Afshin Ghotbi, the former coach of Team Melli is facing a torrid time in Japan.
After the Asian Cup, in which Team Melli failed to pass the quarter finals stage under Ghotbi, the Iranian-American coach resigned to join  the Japan’s J. League Division 1 side Shimizu S-Pulse on a three-year contract with.
In his first season in Japan , Ghotbi lead his club to the tenth position in the table. In the following season ,  in which he had a good start,  the team started slipping towards the end and ended up in in 9th place with one progress. They also reached the final game of J. League Cup but lost 1-2 to Kashima Antlers.
This year the team is languishing in the 10th place away from the top that S-Pulse have been used to before Ghotbi’s take over.

Because of these poor results, the S-Pulse fans have shown their anger in quite a strong manner. Recently the coach carrying the players was attacked by the fans but there were no serious injury reported. The fans have singed a petition to sack Ghotbi from his coach. The petition has gathered around 12,000 votes in which the majority have blamed the coach and demanded his removal.

Ghotbi has coached Perspolis in two periods from 2007-2008 and managed to win the league , before being appointed as Team Melli coach from 2009 in the aftermath or the very short period that Mohammad Mayeli-Kohan was appointed.