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GOAL - Iran’s 2-0 defeat in Seoul has,
unsurprisingly, intensified the pressure on Iran Coach Branko Ivankovic.
It is no secret that Ivankovic does not have
many friends amongst the capital’s large core of sports writers. His
detractors were hard at work before the friendly game building up the
importance of this game and presenting it as a test that could seal his
fate. The Croatian said as much, and blames the press for unfair treatment.
Unfair it may be, but that is simply how things work in Iran’s world of
sports.
Iran is a country full of sports fanatics. Arenas regularly sell out for
international wrestling tournaments. Huge crowds attend international Judo,
Taekwondo, volleyball, and basketball matches. But football is an entirely
different story. The intensity and passion that football raises amongst
Iranians are unparalleled to any other sport. The 16 sports dailies
published in the capital dedicate most, if not all, of their pages to
football.
This doesn’t include the daily newspapers and weekly magazines that also
have sports sections of their own. With six out of the sixteen Iranian
Premier League teams, and many more in Divisions I and II, based in Tehran,
a day hardly goes by without a new soccer “scandal” hitting the front, back
and middle pages, but when the national team has a game, everything else
takes a back seat.
“Team Melli” as it is called is a symbol of the Iranian national pride. So
it is not a surprise to see newspapers and reporters ferociously competing
with each other to get their hands on any “exclusive” piece of news or
analysis on the team. It is this ferocity combined with an amazing lack of
accountability that creates an embarrassingly high volume of misreporting,
misrepresenting, and sometimes outright false reporting. It is not uncommon
to read an “exclusive’ interview with a player or coach in one newspaper,
only to have him deny ever speaking to the alleged interviewer in another.
The fans are acutely aware of the situation and rarely put too much weight
behind this kind of sensationalist reporting.
The situation in Branko Ivankovic’s case is somewhat different. The coach
enjoys the support of many fans. However, he has managed to alienate himself
from the press and by doing so he has lost his most practical means of
communicating with the fans.
It is difficult to say exactly when or why this happened, but one may point
to the first World Cup qualifying game against Bahrain in Manama when Iran
tied with the hosts. Many newspapers criticized him for his “conservative”
approach. The usually calm and level headed Ivankovic took this very hard.
In response he became introverted and developed a suspicious and sometimes
dismissive and hostile attitude towards the press which continued through
the rest of the qualifying campaign.
When questioned about his choices and tactics he refused to discuss them as
he had once done which only served to fuel the reporters’ antagonism. The
situation got so bad that the Iranian Football Federation (IRIFF) had to
intervene and, more than once, issue a public vote of confidence in the
coach and his staff.
In the last few months, Ivankovic has tried to improve the situation by
opening up to the press and granting them more interviews, but the damage
may have already been done. The stage is now set. Failure, even in a
friendly game designed to test new players, is not an option. He must win
and must win “beautifully’.
There wasn’t much beauty on display in the South Korean capital however, and
the headlines must have looked pretty ugly to the coach when he returned
home.
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