Setting your priorities

More than ten years ago the Dutch football legend Arie Haan came to Iran to discuss the national team job. After touring Tehran’s football facilities and visiting a number of clubs, he kindly rejected the offer saying that Iranian football will be better off if the federation spent the money they are offering him on building a couple of good pitches.

I loved him for doing that. I thought here is a man with integrity and professional pride.

Today it was announced that Haan will be in Iran again today or tomorrow to presumably sign a coaching agreement with Tehran based club Perspolis.

Again, the state of Iranian media is such that no one can rely on the accuracy of their reports, but if this is true, I want to tell Arie, “I love you man, but please go back home! Iranian football pitches are almost as bad as they were when you came here years ago!”

I don’t have anything against Haan. As a matter of fact I would love to see more Dutch coaches in Iran because they are well known for working with young players, but it does not make any sense to spend a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay the coach when the players have not been paid in months.

Iranian football needs to build its foundation first. First get the stadiums and pitches in good shape. Make sure they all have lights so games can be played at nights during the summer season. Organize the league. Make sure clubs can afford being in the top league. I can go on and on and on.

After these basics are taken care of, then spend the money on expensive foreign coaches, so when they get there they have everything they need to do the job they were hired to do.