Carlos Queiroz has defended his Team Captain performance while tangled himself in a strong attack on “Iran Varzeshi” newspaper, a leading football and sport daily.
After the Guinea match, some of the criticism against the players included that of Javad Nekounam , who showed much sign of fatigue and ineffectiveness. In his usual coarse and harsh manner, Queiroz did not shy from some serious accusations against critics and this time a newspaper. He said “ on Saturday, one of the newspapers published wrong and false article about Team Melli and Captain Javad Nekounam, which requires me to respond to those false allegations,”
[pullquote]”These people have consistently written against us.” [/pullquote]
“First of all , we know very well that the article written in that newspaper was personally targeting Nekounam and have been pushed by people that have an agenda against us which we are aware of (…). These people have consistently written against us, we know them very well and we know who drives them to do so and what motives they have. It is all clear to us.”
“The second thing I want to say here in the motive behind these articles is to destroy us and mislead the public by publishing pure lies and fabrications. What is even more disturbing is why, after we qualified to the World Cup, there is so much attack on the team and players after just one friendly game?”
“These attacks are targeting the most effective and one of the best scorers of Team Melli during the World Cup qualification matches, and also the leader of the team. He is the same player that was a candidate for the AFC player of the year. It is exactly such ill-treatment of the player that made him leave Iran’s football”
“I am forced to state some facts that I normally reserve for myself. Nekounam ran 5.488 Km in the 1st half and 5.891 in the 2nd for a total of 11.379 km”
“With such figures, I want to inform the public about the facts rather than the false allegations published in the newspapers.”
On the other hand, Iran Varzeshi’s editor-in-Chief , the newspaper that Queiroz was referring to , denied the accusations of the Portuguese coach and warned about a lawsuit against Queiroz for slander.
In response to the scathing attack by Queiroz , Saeed Zahedian , mentioned that “our evidence of what they wrote is the footage of the game , while we have not seen any evidence of Queiroz claim about his famous 11.379 km that Nekounam has supposedly run”
Zahedian went on explaining his newspapers motives and emphasized that they do not need someone to teach them about patriotism and Team Melli’s interest. “It is our duty to publish what we think in our own opinion, what are facts and without prejudice. Occasionally, these facts are bitter pill to swallow for some.”
The editor-in-Chief mentioned that our argument with Queiroz is purely technical not personal. “We have loads of issues that we are concerned with, however , we try quite hard to publish it in a way that has minimum negative effect on the team. For instance, on what basis Queiroz selects Alireza Haghighi , a player (Goalkeeper) who has not featured regularly for his clubs for 3 seasons and as soon as he joins a second division Portuguese club, he is suddenly picked for Team Melli?” We want to know what criteria this coach is using and what about applying the same selection criteria to Afshin Esmaeilzadeh who is also playing abroad and has much more playing time?”
[quote]It is so clear to everyone in Iran, that Queiroz does not care much about the domestic league [/quote],
Zahedian continued “how on earth can he ignore quality players who are regularly playing for their club and excelling in their performance , yet he selects a player that has not been active for 3 years simply because he is now in Portugal?.”
“Regardless to what Queiroz thinks, we will continue analyzing , supporting and criticizing Team Melli’s performance as we see it fit. We do not seek his permission or his approval. It is our duty to publish what we think is appropriate and we are not driven by the interests of others.”
On the issue of Nekounam running, Zahedian claims that according to their calculations, Nekounam has run for just about 5 km not 11 km as claimed by Queiroz.
Carlos Queiroz has time and again displayed little tolerance for criticism and his confrontational and volatile attitude has left him and his team into troubles.