“It is now easier to qualify for the World Cup”: Carlos Queiroz

Tasnim – TEHRAN, Iran national football team head coach Carlos Queiroz, who has previously announced his resignation, has made a U-Turn to continue his job ahead of the third round of the World Cup qualification in Asia.

It seems that the Portuguese coach has a good relation with Iran Football Federation newly-appointed president Mehdi Taj as he stated that it’s now easier to qualify for the World Cup.

“As you know, I had handed my resignation to Iran Football Federation but after Mr. Taj was appointed as IFF president, we had multiple meetings and at the end we came to an agreement to continue our cooperation. Mr. Taj didn’t accept my resignation at all and tried to solve the problems,” Queiroz told reporters in a press conference.

“The 2018 World Cup will start begin Iran from now (May 2016). We have to play in our first World Cup qualifier match in September against Qatar. In the next five months we will play five games which has potentially 15 points and in the next eight month this would be 21 points which could decide our qualify for the World Cup,” Queiroz added.

“A couple of South Korean companies are 2018 World Cup sponsors while China has considered a $50m budget for the World Cup preparation. I think there is no need to talk about Qatar as it’s the 2022 World Cup host and has the required resources. We need everyone’s support to face these Asian giants, as I told you before South Korea and Qatar are the favorites in this group and then it is Uzbekistan and China who are competing for the second place,” The Portuguese coach added.

“Let me clearly describe the situation; our opponents have decent football pitches and great resources so they are 2-0 ahead, Qatar and China have been hired big players to play in their leagues so that would be 3-0, it has provided a fantastic condition for its coaches which will help the team improve and that will make it 4-0, they have no concern about the hotels, flight’s and the facilities which make it 5-0 but I will make every effort to have the best possible preparation to win this battle 6-5 while the fans’ support and the player’s hard work can make this win even greater for us,” Queiroz added.

Iran has been drawn in Group A alongside South Korea, Uzbekistan, Qatar, China and Syria.