TEHRAN - Football expert Majid Jalali believes that the time has come for the Iranian coaches to lead the country’s national football team.

The Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) is fed up with the foreign coaches and is weighing up several domestic candidates to appoint as the head coach of Team Melli.

“It’s time to trust our domestic coaches,” said Jalali in his exclusive interview with Tehran Times.

“We brought some foreign coaches like Carlos Queiroz and Branko Ivankovic and gave them plenty of time to work in our football. Queiroz led Iran's national team for about 10 years and Branko worked five years at the national team and around four years at the club level with Persepolis.

“Now, the time has come to change of mindset to domestic coaches,” added the renowned Iranian manager.

“However, if we want to do this, the FFIRI official should answer this question that whether they believe in the Iranian coaches and support them, or they are forced to do so because of the current circumstance and conditions,” Jalali added.

“Even if a big coach like Carlos Queiroz was not supported by the federation, he would have faced many problems in our football,” said the 66-year-old coach.

Mehdi Taj, president of the FFIRI, implicitly said on Friday that the football federation intends to appoint an Iranian coach because transferring money to the foreign coaches brings many difficulties to the federation due to the sanctions that Iran is facing!

“I believe that the Iranian coach can bring bright days to the country's national football. The federation also should make a plan for the next four years and clearly define that Iran's national team want to change a generation for the next World Cup or they want the national team to get good results in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup with the current generation of players,” said the coach, who won the 2003/04 Iranian Professional League (IPL) with Pas.

Amir Ghalenoei, Farhad Majidi, Javad Nekounam, and Yahya Golmohammadi are four Iranian coaches who can take charge of Team Melli.

When asked about the current candidates for leading the national team, Jalali said: “In my opinion, the coaches who are suitable to lead the Iranian national team at the moment are Ali Daei, Golmohammadi, and Ghalenoei,”.