Javad Nekounam and Farhad Majidi are the latest to be named or nominated by the Portuguese coach of Team Melli as his assistants.

While the idea off adding national or Iranian coaches to Team Melli coaching staff cadre, is always appealing and productive exercise for many reasons. The way that Queiroz is going about it, though, certainly raises many questions about his intents and objectives. The real objective is far from clear; what Queiroz offered was a general statement that boils down to him using the experience of these players in the field.

A deeper look into the names that Queiroz has selected instantly raises suspicions of playing the popularity game. Call it the attraction of support of the fans of Persepolis and Esteghlal. Iran is a famous bipolar football nation. The two most popular teams in Iran are Esteghlal and Persepolis and the rest are quite a distance away from the two.  In the absence of a proper statistics to give an accurate figure on the level of support, it is generally believed that a figure of 85% or there about is the level of support for these two Tehrani  team, the other 15% is distributed amongst other clubs such as Tractorzasi Tabriz, Sepahan Esfahan , Foolad Khuzestan and the rest.

It is no secret that Team Melli is going through a soft patch with support dwindling alarmingly.  Fans are not turning up for matches in Azadi. The greatest football venue in Asia which was once feared by the opposing players for the sheer volume of support is becoming a cozy and quiet place for some fans.  (see the dwindling fans o Azadi). Since Queiroz took over, only 41% of Azadi’s capacity has been occupied by fans far cry from the older days where a 100,000 capacity was the norm for Team Melli official matches.

So, what is better than having the icons of the two popular clubs sitting beside Queiroz in a match to attract the fans back to Azadi?

There is other logical reason for an experienced and wily coach like Querioz to select two persons that have just finished their career at footballers on a low note as his assistants to work alongside him. In football, like many other trades and industry, there is something called Qualification and experienced that is the ultimate criteria for selection for a particular job. Neither of the two or even Nekounam are either qualified or experienced as coaches. Queiroz is re-inventing the wheels, it seems, but going at it in the wrong manner.

If selecting an Iranian coach was the real motive, then there are quite a few candidates that are available whose selection would not have made a dent in Queiroz’s reputation. The recently retired (if that is Queiroz’s criteria)  Vahid Hashemian was a glorious opportunity for the Portuguese. He is as accomplished as the players that Queiroz pinned out if not even more, he has plenty of European experience playing at the highest level, and recently completed a German Coaching class, which is recognized globally as one of the best in the business. On top of that , Hashemian already has a coaching experience in the lower tier of the German Bundesliga.

However, Hashemian is not the politically correct candidate. He is not red or blue but a graduate of the school of Pas club. A Great club without any shadow of doubt but nowhere near the popularity of the big two. So , Vahid Hashemian, would have been the perfect candidate to assist Queiroz technically and on man-relation basis, but Queiroz is not after that, it seems. He does not need technical advice. He has a track record of repelling Iranian coaches, so technical interference in his work is not an option if Karimi ever thinks he is wanted.

With all the best intent in the world, Queiroz could regret the selection of Ali Karimi, a controversial and outspoken character. Karimi has never been known for his diplomacy or mild manner. As much as he made fans on the stands, he has made enemies with those he dealt with from coaches to manager and teammates.   It remains to be seen what sort of role Karimi is given. Whether his role in Team Melli will be restricted to distributing and collecting the jerseys of players in the pre-match warm up  or given an active technical role , a highly unlikely option with Queiroz, Karimi’s endurance with Team Melli will be an interesting test.

Unlike some of the Iranian assistants before him like Omid Namazi and Majid Saleh who came and gone with conspicuous silent and fear of talking or revelation of truth, Karimi will be quite vocal ,  fearless and daring if he is upset by something or someone, especially if he feels that he is being manipulated.

 

 

[box title=”

Home matches attendances under Queiroz

” style=”bubbles” box_color=”#eaee3d” title_color=”#0f0d0d” radius=”5″] Team Melli Home matches under Queiroz The Portuguese coach started his reign in Azadi with a friendly against Madagascar. Only 12,000 fans turned out for the match. Subsequently, the attendance for the friendly matches declined rapidly.

The reasons for this decline was put to the low standard of the team and poor selection of opposing teams. Iran selected teams to play which were well below its ranking in FIFA and not to well known for the Tehrani fans. The official matches’ attendance managed to keep some respectable figure with near full capacity in two matches. Those were the FIFA World Cup qualifiers which globally are recognized as the most important competition in the world. [/box]

 

 

Competition	Matches	Total Attn.	Max Capacity	Attn %
Friendly	5	49,000	425,000	11.5%
World Cup Qlfy	8	550,100	800000	68.8%
Asian Cup Qlfy	3	72063	300000	24.0%