The Way Forward: Neglect Asian Cup & Focus on World Cup

[Mani]

Since 1988, we have been screwed by AFC and Arab referees over and over. It's like a movie on loop, it happens again and again. At least in two of those Asian Cup editions, Iran played the best football by far and fully deserved to win the trophy. (1996 and 2004) And we were a legitimate contender this year. In the last 4 editions of Asian Cup, we've been practically undefeated, only one extra-time defeat, and all we have to show for it is a bronze medal in 2004. This is so frustrating, we always get screwed by an Arab referee. The Tunisian referee in 1988 disallowing our clean goal against KSA. The Syrian referee in 1992 allowing a late Japanese offside goal which eliminated Iran. The Egyptian referee in 1996 disallowing Azizi's clean goal against KSA. The Lebanese referee in 2004 sending off our player as a result of play-acting by the Chinese player. And now this whole fiasco in 2015. It never ends. Pain after pain. Injustice after injustice. Heartbreak after heartbreak.

It's time to realize that no matter how good we are, and how hard we try, the powers to be , simply will never allow us to succeed at this tournament. So we may as well accept that we will never be allowed win this cup again, and send a youth team instead, which would allow them to gain some valuable experience, and would also bring down the prestige of the tournament. Why should we give credence and prestige to such corrupt tournament by taking it seriously? Let Asian Cup become like the Asian Player of the Year Award, just another AFC joke.

[Abtin]

We shall indeed focus on Russia 2018, where many of us from Europe will be joining! June isn't far away!

[Siavash]

Disagree, we have at some point to stand up for justice and correct things accordingly. We can not allow AFC and FIFA to go against our TM and its great fans time after time and get away with it. If we stay silence they will keep doing this and hurt our feelings again and again. So we must do whatever we can to change AFC and/or take them to court. Hope IFF will fight for TM and its fan and we will help too.

I agree that we have to learn from this experience and move on, but at the same time must make sure it will never happen again.

[xerexes]

Agreed with OP. I said the same thing in anther thread. South Korea hasn't won an AC title since 1960 but the world sees them as an Asian powerhouse thanks to their world cup record. From now on, just take the best of our U-23 and add only the overage players that look to be in the running for the next WC. Use this stupid tournament exclusively to start building the team for the WCQ and declare exactly why you're doing it.

Having no influence and connections in a corrupt organization is bad enough, but when you add the ethnic bias of Arab officials and their shameless vindictiveness it becomes practically hopeless. In the WCQ format, this kind of nonsense is easier to overcome since we don't have to finish first. We can afford to drop some points and still make it through with the 4th or 5th best record.

The sad thing is we might have to give up on the Olympics now too! They've done away with the qualifying format and from now on they'll be sending the top 3 teams from the U-23 Asian Cup which uses the same format as the senior one. Someone should get to these dumbasses in IFF and make them understand that unless they're willing to buy some connections at AFC, they might as well save the time and money and not even send a team to that cup. As it stands, I'll be shocked if we don't get screwed at the knockout stages there too.