An Orphan Left Alone!

Persianleague
- Jun 13, 2007
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This article originally appeared on www.footballmedia.net.(Kaveh Mahjoob)

footballmedia.net - Iran’s football has become an orphan that those who should care in building and nurturing it would or could not while those who get inspired by and seek national pride in it need to collect the broken pieces of their hearts.
 
Evidences are plenty on the current state of affairs in Iran’s football.
 
-           The Iran’s Football Federation (IFF) President was fired during the world cup campaign in Germany. That was almost a year ago. No one has taken his place on a permanent basis.
-           FIFA has kept Iran’s football program on probation for sometime now.
-           Iran’s U23 team was primed for Gold in the Asian Games. It played poorly and finished third while media, experts and fans were not satisfied with a single game that team played.
-           Iran’s league champion, Esteghlal, was disqualified from the Asian Champions League when the caretakers of the team failed to submit players’ roster in time. For the record, many pointed fingers on the same person who now leads the national team as one who was responsible for the fiasco.
-           Iran’s Olympic team was never planned for, supported or paid attention to. It crashed and burned from the 2008 Olympics qualification round.
 
Last week, when Iran played Mexico in a friendly match, some hailed it as a sign that the “brave coach” was truly attempting to measure his team for the Asian Cup in July. While I agree that friendly and prep matches provide the right measure to test the readiness of a team, with Iran’s national team lack of a visible plan, roadmap, coaching qualification and leadership such important friendly opportunities are wasted and useless. It is not the victory or defeat that makes a friendly match a building block for future success. It is what goes before the match, how the team performs during the game and how the coaching staff reacts to the events on the field that make the preparation game worthwhile. In Iran’s case, the encounter with Mexico should be classified as a “lost opportunity” that told us far more about the “who is in charge” than the players and “Team Melli.”
 

Leadership is not judged by intentions. It is measured by qualification, planning, preparation and execution. Iran’s current coaching staff may have all the right intentions but they lack the rest and more important factors that make a team successful.
 
Over the last two decades, Iran’s football rose in rankings and introduced several high profile players that brought excitement to Iranian and Asian football. These very high profile and successful players with their great skills and dedications also managed to hide the inherent deficiency and weakness in Iran’s football. While in the rest of the world, football is looked upon as a science that requires education, innovation and management, in Iran IFF still hopes for HOPE and relies on the brilliance of a few like Daei, Mahdavi Kia, Hashemian, Azizi or Karimi. More recently the hopes have been placed in Nekunam and Taymorian.
 
In Africa and Asia, many countries use an evolutionary process to build their programs. In Iran the reliance is still on luck and individual stardom. This lack of thoughtfulness and foresight will continue to bring defeats to the Iranian teams and disappointments to the tens of millions of fans. The current national team coaching staff will likely bring another set of disappointments in the 2007 Asian Cup unless “luck” and “individuals” save their face and the “team” game.
 
There is no clear path defined to save Iran’s football. This national pride has turned into an orphan with no real support system. Good intentions alone will not save this child!
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