After the disappointment of Iran’s U23 team’s failure to make it to the AFC Asian Cup U23 Qatar, where 16 top Asian teams will try to qualify for the Olympics, criticisms and theories on the failure have been in abundance.
One interesting theory comes from a long-time coach who has been operating at the youth level for many years in Iran’s football and looking beyond the classic narrative of failures and defeat.
Referring to the reasons for the Omid team failure, the Iranian football expert, Amin Rasti said: “Iran’s grassroots football structure is frail and unethical, and we will not get anywhere with such mentality and system.”
In an interview with Mehr reporter, Amin Rasti commented on the elimination of Iran’s Omid football team under head coach Reza Enayati: “The problem is in players’ development at the grassroots level, which causes unprofessional and misdemeanor in later stages of a player’s career such as in Omid and beyond.”
“It was unreasonable to expect a miracle from Enayati to qualify for the Olympics. He had just arrived (…) and perhaps he was not fully acquainted with many issues, or perhaps lacked some necessary skills. The issue that worries me is that we are ignoring the growth of our Asian neighbors, our competitors. This problem does not refer to one institution or a few managers. The basic football structure is quite weak. The foundation is fragile. Why don’t we have a grassroots tournament in Iran? The discussion of financial issues is on one side of the equation while paying attention to grassroots football development is on the other side.”
Rasti continued: ” There is a problem with grassroots football training at club level. I have warned against the neglect at this level, several times in the past few years. Grassroots football starts with toddlers and ends with the youth. It is a critical stage but also vital in developing a footballer. We have the problem of education in these categories. The dearth of quality trainers, mixed priorities, and general lack of planning. There are a thousand and one reasons why grassroots football is bad and going to worse.”
Referring to the low level of quality, and standards of the grassroots coaches, Rasti said: ” I don’t see the problem only in the thoughts of the head coach, but I want to say that our problem is the importance of infrastructure in grassroots football. This trend is seriously alarming for national football. Our coaches have fallen behind in the modern science of player training. Self-development and improvement are rare. If we don’t pay attention, we will have problems in the senior category as well. “
Rasti talked about his fear of facing the great rivals of the Asian continent in the upcoming AFC Asian Cup and stated: ” I am really worried about the Asian Cup. Playing against Saudi Arabia can be scary for this football. We are tired of mentioning Japan, which started about 25 years ago and now it is destroying giants like Germany. Japan has moved way up but aside from that, the rest of the Asian nations are also getting stronger and stronger.”
Rasti re-emphasized: “We are not proceeding on the systematic path in any way. Grassroots football is lost. We have a large pool of talent at the grassroots, but it is managed poorly. It is a pity for these talents. We must be much stronger than what we are now. We will not reach our potential because of mismanagement Believe me, this year is too late to return to the first level of Asian football, and we must formulate and adjust the basic structure from today to reap the benefits in the coming years”
Amin Rasti