Queiroz uttered some harsh words about Iran’s football to a compatriot journalist. Antonio Magalhaes , the chief editor of Record-xl website of Portugal, interviewed Carlos Queiroz while in Tehran attending the match between Team Melli and Thailand.
Queiroz seemed to reverse much of what he normally addresses the local fans through Iranian media. He reserved his cruelest of the words for Iranian footballers calling them “Professionals “only when it comes to money they earn. It is not very unusual for foreign coaches to say one thing at home to satisfy the home fans while abroad, there is a change of tone and perhaps closer to reality as they are addressing different clientele. However, some of Queiroz descriptions about Iran were quite crude and some downright inaccurate perhaps bordering insult to some sensitive about such issues. His claim that Iran is isolated in football world by sanctions lacks accuracy. Queiroz blames the sanctions for Team Melli’s inability to play “meaningful” friendly games. In a nutshell, that statement is far from declaring the full truth. It is that bankrupt football federations fault , which incidentally spends a large chunk of its limited resources on the wages of Queiroz and his team of assistants and advisers, that is the main obstacle in failing to arrange friendlies. Playing big teams requires spending money. Iran played both Brazil and Russia in the UAE , however the expenses were both taken care of by sponsors. Clearly , it is not matter of those imaginary sanctions that Queiroz is talking about , which is preventing Iran from getting the friendlies thy want. The kitty is empty.
The two Portuguese keep talking about the effects of sanctions on Iran. In reality and matter of facts, Iran has been ever present in every regional, continental and international event they qualified for or invited to, not only in football but the rest of the sports. They played Russia and Brazil as well in friendly matches.
While a person is entitled to his opinion, there is also some moral and ethical obligation to respect the country and the people of that country and it is here that Queiroz has come short. We do agree with some of his assessments, but disagree on its intensity and the exaggeration level of it. Whether Queiroz is trying to send a signal or not is debatable, what we have no doubt about is that Queiroz does not think much of Iranian football, the players, the league and the administration. He lacks conviction in Iran’s football only highlighting the negatives while brazenly ignoring the achievement of this pride nation in football that is known to the whole world. Achievements such as qualification to the world cup on 4 different occasions with much less resources, winning 3 Asian Cup titles, which are at the top of the pyramid of successes, not to mention other championships titles and victories.
Queiroz words was in sharp contrast to the NBC interview with Dan Gasper , Team Melli goalkeeping coach , which was published here.
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Excerpts from the interview:
Do you think that the qualification to the FIFA World Cup with Iran was your greatest achievement in your career?
The difficulty of this task is compounded if you consider two intersecting lines. If, at any point of the lines cross, it shows the difficulty of the task, however, since our last gasp qualification, we can say that this is one of the most difficult tasks of my career.
Can you elaborate on that statement?
If you want consider the subtle differences in technical and tactical skills or other football matters, one needs to compare Asian football with other parts of the world. In Asia, when you consider the vast distances between countries, logistical problems, accommodation, playing fields, time of practices etc., it becomes a complicated and complex matter
Is the Iranian Federation capable of resolving this complexity?
No. The problem is due to the large size of the continent. Today you play South Korea and 4 days later you have to play in Lebanon! All these plans are out of our control
Tell us about the peculiar situation of Iran against the sanctions?
our major problems, is finding suitable teams to play against.
The issues are quite complicated. Compared to Japan, Australia and Korea, the infrastructure of Iran is weak and inferior. The professionalism is lacking. The mentality is lagging behind. The difference in standards of football of Iran to international football is quite large. Do not forget that one of our major problems, is finding suitable teams to play against. Under the circumstances , it is was impossible to do so. We still have problems finding teams to play against for friendly preparation matches. That in itself will make it difficult for Iran in Brazil. Iran never passed the group stages in the World Cup before . My objective is to do that this time.
How are you planning to achieve this goal ?
Using imagination, relaxation, mind-control and creating an atmosphere that makes it possible to train the players to the level of their rivals and make them think on the same level.
Considering these limitations, should they should expect much from you?
Expectations are usually the same in every country. Level of expectations is always higher than the reality and investments put into the football. There is always a great gap between the expectations of the fans and the reality, except in Iran the gap between these two is even greater than other countries. Their demands are even higher.
Their players and coaches don’t realize how weak they are
Is there a big gap between the level of Iran and the rest of the word?
Certainly so. Since Iran’s football had little contact from the rest of the world (…) they don’t seem to realize the gap between themselves and the rest of the world. Therefore in many angles, they seem to be adrift from reality. Their players and coaches don’t realize how weak they are in technical , tactical , physical and psychological conditioning. I was in Asia (UAE) 15 years ago and from then until now , I hardly seen any progress in these countries football standards. The gap between Asia and Europe has not reduced at all and remains the same wide gap. Only Japan has managed to slightly develop and approach European and Latin American level.
On your path to the qualifications for the World Cup , you have faced numerous problems , but the end result was sweet.
Yes, we have faced much problems and the conditions were complicated. In Europe , Portugal and France they faced the same sort of problems. Only Latin America was different as they played in one group and there is always a chance for recovery in the next matches. Of course you need to be resilient, flexible and adapt to changes. In here there is not much of that going on.
This is where fear comes after defeat.
We have lost a match that we should never have against Lebanon. However, we forgot that this team has already beaten South Korea. We said that this loss is not the end of the world.
In respect to the international sanctions, are you worried about your presence in the World Cup?
Of course when it happened, I felt a bit of doubt in my confidence. But something important happened. The President of the republic came to visit the players and promised that everything will be sorted out.!
their footballers are called “professionals” here, but I am working with amateurs!
Do you think it is a miracle that Iran qualified for the World Cup?
In football there is no such thing as miracle. It was a very difficult task. We have achieved this by using a majority of home-based players who earned a lot of money and have no other profession but football. Just because they earn huge amount of money they call them “professional” here. Therefore I was really working with an amateur team calling themselves “professionals”. Logically, we should have no chance to qualify , but we did our work properly and managed to improve the team and climb from ranked no 5 in Asia to be number 2.
With such conditions prevailing, don’t you think that you should prepare the Iranians for failure?
No, that is not my duty. My job is to prepare a team, and lead it to the right path. We need to identify a goal. Iran never passed the group stages and that is our objective. Although qualifying from the group stages is extremely difficult, we are aiming for that.
Is qualifying to the next round possible?
Yes, this is possible but it depends on two factors, one a good draw and second planning and executing a strong preparation program for the team. If we can execute a program without deliberation on the FIFA day , we can do it. But if we stick to FIFA day, then we will be making a big mistake.
What do you mean about the FIFA Day mistake?
I mean this program is prepared for teams such as Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany and Iran. FIFA allows 15 days release for the players before the World Cup. Do you think Iran will reach the standards of these teams in 15 days ? If Iran wants to progress then we need to have our own program and then we can talk rest of the business.
Against Thailand, the whole of the first half was spent for players to know each other
What is the rest of the business?
I have proposed training preparation plans for the team and warned the federation about the risks of ignoring the program. We can’t simply play a competitive match in Asian Cup qualifiers after 4 months of complete inactivity. In the match against Thailand, the whole of the first half was spent for players to know each other!
Would you be happy to be in the same group with Portugal?
It will be nice to be grouped with the likes of Portugal, France, Brazil or Argentina. As soon as our problems are sorted out, we can face them and compete with them. Frankly though, I prefer to face other less strong teams. If we are to play against Portugal or France, it will be an honor for Iran. This is one of the advantages and privileges of the World Cup, playing against famous teams. We need to proceed with bravery to Brazil.