TEHRAN – Iran national volleyball team have almost missed the chance to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games and the sport experiences painful period.

Behrouz Ataei has announced his retirement from coaching Team Melli and the Federation is looking to find a replacement to keep hope alive to secure a place in Paris.

Vital Heynen, Stephane Antiga, Gianlorenzo Blengini, Andrea Anastasi and Renan Dal Zotto have been so far shortlisted to take charge of Team Melli.

Under Ataei’s guidance, Iran clinched the gold medal in both the 2021 Asian Championship and the 2022 Asian Games, and silver in Asian Championship 2023 but suffered six defeats in the 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers out of seven matches.

They lost to Germany 3-0, Ukraine 3-0, Czech Republic 3-1, Italy, 3-0, Brazil 3-0 and Cuba 3-2 in Pool A held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in early October and just defeated Qatar 3-1 and finished in seventh place out of eight teams.

The journey for Iran's volleyball team in the 2024 Olympic Games qualification has almost ended.

Iran volleyball suffers from lack of long-term plan and the Federation has failed to meet the expectations and requires fundamental change.

Iran volleyball team have entered their chaos era, and it's unclear if they'll be out of it any time soon.