Interview with Sara about the State of Iranian Football
Iranian football has reached another milestone as the the Men's National Team have recently qualified for the FIFA World Cup Finals to be held in Qatar at the end of 2022.
The Iranian Women's Team are also making an inroads into the global game as they recently made an appearance in the Women's Asian Cup 2022 Finals in India after they defeated Jordan on penalties to qualify. The finals were a learning experience for Iran's Women's team as they finished last in the group after suffering heavy defeats to both China and Chinese Taipei.
In order to raise the level of women's football and to provide opportunities for women and girls to play, Iran has the Kowsar Women Football League.
The league was established in 2007 and the recent improvement in the Iranian Women's Team has shown the impact of the league and Iran are now one of the best Women's Futsal teams in Asia.
Sara, an Iranian football expert, was happy to answer some questions about the current state of both Iran's men's and women's national teams.
The Iranian Men's Football team qualified for the World Cup in Qatar after a shaky start to the campaign. Why did they start so poorly and what changed to help them improve?"
"I think the ex-coach of Iran didn't find a way to use these players for a good result, we were so scared that we wouldn't make it to World Cup, Wilmots case was one of those corrupt incidents of Iran's football federation, he was the coach for a few matches and earned good money and then went away.
So many things happened after that, you know everything is political in countries like Iran, on that day in November 2019 when we lost to Iraq, the Islamic Republic regime increased gas prices drastically so everyone went to protest and 1,500 people in one week were killed while the regime shut down Iran's internet and no one knows what's going on, tragedy continued in January 2020 with the shooting down of a passenger plane by IRGC and Iran became a no fly zone and couldn't be the host for rest of the matches. Then from March, the Coronavirus pandemic hit Iran with very high numbers of deaths for 2 years. It almost shut down the football then we saw negotiations with a new coach that we hadn't heard of: Dragan Skocic
We thought the matches were difficult. We are in the same group with all of our Arab rivals and with this unknown coach we are going nowhere but surprisingly he managed the team very simply and functionally. We won every match and qualified very early."
The Iranian domestic men's league seems to be like a pyramid system with the Persian Gulf Pro League and Azadegan League at the top. Which clubs are the strongest in Iran and do they attract many fans?"
"The two main old Tehrani clubs have the most fans: blue, Esteghlal and red, Perspolis, they attract fans from all around the country then there are other old clubs that attract fans from their own cities such as Isfahan (Sepahan) Tabriz (Tractor) Anzali (Malavan)."
Is there an Iranian Women's league? How do the Women's national team fare in AFC competitions?
"Yes there is and despite the severe pressure on them from the state they are doing well, none of their matches are broadcast if their Hijabs go back on their heads and their hair shows they get a warning from their clubs and might lose the chance to play. They don't have that much sponsorship but despite all of these difficulties we are so proud of them. Iranian women's futsal is the best in Asia and the football team is not bad!"
Instagram account that shares Iranian women's football news:
instagram.com/footfem.ir
Is football woven into the fabric of society of Iran and a huge part of the culture - the same as say, England, Italy and Germany?
"It used to be, very much so, it could change the mood of the society a lot, still it's important people pay attention but it doesn't change the whole society's mood like before, I guess problems in Iran are so great that football can't distract us anymore."
Is the Iranian diaspora as passionate about football as Iranians at home?
"Very much so, I know second and third generations of Iranian immigrants who can't speak Persian but they follow very attentively Iran's football. It's a source of pride for them and at the World Cup in Russia most Iranian fans were from the diaspora. It was beautiful that the Iranian diaspora and Iranians from Iran could share joyful moments together because usually only sad news comes out of Iran. Many Iranian immigrants can not come back to Iran for political reasons but football brings everyone together."
(For example see this account on Twitter: twitter.com/GolBezan)
Thank you!