Team Melli fans prefer a foreign coach.

The Iranian news agency ISNA conducted two polls online which showed that the majority of Team Melli fans prefer a foreign coach to lead Team Melli after the departure of  Carlos Queiroz.

Under the guidance of the Portuguese head coach, Iran finished third in the group at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 with one win, two losses, and 3 points and failed to qualify for the knockout stage. The credit for qualification to the 2022 World Cup finals is given to Croat Dragan Skocic who was dismissed shortly after the arrival of Mehdi Taj.

Now the national team is without a head coach, and in less than a year, the AFC Asian Cup 2023 will be played in Qatar. Meanwhile, the football federation is still debating the appointment of a coach while its head, Mehdi Taj has implied that the future Team Melli coach will be an Iranian from the domestic league.

Currently, there are some local football experts who consider the appointment of an Iranian coach to be the most suitable, while others disagree and believe that none of the Iranian coaches currently operating in Iran is capable of leading Team Melli. Based on this, the Iranian Students News Agency ISNA conducted two polls on its website and Telegram channel and asked its audience this question, “Which option do you agree with to lead the national football team, Iranian or foreign coach? “

The results of these two polls show that a majority of ISNA’s audience prefers that the helm of the Iranian national football team be entrusted to a foreign coach in the future. 59% of the participants in the Isna site poll voted for the foreign option and 41% agreed with the Iranian option.

Three Iranian special needs footballers’ bodies found under the rubbles.

Three Iranian handicapped footballers have been found dead under the rubble in the match of a massive earthquake that hit the southeastern part of Turkey and northern Syria,

The head of the Iranian Special Needs Football Association announced the death of 3 Iranian legionnaires in the earthquake in Turkey.  Jafar Askari said ” Today, Thursday, 20 Bahman, (9th February) the bodies of three Iranian football handicapped players who were buried under the rubble in the earthquake in Turkey, were found.  Unfortunately, all 3 footballers had died.

Mohammad Reza Mirahmadi, Mehdi Saeedavi, and Hamed Matroodi were Iranian national football players who were active in the Turkish league.

Team Melli expresses its condolences to the sports community in Iran and especially the handicapped football community, as well as the families of the three deceased national players. God bless them all.

Iraq announxces a friendly game agaibst coach-less Iran!

The Iraqi Football Federation board convened for a meeting yesterday, and one of the topics raised in this meeting was the holding of a warm-up game with the Iranian national team.

According to the announcement of the Iraqi Federation, the country’s national football team plans to hold two warm-up matches against Iran and Thailand in Baghdad in April. Iraqi media have reported that the country’s federation insists that the match against Iran be played in Baghdad, but Iran’s request is to play at Azadi Stadium. Meanwhile, Iran’s national football team has not announced its head coach after being eliminated from the World Cup and the departure of Carlos Queiroz, and it is not clear when and who approved the match against Iraq as FFIRI as usual keeps everything a secret due to it historic poor public relations department. Iraq recently hosted the Persian Gulf Cup recently and won the championship in a dramatic match against Branko Ivankovic’s Oman.

Miroslav “Ćiro” Blažević, former Team Melli coach passes away.

Miroslav Blažević, the former head coach of the Croatian national football team, who won third place in the  World Cup 1998 with this team, has passed away. Blažević became the head coach of Team Melli.  in charge of the Iranian national team, but he could not lead this team to the 2002 World Cup.

Ćiro accepted an offer to lead the Iranian national team midway through the 2002 World Cup qualification process. Coming in ahead of the final qualifying round, he quickly developed a following among many of the Iranian fans. Ćiro kept the 3–5–2 formation that Iran had played with previously in the 96 Asian Cup, in which the Iranian national team had won third place. He also introduced new players to Team Melli such as Rahman Rezaei, Javad Nekounam, and Ebrahim Mirzapour. Known as a loudmouth and showman, Blažević stayed true to form by claiming he would hang himself from the goalposts if Iran failed to beat Ireland in the deciding qualification playoff for the 2002 World Cup.[16] Ireland won 2–1 on aggregate, the defeat that marked the end of Blažević’s time in Iran as his assistant Branko Ivanković took over.

According to the Croatian website vecernji, Blajević battled prostate cancer for a long time but ultimately lost the battle.

Blažević was supposed to celebrate his 88th birthday tomorrow. This coach had experience not only in the Iranian national team but also in the Mes Kerman team in 2011.

