It is not far from accurate to claim that the lifting of sanction against Iran in the aftermath of the nuclear deal especially when it comes to the banking sector, will have an immediate impact on Iran’s football like every other sector of society.
Banking Restrictions
One major problem that hindered the progress of football was the restrictions of money transfer which made it difficult to engage foreign coaches and teams. The football federation has still not been paid its share of participation in the World Cup 2014 by FIFA estimated to be around US$8 million, because of the restriction on banking transaction with Iran. Similar difficulties have faced the clubs and the federation when arranging for friendlies, payments to foreign coaches and establishment of training camps outside the country. With the lifting of these sanctions, a huge burden will be lifted and business would be conducted unrestricted.
Bright economic outlook
By all accounts, the economic and financial outlook of Iran is truly bright. A country with hardly any foreign debts and huge uncapped resources, is gradually recovering billions of dollars in unlawfully held frozen assets plus interests. On top of that, the economic growth as result of lifting of the sanction could hit record highs. Both the Bourse in Tehran and the Iranian currency has seen rates going up north within hours of the deal announcement.
However, it is hardly improbable that the football will be on the receiving end of much of that wealth. No flood gate opening of foreign coaches and players expected soon in Iran, although marginal increase of foreign imports is expected.
Clubs difficulties
With the financial difficulties faced by almost all of the league clubs, it will take some time for them to recover and perhaps benefit from government handouts, a government that has many priorities ahead of football. President Rouhani has much work to do trying to mend much of the fiascoes of the previous government. Football clubs are becoming a heavy burden for the economy not to mention a source of corruption and embezzlement. Despite what looks like a genuine interest in privatizing major clubs in Iran, the government has failed to deliver through bad management of the deal.
The government, through the ministry of Sports is also guilty of some poor appointments of managers and CEO’s for these clubs, much nepotism and little regards to the person’s competency or professionalism.
Management failures
The major problem of Iran’s football is not just the lack of financial resources however. It is the acute failure of its management at all levels from the Ministry , federations all the way to clubs and local football consuls. While Iran has a person such as Javad Zarif negotiating and managing to strike a deal with the world power, Iran’s football managers cannot arrange a simple task without failures, embarrassments and disappointments. Be it arranging a training camp or appointing coaches or negotiating for friendly matches, time after time we have seen these people running the show, fail to deliver and cause embarrassments to Iran’s reputation one after another.
Failures galore!
The list of such humiliation can handsomely produce volumes of pages worthy of reading. It is not bad to run quickly through some major blunders and pitfalls of the last few years . FIFA sanction against Iran for political meddling, AFC suspension of Iran youth level teams for several years for falsifying document to lower players ages, Iran’s disqualification from the London Olympics football qualifying rounds for fielding an ineligible player, numerous cancelation of friendly games and training camps, failure of the government (Ministry of youth and Sports) to privatize Persepolis and Esteghlal after 4 attempts, appointing of an ineligible coach for Iran U23 team who does not hold proper qualification according to AFC and FIFA requirements.
When a country has a man in the caliber of Mohammd Javad Zarif, as a foreign minister supported by a team of professional who are all graduates of the most famous and highly regarded educational institutes of the world, when the country advances in so many fields including sport itself as evident from the meteoric rise of Iran’s Volleyball team to the top of the World League , when he country despite the huge brain migration to the west , still manages to run a respectable financial , political and military establishments, one wonders why these skills are not seen or reflected in Iran’s football management!
Football’s bad apples.
It seems that football in Iran attracts incompetent and dodgy characters. The sport pages of Iranian media is full of claims , trash talk , rhetoric , false promises and pure lies by these football administrators especially those associated with Persepolis and Esteghlal. When it comes to achievement, accomplishment and delivery, these people fail miserably at that. No matter how much money is flooded into football in Iran and most of it is public funds , if it is not managed properly , it will definitely be wasted.
From the Minister of Sports, to the FFIRI presidency, the clubs and all the way down, Iran has experienced far too many managerial failures that cannot be simply improved by pumping more money.
The Future & the options.
Somewhere along the line, there has to be a drive to introduce skillful management starting at the highest level into this football. Visionary Managers who understand the sport but more important than their understanding of the game plans, they should be adept corporate managers who can run clubs and federation like corporate entities. Iran does not need old retired players who have not achieved anything in life beyond their playing football to run its football. For some odd reasons so of these veterans keep demanding their rights to manage and own clubs!
Lack of skilled managers with modern mentality, flexibility, adaptability and global experience will hurt Iran’s football in the long run. And right there, is precisely where things are going wrong in Iran. Short term mentalities, has been the Achilles heel of this football. Lack of interest by managers of anything beyond the years that they are in office or in control. This disinterest in future is one reason that for decades now, Esteghlal and Persepolis have failed to produce quality young players.
Conclusion
In general, when the dust settles down, it is hoped that football reaps the benefit of Iran’s new chapter in its relation with the west. It is no shame to invest in foreign expertise even in football. The world has seen plenty of examples of countries utilizing foreign expertise and the best that their money can buy to develop its infrastructure.