The Glorious Rise and Miserable Fall of Carlos Queiroz

This is the story of a man who was supposed to be the head coach of a football team, but has degraded himself to the point of defending the ideologies and policies of the Islamic Republic and becoming one of the agents of the regime. This is a report on the rise and fall of Carlos Queiroz, the Portuguese head coach of the national football team of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and how he went from hero to failure in Iranian society’s eyes.

From two consecutive ascents to the World Cup, to referring to Ali Khamenei as “Supreme Leader”, expressing satisfaction at a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and attacking international journalists in the Qatar World Cup in order to defend the Islamic Republic of Iran—it seems that Queiroz has placed himself in the arms of a government which is currently at its lowest level of legitimacy.

Queiroz was once admired in Iranian football because he was praised by Sir Alex Ferguson, the former head coach of Manchester United, and named as Ferguson's theorist and mastermind.

The most important question here is: Why did Carlos Queiroz change his behavior, his words, and lose his independence - an important part of his coaching identity?

His record in recent years helps answer this question: Two rounds of elimination from the group stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and 2018 in Russia, failure in two rounds of the Asian Nations Cups in 2015, Australia and 2019 in Qatar, eliminating the Colombian national team on the way to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and losing the team’s coach position, and elimination of the Egyptian national on the way to qualifying in the 2022 World Cup, and stepping down as the team’s head coach, leading to the worst defeat in the history of Iran's football in the World Cup against England and eliminating the Iranian team from the Qatar World Cup 2022 in the group stage.

Today, where in the football world will Carlos Queiroz, with this track record, find a new team to coach?

***

How did Carlos Queiroz come to Iran?

Carlos Queiroz arrived at Tehran International Airport on April 4, 2011, and went to the office of Ali Saeedlou, the head of the former Physical Education Organization and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's deputy, and signed his three-year contract with Iran’s Football Federation.

Ali Kafashian, after stepping down as head of the Federation, confirmed Mohammed Dadakan’s claim that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was ordered to select Carlos Queiroz to lead the Iranian national football team.

Queiroz entered Iranian football after the Iranian national team failed to reach the 2010 World Cup and was eliminated in the quarter finals of the 2011 Asian Nations Cup in Qatar.

Queiroz, as former assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson and former head coach of Real Madrid and Portugal’s national team, was welcomed by Iranian football fans amid concerns about the re-election of one of the existing Iranian coaches.

How did Carlos Queiroz become the hero of Iranian football?

In 1978, Iranian football qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Iran's second promotion to these competitions was delayed until 1998 due to years of internal conflicts after the revolution and the eight-year war with Iraq. After that, Iran’s national team failed to advance to the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, but easily qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. However, they failed once again in going to the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

Iran's national football team, coached by Queiroz, managed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. This team was in Group A alongside the teams of South Korea, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Lebanon.

While the Iranian team needed three points and a victory against South Korea in the final game to advance, they won with a single goal by Reza Ghuchannejad and advanced to the World Cup.

But what suddenly made Queiroz a hero in Iranian football was the 1-0 loss against Argentina in the second game of the 2014 World Cup. The Iranian team was tied against Argentina until the 90th minute and even had looked in with a chance of winning. The media victory after this defeat was so in favor of Queiroz that no one even paid attention to the strange 3-1 defeat against Bosnia in the final game.

In the 2015 Nations Cup, the Iranian national football team - under head coach Queiroz - lost against Iraq in the quarter-final stage, but he was still favored in political and football circles in Iran.

After failing in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Queiroz led Iran's national football team to the 2018 World Cup in Russia in a group with South Korea, Syria, China, Uzbekistan and Qatar. In the other group, there were teams from Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, UAE, Iraq and Thailand.

The Iranian football team coached by Queiroz in the 2018 World Cup won against Morocco with an own goal in the 95th minute by Aziz Bohdouz, lost against Spain 1-0, and drew 1-1 against the Portuguese national team and was eliminated from the cup.

After that, Queiroz lost 3-0 against Japan in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup semi-final with Iran's national football team and resigned as the head coach of Iran's football team.

He once again became the head coach of the Iranian national team on September 7, 2022. Prior to this, Dragan Skocic had led the Iranian national football team to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with the best record. 

What do we know about Carlos Queiroz's connections with the Islamic Republic?

