Brutal is the act of sacking a manager who qualified a team for the FIFA World Cup.
Going to the World Cup is the dream of anyone – player or coach – and the moment of realisation that you have achieved a lifelong mission would be one of the most satisfying in a player or coach’s career.
A decision to remove a coach who has qualified a team for the World Cup is never one to be taken lightly, especially given it usually leaves little time for his or her replacement to make any meaningful impact on the squad.
Such decisions, therefore, are usually quick in nature, ensuring the incoming coach has the maximum time to prepare for football’s biggest stage.
That’s how it is usually done.
And then there is Iran.
Dragan Skočić, who enjoyed a modest career as a coach in Iran from 2013 onwards, was drafted in to replace Marc Wilmots in February as Team Melli’s qualification hopes hung in the balance, with back-to-back losses to Bahrain and Iraq placing progression to the final round in jeopardy.
Since Skočić was appointed, he has won 15 of 18 matches and guided Iran through the final phase of qualifying at a canter, qualifying with multiple games to spare.
And yet, despite that stellar record, he appears unlikely to take Iran to the World Cup. In fact, it was reported last month that he had been sacked, with former coach Carlos Queiroz supposedly lined up for a triumphant return.
But no sooner had it been reported that the Croatian was fired that reports came out contradicting that, and as it stands he remains in charge of Iran.
But for how long?
As the saga rolls on, with fresh leaks and reports every few days, our team of Scott McIntyre, Michael Church and Paul Williams discussed this topic on Episode 89 of The Asian Game Podcast.
IT’S A DEBACLE
Scott McIntyre
“It was reported, two or three weeks ago now that he’d been sacked. Three days later, there was some form of a meeting where he was apparently reinstated, with the reason being that you need, according to the statute, you need eight board members for a quorum for the meeting to be legal and go ahead, they only had seven. So on some form of technicality, they’ve reinstated him.
He’s come out to the media saying he’s here planning for camps in September, the players have come out and said we don’t want him involved, and there’s been 15,000 different coaches, foreign or Iranian, who have come out and said, ‘I’ve got the job,’ or ‘I want the job’.
There’s another board meeting coming up, I believe, at the end of this month, where it’s widely expected that as soon as the there’s a quorum, and the legality of the board is established, that he will indeed be sacked at that point.
So it’s it’s been described as a reinstatement, but I guess it’s a stay of execution and just until that meeting, and surely he knows that. It’s an absolute debacle.”
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Michael Church
“Well, it wouldn’t be the build up to a World Cup for Iran without some kind of drama, right? I mean, we’ve had plenty of instances of issues within the squad or with coaches in the past. The whole thing sort of reminds me very much of the build up to the 1998 World Cup, where “Badú” Vieira qualified them in Melbourne against Australia in November 1997 and was soon pushed out of the job and replaced by Tomislav Ivić, who then in turn, within I think it was inside two months of the World Cup finals kicking off in in France, was replaced by Jalal Talebi.
And a lot of what happened then, there’s also an echo in with regards to what’s happening in Qatar in that Iran had been drawn against the United States, and while I think that hasn’t received maybe as much attention as it did in the build up to France 98, I think it is certainly an issue for certain people in Iran. Because as we all know, football is heavily politicised in a country like Iran where having the opportunity to come up against one of their great foes on the international stage, in such a high profile meeting, is something that a lot of people who are not normally involved in the game will latch on to and get involved in.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if this is, at least in part, one of the numerous issues behind the scenes that there will be people within the Ministry of Sport or within Government who would rather see an Iranian coach in charge of that team. There’s been any number of coaches linked to the position whether it’s Carlos Queiroz for a possible return, whether it’s Ali Daei, whether it’s any number of other Iranian coaches and so it’s becoming a bit of a shambles.
There’s a split within the squad as well. There’s a lot of talk that Mehdi Taremi is certainly pushing the idea that many of the senior members within the squad don’t want Skočić and then Sardar Azmoun (does). So you’ve got the two key players up front who seem to be on different sides of the fence here. We have to hope that they can somehow get through this one way or the other, whether it’s Skočić in charge or not.
What’s the point of him continuing on if he is clearly being told by the vast majority of the squad that they don’t want them? There certainly have been issues in the past between him and Taremi, he left Taremi out of the squad, I think it was in the November World Cup qualifiers last year.
He’s clinging on for whatever reasons, whether it’s to ensure that he gets one month more pay or whether he gets a pay what he’s owed. Or ultimately, like all of us, we all want to be the World Cup, right? Coaches and players are no different, and this is the opportunity that he’s having to go and take a team that he qualified for the World Cup. He won something like 15 out of 18 matches on the way to qualification for Qatar. He thinks he’s earned the right to do it.
Certainly if you look at the results and you look at some of the performances, it would be hard to argue against that. But it’s just turning into a right mess and I think the saddest thing is that, if this isn’t the most talented squad the Iranians have had at any point that I’ve been watching them, it’s certainly right up there. It’s certainly comparable with that squad from 1996 to ’99.
And, you know, without without some steady coaching presence on the side of the pitch and without some calm and sensible build up… I mean, they’ve already had issues with having to cancel the friendly against Canada in June that they have planned for. It’s just turned into a soap opera, but we can’t be surprised by that because unfortunately, this seems to be the case with the Iranians no matter what.”
EVERYONE IS AT FAULT
Paul Williams
“You can apportion blame almost anywhere. I think it comes back to, and Michael referenced it as well, when Skočić left Mehdi Taremi out of the squad.
We mentioned at the time that it had the potential to cause a rift between the playing group and the coach, and it took a few months for that to materialise and for that to come public, but it seems very clear now that that’s exactly what it has done – it has caused a massive rift between certain sections of the playing group, not the entire playing group, but certain sections of the playing group and the coach.
There are very powerful forces within that Mehdi Taremi and Alireza Jahanbakhsh are two that are apparently leading the charge to have Skočić removed from from his post, and it doesn’t bode well when you’ve got a squad that is clearly split like that just a few months out from from the World Cup. As Michael said, the two star plays in Taremi and Azmoun apparently on different sides of the camp.
Like Michael I’d heard that the fact that they then got drawn against the US has played a role in this, in that the powers up above in the Government want to make sure that they go there with what they think is a coach that can get them a result in that game, because they don’t want to be embarrassed against an international foe. not just a football foe but you a political and geopolitical foe as well, and they don’t see Skočić as that man.
They clearly see Carlos Queiroz or someone else, potentially an Iranian, to take Iran into a match like that. Ali Daei, Javad Nekounam are two players that have been been mentioned before.
But as to where the blame lies, there’s blame with the players, there’s blame with the coach if he hasn’t done enough to mend the rift that was clearly evident within the playing group. There’s blame within the Federation, there’s blame within the Ministry of Sport, there’s blame everywhere you look.
The sad thing is that you’ve got, as Michael said, one of the most talented Iranian sides that we’ve seen who are in a group that, you know, they can do something in this group. They’ve certainly got the talent to be able to get out of this group. And as is always the case with Iran, instead of having a nice, easy run into the World Cup, where they come in with a stable environment and everything like that, they’re coming in in complete chaos.
We’re now in August so we’re three-and-a-half months before the start of the World Cup, and we don’t know who’s going to coach them.”
Photo: IG/teammellifootball
Listen to Episode 89 of The Asian Game Podcast as we discuss the Dragan Skočić saga