While most of the league coaches who attended Team Melli training sessions in the last few days met and talked to Carlos Queiroz, the odd one out was Omid team (U23) Mohammad Khakpour who avoided Queiroz with full intent.

Khakpour sat in the stands with the fans to watch Team Melli is a training session. When the Federation Press Officer spotted him, he invited Khakpour to join what would be a special area reserved for coaches and important guest, Khakpour refused and sat put as far away from the Team Melli players and their coach!

The situation is odd as this squad has a good number of Omid Team players. Queiroz recently added players such as Akhbari, Torabi, Mohammadi in addition to Azmoun and Jahanbakhsh to Team Melli preparing for the game against Turkmenistan and before that a friendly against Uzbekistan.

It seems that the residue of the old tug-of-war between Queiroz and Khakpour when Azmoun and Jahanbakhash was wanted by both coaches, is still affecting the relationship between the two coaches. Queiroz on being informed of Khakpour refusal to come to the special area, did not show any reaction or concern, however, the Portuguese coach left instantly after the practice session was over.

The tension between the two sides of the national teams seems to be quite high but in reality, it should not be damaging to either teams. The only drawback is that the two coaches would not be in a professional talking terms to discuss the capabilities of their players to each other. Ideally , Khakpour could personally brief Queiroz about a player such as Torabi or Akhbari which would assist Queiroz in his own analysis, coming first hand from a coach who worked with the players.

On the other hand, questions have been raised about the suitability of Mohammad Khakpour by the AFC. FFIRI has been quizzed about Khakpour’s qualifications and credentials that allows him to sit on the bench of an Asian U23 team competing for a place in the Olympics. Khakpour claims that he has all the qualifications required which was obtained in USA. It is a matter bureaucratic process which has delayed the submission of his credential to the AFC and will be solved soon according to Khakpour.

Iran U23 Team, under Khakpour, failed to qualify directly to the Asian Zone finals in Doha on January 2016, however, they qualified as one of the 5 best second placed teams. Iran is not considered as one of the favorites for qualification to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 2016.