Ghalenoei critical of Team Melli preperations.

The failure of the Iranian national team to play friendly games against leading teams over the past few years, and especially since the time of Carlos Queiroz took over the helm, has caused a lot of doubts and raised many question marks among the football community. One such concern was echoed by Amir Ghalenoei in today’s interview with ISNA.

The poor international relation and media team of the Football Federation in the past, or the sanctions against Iran was frequently mentioned as reasons for the reluctance of major football countries to play Iranian teams, but some also believe that this is deliberate strategy by the coaching staff who are reluctant to hold big games and face quality opponents.

Amir Ghalenoei , a former head coach of Team Melli, who has challenged many of Queiroz statements in the past, is one of those critics who consider the coaching staff’s perspective as the main factor in determining the national team’s preparations for the big games. He has been one of the main critics of Queiroz playing style and his selection system. In his latest statement, Ghalenoei indirectly criticized Team Melli’s head coach and accused him of being afraid of confronting strong teams. Ghalenoei dismisses the idea of foreign country’s reluctance to meet or travel to Iran, and cited the example of Iran national volleyball team that easily visits major countries and hosts all nations including the USA.

“I have a question. Is football federation’s international communications and networking good enough? Why is our volleyball federation’s planning is so good in all aspects on international scene including playing world class games? Well, this volleyball team is for Iran too, right?”

“It’s all about the attitude and mentality of managers and coaching staff of the team, how to plan , whom to play with and on which dates” Ghalenoei said. “Officials should not just be looking for the FIFA ranking that, for example, if they play with a certain team, their ranking in FIFA will be affected negatively.”

One of the recent critiques of Queiroz’s strategy, which has been raised in today’s interview with Ghalenoei, is the prolonged negotiation and wasting of time to extend the contract between FFIRI and the coaching staff, which means loss of opportunities for the next big challenge, the Asian Cup 2019. Ghalenoei has occasionally criticized Queiroz’s in the past for his selection criteria of inviting players, how to organize training camps, as well as Queiroz’s low regards for the domestic league players.