Share this story!            

Iran’s hopes of defending soccer title suffer setback

TEHRAN: Iran’s hopes of successfully defending their Asian Games football title have suffered a setback as infighting within the squad threatens to destabilise their gold medal dreams.

Despite beating Paraguay to win the four nation LG Cup on home soil earlier in September, the wounds of only finishing third in the West Asian Football Federation Championship were widened a little more by the resignation of Mohsen Safaee Farahani as Iran football association president.

The storm clouds then darkened further when star player Ali Karimi came under fire for the way he captained the team at the WAFF event in Syria where they lost to bitter rivals Iraq in the semi-finals. As a result, many people have been expecting him to pay a heavy price by being axed by coach Branco Ivancovic from the squad for the Busan Asian Games.

The mood of depression began when Farahani left his post complaining of excessive pressure being exerted by those “who have mobilized to destroy the national team and soccer.”Farahani told local reporters that he felt it was impossible to stay in his job, although he refused to be specific on the problems he faced.

“I am sacrificing myself to let the national team continue its work with peace and those who are bearing a grudge against me to get their hands off the team,” Farahani was quoted as saying on iranmania.com. He even compared Iranian football to an orphan which is raised by ruthless step-mothers. “The working environment in Iran’s football is unhealthy that is why I decided to give this child back to its step-mothers to save it from being sliced to pieces,” said Farahani who had been in the job for four years.

Iran’s failure to qualify for the last World Cup as well as their unimpressive international showings had led to more and more criticism and it came to a head after the WAFF event. The 23-year-old Karimi became the target for that lacklustre experience. “I want to be at the service of the national team like a soldier. If Ivancovic agrees, I’ll go to Busan and play with all my might,” Karimi told the Iranian press. “I never intended to be the captain in the WAFF tournament. I even rejected the coach’s offers but I was told it was my duty and I had to accept. The newspapers then criticised me and they said that I had not performed well as captain,” admitted Karimi. “I was the captain unwillingly in the games. I accept that I did not play well in Syria and I am sorry. I promise to make up for this if I play in the Busan tournament.” One well-known face expected to feature in South Korea is veteran striker Ali Daei who looks set to be one of the three ‘over-age’ players allowed to take part. Daei has lepat to the defence of Ivancovic who has also come under fire. “The present team is a young one and most of the players are involved for the first time,” Daei told footballasia.com “They naturally need more experience.” Iran have been drawn in Group E at the Games with Qatar, Afghanistan and Lebanon. —AFP

Home | Sport

Share this story!