FNA - AFC President Mohammad Bin Hammam surprisingly doesn't see Iran as part of Asia's football elite.
The 59-year-old Qatari spoke about Australia's role in the AFC in an interview with ESPNsoccernet and stated, "Australia has joined Japan, the Korean Republic, Saudi Arabia as the elite countries in Asia", putting Iran into the second string of Asian football national teams alongside the likes of Bahrain, Iraq or the UAE.
Iran has repeatedly felt undervalued by AFC representatives in the past. Most recently the AFC had announced a wrong 2010 World Cup seeding based on the results of the 2006 World Cup campaign, seeding Iran fifth behind Australia, Korea Republic, Japan and Saudi Arabia. International governing body FIFA had to correct the seeding, rightly putting Iran third, Japan fourth and Saudi Arabia fifth.
Iran are currently the third best ranked AFC team in FIFA ranking (44th overall) and has the second best average ranking of the past four years (33.468), only second to Japan.