Will Arab national teams eventually pull ahead of team melli?

[ramingeles2000]

In 2004 I was in Iran watching the Asian Cup and I was marveling at how good Japan was. We were about to play them in the 3rd group match (the match ended up being a meaningless, boring 0-0 draw because both teams had already qualified - and thanks to a Daei blunder right in front of goal we didn't win the match).

My cousin said, there was a time when Japan was a joke for Iran, or "zangeh-tafri", as he put it. Now, a few decades later, with some good planning and financial investment, both Japan and Korea are objectively ahead of us in terms of the players they produce and their national team performance. Imagine: not long ago,TM would wipe the floor with Japan and Korea. A lot can change in a very short period.

Over the past 15 years, Arab teams have narrowed the gap between themselves and Asia's elite. They continue to invest and grow, and the WC being hosted in Qatar should do a lot to increase interest in football, too. They're not afraid of the big Asian powers, and have gotten some good results (i.e., Iraq in AC 2007). They also routinely outperform our club teams in ACL.

Will there come a day where Arab nations, like SK and Japan, pull ahead of Iran, especially considering our woeful infrastructure and diseased football culture? Will the endless money and resources bear fruit, like they did with Japan and SK?

Or are they limited by the fact that their populations aren't football-crazy like ours is, that they lack a tradition and culture for football, that their populations (and talent pools) are smaller than ours, and that there's no market for arab players in Europe?

[hzv]

saudi already did in the 90 s but iran will always be strong while these other teams will have good decades or eras because they simply dont have iran's talents iran is a mother who continuously gives birth to talented individuals and it will never stop. only great nations can compete with iran over the long run and arab nations (except maybe for egypt) are the minnows.

[Z Joon]

saudi already did in the 90 s but iran will always be strong while these other teams will have good decades or eras because they simply dont have iran's talents iran is a mother who continuously gives birth to talented individuals and it will never stop. only great nations can compete with iran over the long run and arab nations (except maybe for egypt) are the minnows.

Pretty much this. We might slip a AC/WC here and there, with some random team like Iraq or Saudi, probably UAE too soon, doing well. But we will always be superior and more consistent than these nations thanks to our talents. Time will tell.

[BacheLot]

ba en-gadr khasisi o geda baziha ke ma ba footballemoon mikonim, its certainly a distinct possibility in not so distant future..!!

[Soosk]

Unlikely that they would become better than Iran indefinitely. They may have a few years or be better in some tournaments but they will never be better than tm in the grand scheme of it all. Frankly a lot of these Arab teams have little passion for the sport of football. Whereas in Iran, football is everything sports wise. Of course there is a lot of interest in sports like wrestling, volleyball, weightlifting and combat sports but football reigns supreme. Every little boy grows up playing the sport and following the sport. Because of this we always have talent coming up. Of course a lot of this talent may go unnoticed or unrealized but it is still far more talent than these Arab countries have.

[KC McElroy]

Result wise it's possible if they upgrade their level of sauding refs. But results aside they will never pull ahead of us.

[Hosseini]

Result wise, no. Saudi, Qatar, UAE will never have the consistency Iran has had over the years. Every nation has their ups and downs, like Iran, but seeing these Arab nations pull ahead on the international level and becoming powerhouses in Asia wont happen.

[khodam]

I really hope so. Iran's dominance in West at constant rate is an indication that Asian football is not improving. Personally I welcome the competition.

Iran is like the England of Asia. We keep bragging about our past. But in reality we haven't won anything for years now. At the National level we haven't seen any championship for 4 decades.

[Camran khan]

Doubt it. Arab teams simply lack talented players. When speaking of the past of Iran, like the last 20 years, I can name like 10 really good talented players that we have had, while these arab countries have barely had even one, except for possibly Saudi Arabia who had a few.

[Team Melli Fan]

If the islamic republic stays in charge, yes. They're already surpassing us when it comes to infrastructure, etc.

