After 4 years at the helm, the status and popularity of Carlos Queiroz remains a mystery. While some media such as Navad program lead us to believe that he is an immensely popular head coach , the attendance and interest of fans to watch Queiroz and Team Melli tells another story.
Many believe that Team Melli and football in Iran does not generate that world renowned Persian Passion and patriotic sentiments anymore. Such passion that drove Millions of joyous Iranians to the streets of Iranian cities singing, dancing and celebrating the victory against Australia and qualification to the FIFA World Cup 1998.
No more than 15,000 fans (estimated figure) turned out in the magnificent Azadi stadium, on Tuesday to watch the friendly international between Iran and Japan. Two of the top teams in the continent with household names playing is a guarantees for attracting a sizable crowd anywhere else in football capitals of the world, Fans in Tehran think otherwise. This paltry number of Iranian fans speaks volume about the popularity of Team Melli and particularly its coach. That is a worrying sign for Iran’s football.
Add to it, the poor figure the attendances of the league matches, then the problem is magnified!
The connection between the popularity of Team Melli players, matches results, coaches and the attendances of fans is indisputable. Hence, it is telling us that the team is not too popular despite the attempts of some media to paint a different picture through manipulation of polls.
The role of the team coach is so important as it reflects the image of the team. Carlos Queiroz remains a bit of an enigma. He is a man who seems to be firefighting on all fronts. For the uninitiated and those who are alien to Iran’s football, from the rants and rhetoric of the Portuguese coach, it seems that everyone is against him; at least that is what he implies. He is always accusing someone or somebody of being an enemy not only against him but against Iran and Team Melli. He portrays himself as Mr. Know-it-all and the rest of Iran has to learn from him.
This sort of attitude is wearing off on people and many Iranian fans don’t buy it anymore. Queiroz remains the first choice and much more popular in comparison to any of the local coaches, but people cannot keep on hearing his war stories and feeble excuses for some less than ideal results.
[quote class=”If we did not want him, we would not have signed with him after the World Cup”]Japan football is 25 years ahead of Iran’s [/quote]
Carlos Queiroz
As it happened, Team Melli played very well against Japan and could have won the game, but that beautiful show of football is not repeated on regular basis. Team Melli can excel in one match while flop in another in matter of days.
As much as Queiroz has to be credited for introducing younger bloods in the teams, he is also accountable for tactical naivety, lack of ideas in some matches and failure respond under pressure. Oman match and that of Turkmenistan were solid evidence of those.
To complicate this issue further, Iran remains at the top of FIFA ranking in Asia ahead of Korea, Australia and Japan, which Queiroz claimed that its football (Japan )is 25 years ahead of Iran. Queiroz did not care to explain why Japan is behind Iran in the ranking all these months and years.
In all cases, the popularity of Team Melli can only be revived by solid performances and results, which at the moment seems to be inconsistent.