He is always remembered fondly by the players in the early 2000 era as a colorful character and a tactician.

God bless his soul.

Iranian handicapped legionnaires missing in Turkey.

in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake in Turkey and Syria where the death toll tops 7,100 as more victims are found, three Iranian footballers playing professionally in Turkey’s Malatyaspor Kulübü have not heard of since the massive quake hit southeastern Turkey.

The three athletes are handicapped and represent Iran at international levels.

 Yeni Malatyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Malatya, Turkey. The club plays in the TFF First League, which is the second tier of football in the country.

The Minister of Sports and Youth demanded an immediate follow-up on the matter. Seyed Hamid Sajjadi told the Sports Federation of Veterans and the Disabled and the office Foreign relations office, the Ministry of Sports and Youth has a mission to follow up on the situation of these athletes through the available channels with urgency. According to this report, Mohammad Reza Mirahmadi, Mehdi Saeedavi, and Hamed Matroudi are three Iranian footballers, who have not been heard from since the tragic earthquake in Turkey.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Shervin Esbaghian, the head of the Veteran and Handicapped Sports Federation (Special Needs federation)  said on the sidelines about the Iranian soccer legionnaires who are Handicapped ” there is no news about them since last night, as our international relations department has been in communication with the Turkish federation seeking news. They are also persistent and the city where these players were present has suffered major damage, despite our efforts, sadly there is no definite news about their condition. They informed us that their mobile phones are on and ringing, but no one is answering. I hope they have survived that ordeal and come back home soon. The federation will follow up and if we receive any news, we will inform you as soon as we have any news.”

Iranian domestic coaches.

Since the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup 2022, Team Melli has had no coach or program. It is in fact, disbanded.

Mehdi Taj hinted recently that the FFIRI will be looking much closer at domestic coaches for Team Melli citing difficulty in wages payment and bank transfers.

The problem is, there are NO suitable, competent Iranian coaches who can effectively lead Team Melli.

Iranian candidates for Team Melli

Of the domestic coaches’ names, there are several that can be considered but are not necessarily capable at this time to coach at the international level. Beginning with Ali Daei and Amir Ghalenoei. They are the only two who have led Team Melli and are qualified to do so again. Daei however is in the bad book of the regime, and he himself has no interest whatsoever to coach the team again. He has also been away from football for some time. Ghalenoei, on the other hand, is active and coaching a flourishing club in Gol Gohar. Ghalenoei however, has never been popular with the establishment, and a person whose demeanors and constant finger-pointing at others for his own failures and defeats, have ranked low in popularity and competence.

On the newer generations, we have Yayha Golmohammadi, Javad Nekounam, and Alireza Mansourian. The latter is out of work since he parted company with Sanat Naft Abadan, while his coaching career is not considered successful in general. Nekounam, former Team Melli captain and record holder of most games played for Team Melli, currently is the head coach of Foolad Khuzestan. Nekounam, attitude, antics, and general lack of leadership skills, controversial, ill-spoken, and on the technical side, uncertified coach, he cannot possibly be a serious candidate.

That leaves, Yayha Golmohammadi as the most serious candidate. The current coach of Persepolis has a successful CV which includes two Persian Gulf Pro League titles in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons with Persepolis. Political dissent and possible reluctance by the club to release him might create difficulties in getting the job at the helm of Team Melli.

Apart from these five aforementioned, no other coach comes even close to making the mark.

But national coaches are not everyone’s cup of tea.

Lack of domestic Iranian coaching talents.

Jalal Chiragpour, the former head coach of Iran’s Team Melli, rejected the idea of an Iranian coach or Queiroz or Bronco to lead Iran’s national football team. In justification,  Chiragpour said: “We want a coach who can educate the players and teach them the style and mentality of modern football; Not a coach who does not allow anyone to see the training sessions, play friendly matches behind closed doors, and not allow journalists to attend the training. Team Melli team needs a “teacher-coach”.

With less than two months left until the next FIFA day (20–28 March 2023) the window of the national team’s games, the FFFIR continues to proceed slowly and calmly and seems in no hurry to choose a head coach. Some coaches and experts believe that the federation can choose a temporary coach (Caretaker) for Nowrooz at least and finally, after the end of the current season of club competitions, can make its final decision.

