Theguardian - A kit that shrinks in the wash, 11 players reporting for a training camp and matches cancelled due to a lack of funds – it was never like this for Carlos Queiroz at Manchester United or Real Madrid. He has faced all this and more in the buildup to Brazil as manager of Iran, plus other trappings of the job that were beyond him at Old Trafford and the Bernabéu – acclaim, authority and a respect bordering on reverence from players and supporters alike. Every cloud, as they say.

The widely experienced Portuguese coach has approached the World Cup with an air of defiance and exasperation since guiding Iran to the finals 12 months ago. The highest-ranked Asian team in the tournament are the third nation Queiroz has taken to a World Cup, following South Africa in 2002 and Portugal in 2010, and history suggests they have done well to keep him at the helm forMonday’s opener against Nigeria. He quit South Africa before the 2002 finals over a dispute with the country’s football association (who reportedly want Queiroz back when his contract with Iran expires this summer) but has stomached much more to fulfil his duties with the side known back home as Team Melli.

Maybe he has mellowed with age at 61. Then again, consider his reaction when Iran clinched first place in their Asia qualifying group at South Korea’s expense last June. Queiroz celebrated that crucial victory on South Korean soil with a clenched-fist, up-yours salute to his opposite number Choi Kang-hee, sparking outrage among the home crowd in Ulsan, who pelted his team with water bottles, an attempted rush on the visitors’ bench by Choi’s players and official condemnation from Korea Football Association officials. Perhaps we should discount mellowing.

An alternative theory for Queiroz’s resolve in the face of Iran’s farcical World Cup preparations is that he has attained the level of control, success and credit denied him in previous high-profilepositions.

He has the authority that was never available as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at United, where Roy Keane was among those who questioned the coach’s input, or while working under Real president Florentino Pérez in Madrid. His disciplined, defensive coaching is more suited to upsetting the odds with Iran than realising the expectations of Portugal’s entertainers and individuals.And, in delivering World Cup qualification to a fanatical football nation during a time of economic turmoil wrought by international sanctions, while taking a hard-line stance with dissenting players and clubs, he has achieved hero status among the fans.

Enhancing that status in a group containing Nigeria, Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina appears a forlorn hope but Iran – who lost only twice in their qualifying campaign and conceded two goals in their final eight matches – may not be prised open easily. Queiroz has drilled his team into a supremely well-organised, diligent defensive unit. Outside of his orderly bubble, unfortunately, there is only chaos.

Iran have played only five warm-up matches since qualifying 12 months ago and no one of the calibre they will confront in Group F, with all due respect to Guinea, Belarus, Montenegro, Angola and Trinidad & Tobago. They have qualified for the 2015 Asian Cup in the meantime, however, against Thailand, Lebanon and Kuwait. If there is sympathy for the government-funded Iran football federation over attracting international teams to Tehran amid US sanctions and an EU embargo – a consequence of the country’s uranium-enrichment programme – then it evaporated over the fiasco of the team’s kit.

The federation claims it has been unable to collect approximately £180,000 owed by international sponsors due to the sanctions. Its response, it has been alleged, was to order poor-quality kit that the federation president, Ali Kafashian, has advised players to wash in cold water to prevent shrinkage. Players have also been asked not to exchange shirts with the likes of Lionel Messi because replacements are in short supply.

“Before crucial qualifying games against Qatar and South Korea, which were played in extreme conditions of humidity, the equipment delivered was not proper. This could have put Iran out of the World Cup,” claimed Queiroz. The striker Karim Ansarifard elaborated: “They give us large-size socks and after two days and being washed they shrink to a small size.” The supplier, German manufacturer Uhlsport, understandably defended its credibility and Queiroz was forced to deny claims his criticism stemmed from a financial dispute with a Dubai-based kit distributor. Whether Iran have been wearing bona fide Uhlsport gear has also been open to question. “The gear that we have now, we really don’t know what it is,” said the striker Mohammad Reza Khalatbari.

The make and eventual size of the Iran shirt that Messi hangs on his wall is notthe only problem. A training camp in Portugal last September that included a friendly against fellow World Cup qualifiers Ghana was cancelled due to a lack of funds, while the decision to hold a get-together in South Africa in April prompted a fierce row between clubs and country. The timing clashed with four teams’ involvement in the Asian Champions League. They refused to release their employees, the camp went ahead with only 11 players and Queiroz, who had successfully appealed for the domestic league to finish early, threatened to omit the no-shows from the World Cup before eventually backing down.

Javad Nekounam, the Iran captain, lamented: “None of the promises turned into realities. If we did not have good preparation games until the games start, there shouldn’t be any expectations. Whatever happens, the authorities must be held responsible for the results.”

Such distractions would be infuriating at the best of times. For a country that desperately craves the release of a World Cup and is passionately behind Queiroz’s team, as shown by the mass celebrations that erupted in Tehran upon qualification, they are lamentable. The starting gun cannot sound quickly enough and Iran must hope a siege mentality has replaced the internal squad divisions that marred previous tournaments. This will be Iran’s fourth World Cup and their record reads three group exits with only one win; albeit the momentous scalp of the USA in 1998.

The prospect of Iran reaching the second round for the first time is remote. But low expectations will suit the defensive approach of their manager whose team is designed to absorb pressure, not concede many and has an experienced central-midfield core of the former Osasuna veteran Nekounam plus Andranik Teymourian, of brief Bolton and Fulham fame. Their problems, on the field at least, rest on their potency when they do have the ball, with the squad lacking a proven goalscorer. Ansarifard’s equaliser in a recent 1-1 draw with Angola was Iran’s first goal in three friendly matches.

Queiroz has scoured the Iranian diaspora for players to join a predominantly home-based squad. Two, Fulham’s German-Iranian Ashkan Dejagah and Charlton Athletic’s Dutch-Iranian Reza Ghoochannejhad, may carry the responsibility up front along with Ansarifard, the more established but hardly prolific threat. Ghoochannejhad only made his international debut with the qualifying campaign under way, and with Iran in trouble, but his nine goals in 11 appearances underpinned an impressive recovery.

“Gucci”, as the 26-year-old is known to his friends, sparked delirium with a confident finish in that win over South Korea. Another upset on the biggest stage of all and we may witness another defiant gesture from Queiroz, with his employer at the Iran football federation on the receiving end.