Carlos Queiroz is the only coach in Iranian sports history who has met with three presidents of the Islamic Republic and has once officially expressed his regret for "not being able to meet" with the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Queiroz spoke with reporters for the first time on October 15, 2012, about his meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the national team camp. He said: "I thank the honorable president from the bottom of my heart. He supported us with his presence in today's training."

Queiroz then met four times between 2013 and 2018 with Hassan Rouhani, another Islamic Republic president. After one of his meetings with Rouhani in June 2016, he said: "It was a great honor that the president accepted us in his presence. I am very proud and happy that I presented the achievements of the national team to him."

He met the third president on November 14, 2022 and described the meeting with Raisi as a pleasure.

Queiroz said in 2015 that he had not yet succeeded in meeting Khamenei, but he had met two Iranian presidents.

He has still not yet managed to meet with the leader of the Islamic Republic, but on October 13, 2018, he addressed Khamenei with the title of "Supreme Leader" and said: "As you all know, the remarks of the Supreme Leader made us proud. I thank the Supreme Leader from the bottom of my heart on behalf of myself and the players of the Iranian national football team."

Queiroz, however, changed his tune upon returning to Iran. This is perhaps explained by Adel Ferdosipour, a famous former broadcaster of Iran's government broadcasting company (IRIB), who said to him: "Do you agree that you took us to the World Cup twice and now Iran is taking you to the World Cup?"

Hours before his trip to Qatar, Queiroz, along with some players, visited Raisi and thanked him for the invite to the presidential office. He used the phrase "the house of the Iranian people" to describe Raisi's office.

These kind words were expressed more than a month after nationwide protests broke out in Iran. Hundreds of people had already been killed by the repressive government forces, and tens of thousands of people had been arrested, including several athletes, footballers, and journalists.

Queiroz did not stop there. Leaked documents from Fars news agency prove that the managers of the Islamic Republic had chosen Carlos Queiroz in "coordination with the policies of the Islamic Republic".

On November 27, 2022, in the second of the leaked documents, a letter titled "Recommendations of the editors of the Revolutionary Front media" was published, which emphasized that Queiroz "coordinates with the authorities of the Islamic Republic" in advance. Another part of this letter states: "Regarding the coordinated attitude of Queiroz, any action [protest by the players] should be dealt with as disobeying the head coach."

How did the coup of June 2022 end with the return of Queiroz?

There is no indication that Queiroz was selected as the head coach of the Iranian football team independently or based on technical merits.

Aside from claims in the confidential Fars news agency bulletins that he is "coordinating" with IRGC forces and the authorities of the Islamic Republic, we must remember that he was reinstated as the Iranian national team’s coach based on the "coup d'état of the national team players" against their former head coach.

On June 14, 2021, Mehdi Taremi and Alireza Jahanbakhsh went to the presidential office to meet with Raisi to get him to agree to the dismissal of the head coach from the national team. In less than a day, Iranian media reported that a senior member of the regime had issued an order to dismiss Dragan Skocic. In a report, Khaber Online claimed that the return of Queiroz was an "order" from the regime’s highest officials.

On July 8, 2022, Peyman Asadian, the host and announcer of sports news on Iran's state TV network, posted on Twitter: "The change of the head coach of the national team has been finalized. Queiroz is the final option. Federation to bring back the Portuguese coach."

On June 15, Portuguese media reported that Mehdi Taremi, the striker of the Iranian national football team and the Porto club of Portugal, was trying to return Queiroz, the team’s former head coach, to Iran.

A Bola Portugal magazine wrote that Mehdi Taremi took a position against Dragan Skocic, the national team’s head coach, with the cooperation of Iran's key players, following the defeat of the Iranian national team against Algeria, and demanded the dismissal of the current head coach.

Queiroz returned to Iranian football on the direct request of the captains of the football team from the presidential office. This calls into question how much authority he can possibly have over these players.

When did Queiroz align himself with the regime?

Apart from claims by Mohammed Dadkan and Ali Kafashian regarding the direct order of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to sign a contract with Queiroz in 2011, there are definite signs of Hassan Rouhani’s direct intervention in the survival of this Portuguese head coach.

