It has been claimed that the U 23 team (Omid) has been dispatched to the Asian Games Jakarta 2018 for gaining experience in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but the loss to Myanmar has undermined all these goals, and what remained was a shameful act that is Iran football is suffering from.

“The only thing that is worse than losing is one’s inability to admit the mistakes.” This phrase is a dialogue that has been spoken by Kevin Spacey in movie 21, but it currently applies to the Iranian football federation, and it is also generally wide spread phenomena in Iran’s sport.

They simply do not admit mistakes, excel in giving excuses and hence those mistakes are repeated and losses continue.

One of the mistakes that the federation will not accept in any way is the shameful ill conceived loss to Myanmar in the Group stages of the Asian Games 2018 Jakarta. The pre-planned loss did not even achieve the objectives in the end, at with it the team’s hope.

The tale of Omid team for the Asian Games in Jakarta began a few months ago. After a lot of drama  and the usual chaotic ill programming of FFIRI.  Zlatko Krancjar was appointed on May 22 as the head of Iran’s Omid team. What was the purpose of the employing of such a veteran coach? Gain experience in Asian Games to prepare this squad to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics!

 

After the coach’s appointment, Omid hosted a series of training camps, featuring friendly matches with the Iraqi and Chinese teams. Throughout this time, Hamid Estilli, Zlatko Krancjar and a horde of football officials proclaimed that the Asian Games, is a platform on which the team will gain experience for the bigger goal. As a result, a team of under 21 was organized to compete in Indonesia.

In the three months before the games,  despite the approval of the FFIRI Council’s mandate that the clubs are obliged to release invited players to Omid team for training sessions, which practically means not more than 2 players from each league team, however, several clubs including Nasiji and Tractorsazi refused to release players.

Also, Omid Nourfakan and Reza Shakari, two key players playing for  Charleoi Belgium and Rubin Kazan Russia , were not released by their clubs. While South Korea was able to call on star players like Son Hyun Min, a key player for a Premier League title contenders, Tottenham to join.

Eventually, the Omid football team with 20 players headed towards Indonesia to compete in the Asian Games Group F with Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and North Korea. The glitches started to surface as soon as they landed in Jakarta.  Nutritional problems and training ground were the major concerns. Team had to practice on gravel, showing Indonesia’s weak hosting.  The squad also experienced the dismissal of Mohammad Amin Asadi , after what the Team officials claimed as the Persepolis’ players repeated indiscretions and disciplinary matters. Asadi was sent home.

With all these problems, admittedly nothing of which was a show stopper, Iran managed a satisfactory goal-less draw against Saudi Arabia in the first game. The best result was gained against North Korea by defeating the physically tough last Asian Games finalist by three goals, but these two promising results and a 4 point group lead all crumbled in the fiasco and pre-mediated loss to Myanmar.

Plan was for the Omid team to be placed second, and avoid facing South Korea in the next round! The fear of confrontation with South Korea, which eventually became the Gold Medal winner, resulted in Iran playing a match which was so shamefully orchestrated to lose and so poorly executed, that FIFA ,  AFC or even the Games Organizing Committee could have easily expelled Iran from the Football tournament for fixing a match or based on unsportmanship conduct. It was that bad and that obvious. It was akin to a wrestler who is expelled for inactivity in Free Style wrestling.

Despite that, the disgraceful defeat against Myanmar did not achieve the team officials wishes, as Iran ended up the top of the group and faced their nemesis South Korean side in the next round. Iran lost 2-0 and eliminated from the tournament. The interesting thing about the group, was that Saudi Arabia lost to North Korea 3-0 and were ranked third in the table and as such they faced China in the round of 16.

The comedy and Irony is that thick-skinned officials of Iran’s team like Hamid Estili and Reza Shahroudi had the audacity to condemn Saudi Arabia’s loss to North Korea, considered it cowardly and accused them of cheating, while considering their own team loss to Myanmar as just an honest football game!!

Still, with all the hoopla about the team competing in Asian Games just for experience, no official is willing to explain the steep drop of form, lethargic performance and the sudden fall from grace of the team against Myanmar. The objectives, were forgotten in Asian games, to be replaced by fear of facing South Korea .

Perhaps the best comment on Iran’s loss to Myanmar was by Iran’s football legend Ali Daei. “We lost everything in the game with Myanmar.”

However, there might still be a trace of hope for coaching Staff of Omid team, to  re-energize and re-group in order to qualify this group of young talented Iranian players, to break the spell 44 years of failure to reach the Olympics.

It is a big mistake to forget the Asian Games event. The common man in  Iran has suffered a lot because of poor management by the hierarchy. Football fans suffered twice as much because processes, systems, accountability, Scheduling & programming , visions, talent resource management and culpability has always been missing in Iranian football institution….what remains is prayers and false hopes.