Alarming concerns about the Iran National Team

Tehran Times – TEHRAN, The Iran Football Federation is still weighing up the options following their decision to part ways with Marc Wilomts and now there are two potential candidates for the role of Team Melli head coach: Amir Ghalenoei and Ali Daei, with Yahya Golmohammadi, the third candidate, was named as the new head coach of Persepolis on Monday.

The Asian section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification restarts in a little more than two months and the Iranian federation has not introduced the new head coach so far.

Heaydar Baharvand, acting president of Iran football federation, is responsible to select the replacement for Wimots, but it seems neither Baharvand nor the federation are in a hurry to pick the new trainer for Team Melli’s hotseat.

While Marc Wilmots was selected to get the Iranian team to the World Cup 2022, the Belgian struggled to make any sort of meaningful impact on the team’s performance and they lost back-to-back games against Bahrain and Iraq in the 2022 World Cup qualification and now the national team is in danger of being eliminated from the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup which will take place in Qatar in 2022.

The alarming truth about the current situation of the Iranian national team is that there is no clear plan for the team. After failing to reach an agreement with ex-Persepolis coach Branko Ivankovic, the Iranian federation – in a change of mind – decided to hire an Iranian coach, but the process of selecting the Iranian coach has been lengthy and boring.

Time is running out fast for Iran and the Team Melli’s rivals in Group C of 2022 World Cup qualification (AFC), Iraq and Bahrain, are in their best form of the recent years.

Following the resignation of Mehdi Taj as head of Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) due to the heart problems, the plans for finding the new coach of the national team was also delayed and now the federation plans to hire a head coach before selecting a new boss.

Both Ali Daei, the legendary Iranian goal scorer, and Amir Ghalenoei, Sepahan’s current coach, have previously experienced failure with Team Melli as head coaches, and they know how difficult is the task of leading the Iranian national team in the current condition. The new head coach, whoever he might be, has to live up to expectations and must fix the problems at Team Melli under the watchful eye of the millions of fans around Iran.

By Farrokh Hessabi