TEHRAN – Iran football have a great chance to bring an end to qualification drought in the World Cups but there are still a lot of things which can endanger the chance of the success.

Iran have been drawn in a tough Group B along with England, the U.S. and the winners of Wales/Scotland/Ukraine. It means the federation must provide the best possible facilities for the team as soon as possible.

On Saturday, the media announced that Iran will play New Zealand in a friendly match. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. Just playing with powerful teams can be useful. That’s the matter.

Iran played Croatia in Rijeka as part of preparation for the 1998 World Cup. The Iranian team lost 2-0 but it was a good warm up match for the Persians. Iran showed an unexpected performance against Yugoslavia and the U.S in the 1998 World Cup, however they failed to advance to the next stage.

The federation must arrange the better friendlies for the national team since all the teams in the 2022 World Cup will be armed to the teeth.

The football federation wanted to hire French coach Herve Renard after parting company with Carlos Queiroz in 2019 but the deal was never finalized and Marc Wilmots was appointed as Iran coach.

The Belgian’s poor performance was a major blow to Iran team in the 2022 World Cup qualification Round 2.

The federation had missed a golden chance to appoint a good tactician.

After that, Dragan Skocic was named as new head coach and he saved the team in the Round 2. The federation had a chance to negotiate with a well-known coach for the Round 3 but it continued cooperation with the Croatian coach.

With less than eight months to the FIFA World Cup starts, to change the coach is not the best decision.

The football federation has yet to know whether it’s going to work with Skocic or not.

Extraordinary assembly of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) will be held on May 10 and it will know its new president.

We have to wait if the new president wants to work with Skocic or decides to change the coaching staff.

We will just have to wait and see how things go.

But as usual, Iran will waste the golden chance due to mismanagement. The team have so many stars and have the chance to qualify for the World Cup next stage for the first time ever BUT….