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GOAL - From a distance, it
appears that Iranian football authorities thrive on creating chaos and at
times appear to intentionally damage the game that all love in Iran. The
story has no real starting point since as long as the Iranian football fans
remember, challenges with FIFA, lack of organization and favoritism have
been common. The age of Crisis was not born yesterday and it still is alive
and well.
The latest chapter of “Crisis R Us” began a year and half ago following a
disappointing World Cup campaign in Germany. With the team still in Germany,
the ministry of Physical Education fired the head of Iran Football
Federation, IFF. FIFA viewed this act as government interference with the
football operation.
Eighteen months later, the Football Transitory Committee which was appointed
by FIFA has NOT managed to settle differences with the Physical Education
and elect (read appoint) a new federation head.
Until this past week, Iran had no federation head, no head coach, no “50
players selected for the world cup campaign” and no idea how to run her
football organization. If Portuguese Artur Jorge signs the contract, Iran
could claim to have her first permanent head coach in eighteen months.
Jorge is a recognized name in the world of Football. He has managed national
teams of Portugal, Switzerland and Cameroon. All three times, his teams
failed to qualify for to the world cup. While in the 90’s Braga had
impressive club level success, over the last two years club winning evaded
Jorge as he coached Al Nasr of Saudi Arabia and French Second Division US
Créteil-Lusitanos.
It is important to note that Jorge was not Iran’s first, second or even
third choice. In fact, before his name was announced as Iran’s head coach,
at least fifteen foreign and three Iranian names surfaced as the potential
future head coach of Iran. IFF therefore could claim that it signed one of
the twenty coaches it had in mind to sign and that indeed is a sad
statement.
The foreign names include:
British Coaches - Terry Venables, Peter Reid, Roy Hodgson
French Coach - Philippe Troussier
Dutch Coaches - Pim Verbeek, Dick Advocat, Martin Jol, Rudi Krol
German- Winnie Schaefer
Spanish - Javier Clemente
Scottish - Graham Souness
Argentinean - Daniel Passarela
Italian - Giovanni Trapattoni
Before one thinks that the above names come from the rumor mill, it is worth
noting that many of them were mentioned by either the Transitory Committee
or the Physical Education Ministry as head coaching candidates.
Jorge enters Iran with many challenges. Most notably: IFF still has no
President. The election is scheduled to be conducted in the coming weeks.
The question remains that if the Transitory Committee and the Physical
Education Ministry could reach the final agreement and hold the election.
Iranian Federation submitted a list of 50 players for the world cup
campaign. Jorge will be handed a list that was not picked by him. IFF needed
to submit the list as the deadline was days away.
The Iranian Persian Gulf League has entered into the mid season and will be
on a break for the next few weeks. Jorge has to work with these 50 players
and will have no other avenue to look at talents.
European based talents like Hashemian are finding it difficult to leave
their teams several times a year and come to play for the national team in
friendly matches. There is a good chance that most of the European based
players will not participate in the scheduled friendly games.
Iran is grouped with Kuwait, UAE and Syria. This is a relatively easy group
for the traditionally Asian powerhouse and Team Melli should qualify as one
of the top two teams. As such, Jorge has the potential of starting off on
the right note by winning the group. Iran is scheduled to play preparation
matches against lowly regarded teams before the world cup campaign begins.
Since the Asian Cup of this past summer, UAE has played eight matches and
Syria has had nine games. The other two teams, Iran and Kuwait, have had no
friendly matches.
Jorge had many successes as a player and early on in his coaching career.
His resume over the last ten years shows large coaching gaps. He needs a
“success” in his resume following the disappointments at Cameroon and Saudi
Arabia. Jorge therefore is a hungry coach. This one element may be the best
thing Iranian football has going for it.
Iran could end up with a head coach who needs Iran to succeed to dust off a
resume and set himself for next career moves.
Kaveh Mahjoob
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