Jalal Chiragpour said “I have to say a few things about the Iranian coach. If we had an Iranian coach who had received coaching degrees from outside Iran, we could count on him. In this case, we would say that this Iranian coach is more educated than FFIRI’s Education Committee.

Referring to the state of the football federation’s Education Committee, whose task is to promote local Iranian coaches,  Chiragpour said: “Iran’s Education Committee is 30 years behind the modern science of the world football. Our resources are 30 years behind the world. We still teach handouts from 1974 and earlier. That’s why I say that no Iranian coach can become the head coach of the national team because they all got their coaching certificate from an outdated, archaic training institution. If FFIRI had sent a number of coaches to five or six countries like Germany, Portugal, Brazil, England, Spain, or France five or ten years ago and paid for their training, we would have a cadre of competent and certifies coaches. Our football would have changed for the better, but because they have not done anything to train the future coaches, and the football federation does not care much for coaching education, our domestic football has fallen behind even smaller neighbors.”

Teacher-coach vs. Manager coach

Chiragpour said: a “Teacher coach” is the type of coach whose work ethic is like a teacher, educator, or instructor. “Manager-coach” is  manages the team in a professional and commercial way. He deals with ready made, skilled players who need or require only little guidance. If he does not have quality players, he buys talent and brings it to his team. Queiroz is a “Manager-coach”,

Queiroz was a manager and ordered to summon such and such a player some of them with dual nationality. Or he would find talent in Manchester. No one knew why, but he made good choices about talent. The technical committee or the board of the football federation should specify whether they want a “teacher-coach” or “manager coach”?

“Team Melli requires a Teacher Coach”  Cheraghpour stated. “the foreign coach of the national team should teach Iranian footballers. We want someone to teach these players skill sets and tactics that they are not exposed to at club levels.

Mehdi Taj “National coach is better for Team Melli”

Mehdi Taj, in a TV show, said that a national coach is much better than a foreign import to lead Team Melli.

This represents a U-turn and a change of heart from a person who has always advocated the recruitment of foreign coaches for Team Melli.

Taj admitted that the federation’s limited financial resources are a big obstacle against recruiting a foreigner. He emphasized the FIFA rule regarding the contract between coaches and football federation members of FIFA, in which a two months arrear and no payment by the federation not only gives the coach the right to unilaterally cancel the contract but also claim the rest of the contract period dues. It is believed that Marc Wilmots used this rule against FFIRI and managed to win the case. The remainder of the contract wages amounted to nearly 2 million Euros. Incidentally, it was Mehdi Taj who recruited Wilmots, and it was also Taj who failed with his administration to honor the contract with the Belgian coach by not paying him for over two months citing a lack of cash flow.

“We are considering domestic and foreign coaches,” the head of the football federation said about the final option for the national team: “There are two different views, one side has reservations about recruiting a domestic coach, while the other side fundamentally believes in them ( local coaches). We have always been proud of our domestic coaches. Mohajerani, Parveen, and Daei have worked hard for the nation, and recently, Nekounam and other coaches have also been there.”

“In the foreign dimension, for example, Queiroz has helped us a lot. We are under sanctions and are unable to pay a foreign coach,” Taj said, referring to international banking sanctions. If we have cash here, it is not practical to transfer it abroad. One of the defendants in the Wilmots case is me and other members of the board of directors. We were accused because we could not pay him. Calderon, Branco, and Stramaccioni are other examples who left and filed court cases against us because they didn’t get their money.”

It is clear that the next coach of Team Melli is going to be domestic. That cannot be good news for Team Melli fans as many believe that Iran’s domestic league has failed to produce any quality coach who is capable of leading the nation at the international level.

Gholizadeh loaned to the Turkish side Kasımpaşa

Team Melli midfielder Ali Gholizadeh will end the season in Turkey at Kasımpaşa SK, currently 13th in the Turkish Super Lig championship. He leaves Sporting de Charleroi where he arrived in the summer of 2018. He was loaned until the end of the season with an option to buy.

Gholizadeh seemed to be desperate to leave Belgium due to a personal problem. Gholizadeh, who completed the initial steps of joining Kasımpaşa in the past few days, officially joined this team and signed his contract today.

Former Team Melli coach on his way to Qatar.

Carlos Queiroz, who was the head coach of the Iranian national team at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, is on the verge of becoming the new coach of Qatar, DN, a Portuguese news website, reported on Tuesday.

