Can Daei win back the fans?

The hottest topics of conversation amongst Iranian football fans these days rotate around Ali Daei the Head Coach of the National Team.

Daei was the nation’s darling for almost 2/3 of his long playing career. He was loved so much that when a former coach excluded him from the team over a dispute tens of thousands of his fans in and out of Iran signed petitions demanding his return and firing of the coach. Daei returned and did great; that is until after Iran’s failure to qualify for Japan/Korea 2002.

Most people expected Daei to retire from the international game in 2002, but he stayed on despite the fact that his best years were clearly behind him. To his credit he went on to score about 30 international goals before he retired in 2006, but the fans never forgave him for allegedly using his political contacts and their influence to stay on the team. So within those short four years Daei turned from hero to villain. He was perceived to be the main reason behind everything that went wrong with Team Melli, especially their lackluster Germany 2006 campaign.

After retiring from the International game, Daei became the Head Coach of Saipa FC and let them to their first ever IPL title in his second year. Not much credit was given to him for his part in Saipa’s success even when he managed to take them through to the second round of the AFC Champions League the following year.

To make matters worse, Daei was a surprise pick to lead the national team over the more popular Afshin Ghotbi, an Iranian-American who manages Perspolis FC. The accusations of political favoritism resurfaced immediately. The fans were so outrages that they stopped going to games in large numbers, but Team Melli just kept plugging away under Daei and managed to go through to the second round of the Asian WC qualifiers.

Since there was not much in terms of results with which they could slam Daei, the reporters just stopped covering Team Melli games. This was most evident after the victory over Korea DPR in Tehran. Most Iranian newspapers and news agencies provided very modest coverage of the game and they focused on the fact that it was a much tighter game than they had anticipated.

Iran is now second in their group behind Korea Republic and ahead of Saudi Arabia. All three have four points out of two games. This, most admit, is going to be a very close race to the finish. The top two teams will go straight through and the third will have to go through the dreaded playoff route. If there was a time when Team Melli needed its faithful fans’ support it would be now, but they are still holding out because of their grudge over Daei.

Daei is not exactly the politician type, and that is a big part of the problem. He often says things that are better left unsaid, and sometimes he seems to go out of his way to antagonize those who criticize him, but the fact is that his team has not lost a single competitive match and is in good position to qualify. He seems to be very clear and fair with his players and they seem to respond to him.

Perhaps a couple of impressive victories in a row will help the fans change their attitudes towards the coach and his team.

Iran defeated Korea DPR in Tehran and perhaps a win against UAE on November 19 will be a good start towards that goal. The truth of the matter is that the national team of any country is supposed to be the people’s team, and it would be a shame for the always loyal Team Melli fans to forget that because of their problem with the coach.