The Croatian took Team Melli to the 2006 competition in Germany before stepping down and now he is in charge of Chinese club Shandong Luneng.
The 56 year-old still has fond memories of his time in Tehran however.
“Iran is a football country,” he told Goal.com. “Football is very important and the expectations are high.The team is still a giant in Asia despite the fact that it will not be in South Africa.”
Ivankovic is unsure why Iran failed to qualify for the upcoming tournament.
“I don’t know what happened. When I left in 2006, Iran were a good team with some very good players. They should be at the World Cup.”
Iran collected just a single point at the 2006 World Cup amid rumours of dressing room divisions that Ivankovic was happy to refute.
“There were no problems like that. We had excelled as a team for four years and had qualified for the World Cup smoothly and finished third at the 2004 Asian Cup.”