According to DN, the Portuguese coach is on his way to Doha to sign a contract and will soon be announced as the new coach of the Qatar national team.
The 69-year-old Queiroz is one of the seven Portuguese coaches handling foreign teams.

The list includes Fernando Santos (Poland), Rui Vitória (Egypt), Pedro Gonçalves (Angola), Paulo Duarte (Togo), Hélio Sousa (Bahrain), and José Peseiro (Nigeria).

Meanwhile in Tehran, the local media reported that the Iran football federation has negotiated with the 67-year-old Argentine coach Cuper.

Cuper was sacked by DR Congo after a poor start to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying in June 2022. The coach has had spells in charge of Valencia, Inter Milan, and Egypt.

“I’ve recently seen the rumors on social media but the federation has not negotiated with the coach,” Mehdi Taj said. The federation didn’t renew the Carlos Queiroz coach’s contract after a dismal run in the 2022 FIFA World Cup .

Taj also said the head coach of the Iran U23 football team will be named as soon as possible.

The plight of Team Melli players in Europe

The spiral dive of Iranian footballers’ fortunes have continued since the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

It is safe to say that apart from Mehdi Taremi, in one match against England, none of the Team Melli players displayed any meaningful football or quality in the World Cup to attract interest from European clubs, or even regional Persian Gulf leagues. As if this was bad with no buyers turning up for the Iranian stars, most of the Team Melli players (on the edge or above 30 years old) even household names are struggling in their clubs too,

Perhaps the most noticeable fall from grace and drop in form has to be that of Sardar Azmoun. The days when the central forward of Team Melli was in Russia playing for Zenit, were perhaps the greatest achievement of any Iranian player in history. Not only Azmoun won several titles with the St. Petersburg club, he also achieved the title of top scorer in the Russian league to become only the second Iranian footballer to do so after Alireza Jahanbakhsh in the Netherlands Eredivisie.

Then came that dreadful transfer to the Bundesliga.

No doubt, the injury to Sardar was a great setback at the time when he needed to prove himself at Bayer Leverkusen, however, even after full recovery, Azmoun was far from convincing and lacked the quality to earn himself a place in the starting line up for a middle of the table Bundesliga club. Now, Leverkusen is thinking of cutting their losses by loaning him to other clubs.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh is another player whose winning the top scorer title was a bad omen. His time with Brighton in the Premiere league was best to be forgotten. On his return to the Eredivisie with Feyenoord this time, it was hoped that Jahanbaksh will rediscover himself and find the quality that abandoned him in England. It was not to be as Jahanbakhs steady decline and poor showing made him a semi-permanent bench warmer. Jahanbakhsh never utilized the occasional playing time he was afforded to prove himself. It is safe to say that he will be on the unwanted list of Feyenoord by the end of the season, barring a miracle, that is.

in Charleroi, Ali Gholizadeh was a lively and important player. The winger had enough quality to force the Belgian club to renew his contract for another three years, however, the jinx of drop in form hit Gholizadeh too, this time in Belgium. Recently, it seems that the winger of Team Melli has been facing domestic problems complicating the matter even further.

Royal Charleroi will face the Union team in the framework of the 23rd week of the Belgian league. Charleroi’s 20-man squad was announced for this match, while the name of Iranian winger Ali Gholizadeh was once again missing from the list. In last week’s game against Club Brugge, Gholizadeh was left out by head coach Felice Mazo’s, and this happened for the second week in a row. The Belgium website ‘le Soir claimed that Ali Gholizadeh’s mind is somewhere else and this Iranian player is getting closer and closer to the exit door of the club.

Saman Ghoddos continues to be a fringe player in the Premier League with Brentford, with cameo appearances every now and then. Saeed Ezatollahi plays in the second division of the Danish league, which even the local media hardly covers. Ehsan Hajsafi and Milad Mohammadi play in AEK Athens, The latter has seen action in 10 of the 19 league e matches his club played only six as a starter while Hajsafi fared much better with 12 matches starting and 1 substitute out of 19.

Majid Hosseni’s club Kayserispor is currently ranked 8th in the Turkish Süper Lig. With the domestic league at halfway stage, Hossini has featured in 15 out of 19 matches, displaying acceptable form in most of the matches. He is one of the few successful Iranian players in Europe.

The onus on Mehdi Taremi  to continue being the flag bearer of Iranian footballers. Although far from perfect, Taremi continues displaying quality and scoring valuable goals for his club. He is the only Team Melli player who is making headlines in Europe.