly on the number of players in Team Melli. It was unthinkable of announcing a squad without any player from the reds of Persepolis or the blues of Esteghlal.

Not anymore. The original squad for AFC Asian Cup 2015 did not have a single player from Persepolis. That was a historic first. The trend of breaking the monopoly if the 2 top teams on Team Melli started way back during Branko Ivankovic days and reached its peak a decade or so later during Carlos Queiroz. Former Team Melli managers will deny it, but it is a common knowledge that pressure was excreted upon them to include as many as Persepolis and Esteghlal players in the team to assure the federation of fans attendance and support in the 100,000 capacity Azadi Stadium.

After the elimination of Team Melli from the Asian Cup, Queiroz embarked on a vicious ward of words against Amir Ghalenoei and Hamid Derakhshan accusing them of treachery, amongst many other allegations. Team Melli head coach war of attrition with local club coaches has started sometimes ago, but his conflict with Persepolis and Esteghlal coach seemed to have hit the peak after the failing of the Asian Cup.

Queiroz in a feeble attempt to justify the team’s elimination pointed the fingers at Ghalenoei and Derakhshan as contributory factors to the team’s failure!

Essentially , Queiroz was telling them “You are getting a taste of your own medicine!”

Aside from the others reactions to Queiroz tongue–lashing, many Persepolis and Esteghlal fans took exception to it and defended their club coaches, some in fact even marched with banners and had to be restrained by security personnel at the two clubs respective training grounds.

Up to here, the plot is progressing normally as expected under such circumstances but the shock that has awaken everyone was in NAVAD TV show. The popularity of Carlos Queiroz when a poll was conducted in Navad TV reached an overwhelming 88%!

Let us carefully run through some facts.

Fact 1) the absolute majority (greater than 80%) of Iranian football fans polled before the Asian Cup, believed that Team Melli will win the title or be in the final match at least. Less than 10% thought Iran will not make it past the quarter finals. So, we assume that 80% of the fans are quite disappointed by the result.

Fact 2) Team Melli has failed to progress beyond the group matches in the World Cup , ranked by FIFA as 31 out of 32 teams with some embarrassing performance figure. It has failed to win any championship or titles, even the good old WAFF championship, failed in Asian Cup , and very miserably so in the Asian Games( U 23 team).

Fact 3) Team Melli has not been displaying a pretty or entertaining football with a stern defensive style and mostly sticking to the same faces and names.

Fact 4) Carlos Queiroz has made more enemies in Iran that anyone can think of. From Omid Namazi , Rahmati , Aghili , Salih etc and all the way to Ali Karimi who abandoned ship in the last hours.

The above mentioned are facts, not speculations or rumors. So, how on earth one can explain the popularity of such a character?

Is there a shift in mentality in Iranians fans? are they sick of the archaic Iranian establishment ? Are they tired of Iranian coaches and their antics? Are they sending some kind of a message to the hierarchies? Are they “Blue eyes worshippers” as Ghalanoei alleged ?

In Europe and certainly some of the Persian Gulf Countries, National Team Managers that have achieved much better than Queiroz have lost their jobs, yet Iran is an exception. It defies the common logic for a coach to have such popularity without being able to win anything.

Not that Carlos Queiroz is to be blamed for the whole of Iran’s football deficiencies, but in essence, he is part of the system that has disappointed and failed the fans and an important one for that matter. It is criminal to shield him from criticism while blame the failing on the rest of the establishment.

In any case despite the fact that Queiroz has not won anything for Iran, he managed to win the heart of the fans.

NOW..

Go Figure.