6/22/2006
Kaveh Mahjoob, footballmedia.net

This is the story of how Iranian football fans lost the world cup.

Iran exited the world cup with two losses and a tie finishing fourth in her group. The poor results and more importantly the poor showings of Iran on the filed against Mexico and Portugal broke the hearts of tens of millions of Iranians at home and abroad.

As usual, a sad ending like what we witnessed with Iran’s Team Melli didn’t happen overnight and many should share the blame.

Friendly Matches

It started with the team preparation. Iran qualified for the world cup in early June of 2005. The coaching staff and the football federation had 366 days before their first match. Iran played a very few friendly matches and the result was being unprepared for the tournament.

Initially, Branko Ivankovic was eager to have his team play. Iran went to a camp in England (August of 2005) to play against three British clubs. QPR, a middle of the table First division (one below EPL) was first, then another First Division team and finally an EPL team were to be played. To be fair, Branko’s plan made sense.

Losing to QPR caused the train to get out of control. A friendly match that was to be used as a testing ground turned into a major engagement. Thousands of tickets were sold, Iranians from the surrounding regions went to watch the match and the game was televised worldwide via satellite for all Iranians.

When Iran lost 3 – 0 in that match and her defense looked suspect, Iranian Football Federation (IFF) and coaching staff decided to find a variety of reasons and excuses to end the camp early and return home. In many ways, the match against QPR taught Branko to become more conservative. He learned too early in the world cup campaign that to save his job he could not afford friendly matches.

Many believe the political climate was the reason for the lack of sufficient friendly matches. While this reasoning has some merit, the fact is that Iran started late in arranging friendly matches and showed no desire to face tough opponents.

Who is responsible? IFF and Branko didn’t want to arrange too many friendly matches fearing that in an event of a loss, fans and media would turn up the pressure on the federation and the coach. It was mostly the element of fear and not political climate that caused a poor preparation plan.

Physical Fitness

For the 1998 world cup, Iran had a surprisingly fit and physically prepared team. Much of the credit has been given to then Iran’s head coach Iviich.

This time, in all three games, Iranian players were “out of shape” and tired after minute 65.

Rahman Rezai, Iran’s central defender told IRNA, following the Angola match, that “In all of our three games, after minute 60, we were tired. This indicates that the team was not prepared well physically for the tournament.”

Interestingly, Branko chose not to hire a Fitness coach for the national team and decided to take care of this aspect of the team preparation himself. Many national teams entered Germany with a Physical Fitness coach.

Who is responsible? This one falls on Branko’s shoulders. He could have asked for an additional coach but chose to take care of the challenge himself. More recently, Branko stated that he didn’t have enough time to prepare the team. This statement is contradictory to his prior ones when Branko said that what mattered most was to prepare Iran during the last month prior to the tournament.

Fear of Defeat

Branko’s legacy in Iran’s football will be a coach that managed to show results in the Asian level without displaying quality football but failed miserably in getting results or entertain at the world’s most important tournament.

Branko entered matches against Mexico and Portugal convinced that Iran was weaker than the opponent and therefore he went for ties. Even when the first half of Iran – Mexico match exposed what a “paper tiger” Mexico was, the coaching staff chose to defend the tie.

For those who follow Iran’s football, this was not a surprise. We all remember Iran – Bahrain match in Bahrain when Branko went for a tie and got one. Interestingly, when a month ago Branko announced his list of 23 players, many including this writer were happily surprised to see all the offensive minded players in the list. In reality, the list was to quiet the critics and fans. With his starting line ups against Mexico and Portugal we witnessed a conservative coach trying to avoid awful defeats.

When one plays “not to lose,” one would be condemned to lose and that is precisely what happened to Branko’s team.

Who is responsible? Once again, the head coach and the federation must burden the blame in this area.

Team Chemistry

There are now numerous stories about how the team was not a TEAM.

