The assistant coach of Team Melli António Simões , has defended  Masoud Shojaei against the fans who booed him and chanted against the Las Palmas player during Tuesday’s 2-1 win against Thailand.

The Portuguese coach said that he was not fully aware what was going on during the match in this respect and what the fans were chanting about during the game itself.  “ Unfortunately , one person forgot to do what he is supposed to do. We only knew about those chants on our way back to the hotel.  If Carlos Queiroz knew exactly what was going on as far as Shojeai was concerned and from what I know of Queiroz character, he would have left Shojaei in the game even if the match lasted another 4 of 5 hours !!” António Simões said in a statement to the FFIRI website.

“As a player who has served this team for 9 years, Shojeai deserves much respect and certainly better than the treatment he received on Tuesday” The assistant to Carlos Queiroz said. “Some people need to learn to be appreciative and value their assets. Shojaei belongs to the People of Iran and is part of this family called Team Mell” Simões concluded.

If António Simões is right about what he believes that Queiroz would have done and left Shojaei playing the whole match ( or even 5 hours if the match  lasted that long, as he claimed)  in defiance to the hostile fans  and subjecting him to barrages of verbal abuse and  of profanities from that section of the crowds, then Queiroz needs to learn a few lessons on human factors and psychology in the Persian culture. It might be OK in Europe  ( although we seriously doubt that )  for a player to be subjected to boos and abuse, in Iran it is simply NOT acceptable. The insults are demoralizing for a player and would leave a scar that some players might not easily fully recover from.

Shojaei , to be fair , has not been playing anywhere near his unusual best since the Asian Cup 2011 in Doha, despite what Queiroz thinks of the player.  Shaoje had a career threatening injury, he was off football for a season and a half. Masoud Shojaei, as a person is a decent gentleman who has hardly been in the news for wrong reasons. His disciplinary record is admirable and he is a true professional. He is also a hyper sensitive person. The world knew about how sensitive Shojaei is shortly after he was sent off during the Korea Game in Azadi for Iran to play with 10 men. Masoud was in tears, inconsolable and crying like a baby . It was like a miracle when Nekounam scored the decisive goal , not only to save Iran but also to console Shojaei , who would have never  forgiven himself if Iran lost that match due to his dismissal.

We completely concur with António Simões last statements about respect and appreciations for the efforts of players, despite the fact that some of these efforts sometimes fall way short of the fans expectations. We also disagree with the fans focusing on Shaojae while many other players were playing worse than him. But because those under-performing players were from famous teams, they were immune! However, we disagree with the hawkish, defiant and stubborn mentality that the Team Melli coaching team seems to employ. There is no question that Queiroz has the last say about his players’ selection, but we firmly believe that in parallel he needs to starts thinking about protecting his players, morally and physically as well.