Afazeli: I did not want to turn my back on Team Omid

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, After accepting the task of becoming Iran’s u-22 coach, Human Afazeli said, that under the given circumstances he did not want to turn his back on Team Omid.

In an interview with the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), Afazeli indicated it is a hard task to succeed Mansourian with the depleted u-22 squad in the upcoming finals of the AFC u-22 Championship 2014 that will kick off on January 11 in Muscat, Oman.

“Our aim is to participate in the AFC u-22 Asian Cup so that Team Melli will not be eliminated from preliminaries of Argentina 2016 Olympic Games”, Afazeli said.

The Team Melli u-22 coach acknowledged Iran is grouped with Japan, Australia and Kuwait, which is a very hard group and there is no guarantee that Iran could advance even with full u-22 squad.

Afazeli noted, the Iranian football Federation (IFF) assured him that the recently announced u-22 squad made of 23 players will remain the same despite the fact that Naft of Tehran is against releasing its selected three players.

The former Team Melli assistant coach also mentioned beside Mansourian who resigned the rest of the technical staff who are very familiar with u-22 players will remain intact and all will accompany Team Melli to Oman.

“Although the u-22 is depleted, yet our job is to participate in the AFC u-22 Asian Cup and do our best for Iran”, Afazeli concluded. “We need the people and media to stand behind us and leave the rest until we return.”