[irani8perspolis]

Simple answer, no. Believe it or not our football is at the beginning of a major ascent in football (imo, some will disagree), our women's payeh teams are having their best results ever and with CQ at the helm of TM our senior side will only improve. People complain about our omid, javanan, nojavanan and they have a right too, but it will only get better with our teams now ACTUALLY investing in youth. Also with the sanctions all pushed a side (hopefully) in a month, and Iran open for investment, a lot of that investment will happen in our football sector (buildings stadiums, foreign takeover of clubs, improved relations with other federations which can help our league). A lot of people might want an Iranian investor to buy Persepolis, Esteghlal or whoever, but imo no Iranian investors have the amount of money our ambtion to go out and ATTEMPT to make our clubs world class, this will only happen with smart foreign investors with football knowledge, such as the group from Genoa CFC who enquired into Persepolis and Malavan.

[teammelli91]

I'm going to answer your question with a question.

For example: Has an Arab nation from the Asian footballing continent ever produced a player like Ali Karimi or Ali Daei where the player would go on to play their football in Bayern Munich and score in the UEFA Champions League? Arabs have had some players in European leagues, but did they/do they have more Arabian players than Iranians play their football abroad in Europe?

I know that doesn't mean much, but in some ways in means A LOT.

When you have players who has trained in professional European league, they not only help the national team with their experience but also help and teach their domestic teammates become better players.

There will not be a day where Iran will be below an arab team or be dominated by an arab team. The only thing that could happen is an Iran KSA rivalry scenario, or a loss vs Lebanon (like in 2012).

Keep in mind my answer to the question was just an example. I can go into detail and give many other examples for why Iran will not be dominated or be under another Arabian footballing nation from Asia.

Carlos Queiroz said it best. Asia will NEVER be able to compete against the World. Because Asia wants to COPY Europe. Asia needs to have it's own style. Only then will Asian teams be able to achieve glory in the World (this has nothing to do with the question asked, but it is the root for why Iran, the Arabian teams, the other Asian teams haven't shown a significant improvement when it comes to the game of football).

[OFFSIDE_1]

it's not just football. Looking at the past olympics, or any international sports events, the arab nations have not performed well in any sport.
Iran has done well internationally in wrestling, weightlifting, volleyball, basketball (kind of) and are respectable in football. I maybe drawing a blank, but I don't know if the arab nations do well in ANY sport.

[GoIran]

In 2004 I was in Iran watching the Asian Cup and I was marveling at how good Japan was. We were about to play them in the 3rd group match (the match ended up being a meaningless, boring 0-0 draw because both teams had already qualified - and thanks to a Daei blunder right in front of goal we didn't win the match).
My cousin said, there was a time when Japan was a joke for Iran, or "zangeh-tafri", as he put it. Now, a few decades later, with some good planning and financial investment, both Japan and Korea are objectively ahead of us in terms of the players they produce and their national team performance. Imagine: not long ago,TM would wipe the floor with Japan and Korea. A lot can change in a very short period.
Over the past 15 years, Arab teams have narrowed the gap between themselves and Asia's elite. They continue to invest and grow, and the WC being hosted in Qatar should do a lot to increase interest in football, too. They're not afraid of the big Asian powers, and have gotten some good results (i.e., Iraq in AC 2007). They also routinely outperform our club teams in ACL.
Will there come a day where Arab nations, like SK and Japan, pull ahead of Iran, especially considering our woeful infrastructure and diseased football culture? Will the endless money and resources bear fruit, like they did with Japan and SK?
Or are they limited by the fact that their populations aren't football-crazy like ours is, that they lack a tradition and culture for football, that their populations (and talent pools) are smaller than ours, and that there's no market for arab players in Europe?

There is no way that the Persian Gulf teams will overtake us. National team strength is decided by the following factors.

1 Economy
2 Population
3 Football tradition
4 Good plan

We are ahead of the Arabs except for 4. Korea is a country of 50 million people with a first world economy and Japan is the only first world country alongside US which has over 100 million populations, so it's natural that they have been better than us in the last 10 years.

[Siavash]

Football is in our blood! Arabs will never pull ahead of our TM no matter what. Yes they have the money and the facilities but we have the passion and the hearth and that can not be replaced by any amount of money.