The revolt of players or players’ power, whichever one wants to call it, is nothing new in Iran’s Team Melli. Nothing, however, was more famous, that the mass protest of players against Parviz Dehdari in the mid 80’s.
Parviz Dehdari was as much a gentleman of ethics, morality, and good behavior as a football coach. He was known among those who knew him that the ethics and values of sports were driven by the mood of the people who would exercise his moral teachings.
As a player and a successful coach with clubs like Persepolis, Homa and Team Melli , there was no person as honest, principled, and respected as Dehdari. With strict discipline along with fairness and impartiality, he was quite revered and feared by the players at the same time. However, there are alway one or two players who won’t like strong leadership and think they are above the law and more favorable than the coach.
There was a player called Mohammad Panjali who had these ideas of grandeur and at the time believed he was above the laws of discipline. Panjali was the Captain of Team Melli when Dehdsari was the head coach. Panjali was getting on while Dehdari was looking at young blood for the future of the team. The wise man of football, or Ustad as many called him, quietly dealt with the issue by benching Panjali during the opening match against Japan in the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. Korea. Panjali did not like that and demanded that he plays in the starting line-up.
On the return flight back home, 15 players submitted their resignation letters to the federation. Sirous Ghayeghran quickly withdrew his signature to leave 14 players on the list. Those players thought that the football federation would have no choice but to support them by removing Dehdari and his colleagues, including Reza Vatankhah, and appointing another person as the head coach, but that did not happen.
This mass resignation which was instigated by Panjali, became one of the darkest events in Iran’s football. Credit t the Federation, they stuck with Dehdari against half of the squad.
One of those 14 players who resigned back in 1986 was Morteza Fonoonizadeh. The Persepolis veteran of Persepolis commented on the recent drama in Team Melli and the subsequent retention of Dragan Skocic:
“I approved Mr. Skocic from day one. He worked hard to win qualification for Team Melli to the World Cup in the easiest way. I even asked to have a birthday party for Mr. Skocic and pay for it. The board of directors and the technical committee were at odds with each other and finally did not reach an agreement.”
Fonoonizadeh was asked to comment on the similarity between the current Team Melli situation with the differences between the players regarding the coach and the situation back in 1985 when he was involved in the mass resignation in protest against the legendary Dehdari: “Yes, I was one of the fourteen players and it was by far the worst mistake of my career. I was 22 years old and I was one of the fix players on the team. I just got it wrong. Team Melli is not the legacy of anyone’s father. No one has the right to such claims. No player is as important as the team. Now that someone says I don’t want Skocic and someone says I do, should we fire everyone? You fired him once and brought him back again. As soon as you brought him back, you ruined it.”
“He may be the best player in Europe, but the most important thing is to preserve the sanctity of the national team. The player’s duty is not to pick the coach, it is not why he is in Team Melli. We tried to do this to Mr. Dehdari a few years ago, and they kicked us out one by one while the federation kept Mr. Dehdari. He (Dehdari) was a gentleman through and through and had no grudges against anyone. He only demanded an apology to the people of Iran, not himself, and he would take those who apologized back to the team. We did that in an open letter published in the newspaper and mentioned that we were wrong. I, Farshad Pious, and Karim Bavi were taken back in Team Melli.
After this incident, Dehdari built a new team and a new generation of footballers was born. The young Team Melli won third place in the AFC Asian Cup 1988. Instead of those who were banned from Team Melli, Dehdari introduced players such as Abedzadeh, Zarincheh, Marfavi, etc., who became the main pillars of Iranian football. Despite finishing third in the Asian Cup, he was targeted by fans who considered club allegiance bove the national team. He was subjected to obscenities from some fans as a reward for building a young team and getting rid of rebel players. He resigned before the start of the FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers in 1990 . Dehdari finally passed away on November 23, 1992, due to kidney complications.