It started with the team selection process. From the very beginning, Branko or Daadkan or both, insisted on having Ali Daei as the main central forward and built the team around him. While all the experts, media, fans and players were objecting to Daei being a 90 minute player for every match, Branko was justifying his decision by telling all with “tales of the past.” This issue came to head when Daei played poorly in the first half of the match against Mexico and players revolted at halftime.

Those reporting from the Iranian camp talk about how Team Melli had split apart. The net effect of the arguments and disagreements was a team that was out of synch and had no chemistry.

The unprofessional behaviors of star players like Karimi when he was subbed against Portugal or refused to enter the match as a sub against Angola (source: Branko’s comments following Iran – Angola match to IRNA) show the depth of disrespect for Branko, frustration of the players with him and Daei and moreover, the arrogance of our beloved players.

It was a common occurrence to hear from players “how poorly Iran was prepared”, “how certain players didn’t play well” and “how Branko was not good enough to lead Iran in this world cup (source: IRNA quoting Khatibi, Karimi and Rezai after Iran – Angola match).

Reports also indicate that Enayati was inserted in to the national team by the fans/media/Daadkan pressure. It should not be a surprise to see Branko’s refusal in giving any playing time to Enayati (Iran’s Premier League best goal scorer over the last 5 years). Enayati was in fact not Branko’s pick and was a tourist in his list of 23 players.

Who is responsible? Everyone shares the blame on this one. Responsible parties include the football federation, the head coach, the players and even the media. Media knew for months about the problems between Daei with Kia/Hashemian/Karimi trio but chose not to publicize it under the cover of supporting the team unity. It was clear to all that Daei should have been retired 3 years earlier but many chose to ignore the topic for the sake of team unity.

We thought that the team had the unity, the inspiration and courage and although most of us didn’t buy into Branko as a first rate international head coach, we gave him too much of credit for good results against Asian teams.

Football Infrastructure

Many point to the amazing football infrastructures in Europe, Japan, Korea and South America as the reason why Iran’s football is behind many other countries. While this argument has a lot of merit, to counter it, I would simply point to Ghana, Angola, Ivory Coast, Trinidad and Tobago and Australia. These countries have football infrastructure inferior to Iran but they each displayed entertaining football and had chances to advance to round 2.

The average life expectancy in Angola is 37 years, however, when you watched the passion, courage and heart of the Angolan side and how they controlled our 37 year old forward you realize that it is not just the infrastructure Iran lacked.

Last Words

The true losers for Iran in this world cup were 70 million Iranians who watched every minute of every game with hope against hope to see their “heroes” deliver.

The stubbornness of a football federation, the ineptitude of a head coach, the lack of professionalism by “professional” players and the simple minded approach of most of the press thinking that if they didn’t state the facts problems would disappear all combined for a disastrous world cup appearance that would be remembered for years to come.

It is a shame that Branko Ivancovic was not respected by his players, media and fans. He was both a contributing root of and a victim of Iran’s failure. Moreover, Branko was a very lonely man. His coaching staff was a collection of unqualified individuals who had the job either because IFF told Branko so or Branko was afraid to bring in quality coaches for the fear of his job. Branko had no one to go to and ask for advice when he needed one. He needed plenty of advice.

As of this writing:

- The head of Iran’s Football Federation has been fired (within minutes after the tie with Angola).

- Branko most certainly “coached” his last match for Iran and would likely be fired before his contract would be over in September.

- Ali Daei, the legend, has become the least popular player in Iran and will likely be unable to play at club level in Iran.

- Ali Karimi, the magician, played poorly, behaved poorly and has a lot of fence-mending to do with the Iranian football fans.

The losers of this tournament were the fans who put their faith, trust and hope into a disarrayed team, scared coach, and clueless federation.

We wanted to use the world cup as an opportunity to unite as a nation. Instead, Iran left the world cup more divided about football than ever but most importantly with a deep scar in her national pride!

Football does matter and we are hurt and angry!

Kaveh Mahjoob can be contacted at Kaveh_Mahjoob@hotmail.com.