Although Team Melli has been topping the FIFA Ranking in Asia for many months and years, the reality of the football results, performances of other Iranian teams, global reputation, management, and administration chaos tells a completely different story.
A close analysis of the above shows that Iranian football is lagging behind major Asian footballing nations in recent years. According to the FIFA ranking system for the Senior National Football teams, Iran’s team has often been at the top rank of Asian teams in the FIFA rankings in recent years. This ranking cannot be questioned because it has its own criteria and points are awarded for winning in each match, while each match has a factor based on importance and the position/rank of the opponents. So, it is quite scientific and the process v=cannot be faulted in any way. However, by examining various fields and indicators, including the superiority of Iranian football in the competition with important teams in the world at the club and junior levels football and the results obtained In the AFC Asian Cup, World Cup rounds, and Olympics, we find out that Iranian football is by far not the top nation in Asia as we have always been led to believe.
Now the question is why Iranian football has not been able to get results in important Asian competitions for many years. Why has a team that claims to be a contender in Asian football not achieved any important honor in the last 30 years in the club division and in the last 40 years at the national level?
1/ Performance in the World Cup
Performance of Asian teams in the World Cup (teams that advanced to the second round are highlighted in blue)
| Teams | Korea Rep | Japan | Saudi Arabia | Iran | Australia | Korea DPR |
| Played | 34 | 21 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 7 |
| Won | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Drawn | 9 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Lost | 19 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 5 |
2/ Performance in the Olympics
46 years have passed since Iran’s last participation in the Olympics, and by the time the Paris Olympics begin, this longing will reach 48 years. For every Olympic qualifier, failures and lackluster results lead to elimination from the early stages of qualifiers. Iran’s Omid national team fails to advance to the Olympics tournament after tournament. The following is the list of Asian Teams that qualified for the Olympics since 1980.
| 1980 | IRAQ | SYRIA | KUWAIT | |
| 1984 | IRAQ | SAUDI ARABIA | QATAR | |
| 1988 | IRAQ | KOREA REP | CHINA | |
| 1992 | QATAR | KOREA REP | KUWAIT | |
| 1996 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | SAUDI ARABIA | |
| 2000 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | KUWAIT | |
| 2004 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | IRAQ | |
| 2008 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | AUSTRALIA | |
| 2012 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | UAE | |
| 2016 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | IRAQ | |
| 2020 | JAPAN | KOREA REP | AUSTRALIA | SAUDI ARABIA |
3/ The AFC Asian Cup
The longing for lifting the AFC Asian Cup trophy by Team Melli, which Iran won three times in a row before the revolution, is now 47 years old, and Iran has not won the title since the revolution. by the next edition of the Asian Cup, this longing will last half a century. This is despite the fact that since Iran’s last championship in the Asian Cup, Japan won 4, Saudi Arabia won 3, and Kuwait, Iraq, Australia, and Qatar have won the title once in Iran’s absence.
| YEAR | CHAMPION | FINALIST | THIRD | |
| 1980 | KUWAIT | KOREA REP | IRAN | |
| 1984 | SAUDI ARABIA | CHINA | KUWAIT | |
| 1988 | SAUDI ARABIA | KOREA REP | IRAN | |
| 1992 | JAPAN | SAUDI ARABIA | CHINA | |
| 1996 | SAUDI ARABIA | UAE | IRAN | |
| 2000 | JAPAN | SAUDI ARABIA | KOREA REP | |
| 2004 | JAPAN | CHINA | IRAN | |
| 2007 | IRAQ | SAUDI ARABIA | KOREA REP | |
| 2011 | JAPAN | AUSTRALIA | KOREA REP | |
| 2015 | AUSTRALIA | KOREA REP | UAE | |
| 2019 | QATAR | JAPAN | IRAN & UAE |
4/ Performance in the AFC Champions League
Pas won the Asian Club Cup in the 1992-1993 season. Three decades have passed since then. In this competition, Iranian club teams have never been able to win the championship title in its new format. The Asian Champions League has been held in a new format since 2002.
The number of championships of Asian teams since the start of the Champions League:
South Korea: 6 championships
Japan: 4 championships
Saudi Arabia: 4 championships
Australia: 1 championship
Iran: Zero
5/ The number of legionnaires in the 5 prestigious leagues of the world
| JAPAN | KOREA DPR | AUSTRALIA | IRAN | SAUDI ARABIA | |||
| Bundesliga | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | ||
| English Premier League: | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| La Liga | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Serie A | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 14 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 0 | |||