In an interview with ISNA news agency in September 2022, Ali Kafashian officially confirmed that Hassan Rouhani's first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri, wanted Queiroz to remain as head coach of Iran's football team.

In August 2015, official reports were published about the role of Majid Rouhani, the son of Hassan Rouhani, in the presence of Queiroz, claiming that he was given full authority.

However, following the 2018 World Cup, the Iranian national team’s head coach realized that the secret to survival in the Islamic Republic is to connect with a more powerful body than the government. So he tried to make statements such as expressing "interest in meeting the leader of the Islamic Republic", calling Ali Khamenei " Supreme Leader", thanking the leader for his congratulatory message after the victory over Morocco, and claiming after Khamenei's congratulatory message that a lobby had tried to remove him from Iranian football. This is how he shifted towards the main body of the government: towards the Supreme Leader and Revolutionary Guards.

The hacked documents prove that Mehdi Taj, the current president of the Islamic Republic of Football Federation, became president of the Federation with the support and intervention of the Revolutionary Guards.

Taj introduced Carlos Queiroz as head coach of the football team less than two weeks after the beginning of his presidency.

It didn’t seem in the 2022 World Cup that Queiroz was only head coach of the football team. In response to a reporter who asked him: "Are you proud to be associated with a government that oppresses women?" he answered angrily: "Ask your company president (Rupert Murdoch) how much he’ll pay me to answer that question."

The Portuguese coach then left the press conference. Minutes later, this conversation had been reported by Sky Sports, The Mirror, and Reuters.

On November 24, in a pre-match press conference with the national team of Wales, without even being asked questions by the BBC reporters, he criticized the BBC reporter for not asking the head coaches of the United States and England about the presence of their military forces in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq. He also voiced his support for the media of the Iranian government.

Before the World Cup, Queiroz, who had not still become what the Fars news agency called "a co-ordinated agent of the regime", the Portuguese head coach had criticized the "sanctions of the United States and Europe" against the Islamic Republic before entering the 2015 Australia Nations Cup.

Queiroz once again criticized "American economic sanctions" in his first press conference during the 2014 World Cup and claimed that the "Iranian people" are suffering because of these sanctions. These words are taken directly from the Islamic Republic’s rhetoric on its dispute with the United States.

Who is Carlos Queiroz compared to in Iran?

Queiroz's statements during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and his indirect defense the Islamic Republic’s policies caused a stir on social media.

In addition to harsh criticism, some also compared him with Javad Zarif, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hassan Rouhani.

In August 2019, the official Twitter account of the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Persian, in an unprecedented move, called Mohammad Javad Zarif, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, "the great trowel"; an insulting title that was apparently an allusion to the Iranian Foreign Minister's performance against criticism of the policies of the Islamic Republic.

Queiroz's remarks on what he called "the dual behavior of the free media" in Qatar was reminiscent of Javad Zarif's words, phrases and rhetorical tone.

Some Iranians also posted on Twitter that Queiroz will probably become a member of the Expediency Council at the end of the World Cup. The members of the Expediency Council are appointed by the leader of the Islamic Republic, and its most important responsibility is to resolve disputes between the Iranian parliament and the Guardian Council.

Will Queiroz remain in Iran?

To answer the question of whether Queiroz will remain in Iran or not, we can start with another question: "Will Carlos Queiroz receive an offer other than Iran in world football?"

Players and coaches from the national football team returned to Tehran International Airport on December 1, after being eliminated from the World Cup. Queiroz did not answer questions from reporters about his future and his presence in Iran, but Mohammad Hossein Hamisi, in response to the reporters who asked him about Queiroz's stay in Iran, said: "God willing, God willing."

Taj, president of the Federation, avoids the media and has not answered this question. But Hamid Sajjadi, the Minister of Sports and Youth of the government of Raisi not only firmly defended the continued presence of Queiroz in Iran, but even claimed that the Football Federation should soon receive the plans of the Portuguese head coach for the Asian Nations Cup.

Hamid Sajjadi told reporters on November 30: "Now we have to think about supporting the technical staff and Queiroz and think about the players and their spirit. Mr. Queiroz should be able to plan for the next Nations Cup with peace of mind, and we will do whatever we can to help."

On December 3, Iranian news agencies also reported Queiroz's three-hour meeting in Tehran's Saad Abad Palace. On December 3, IRNA news agency reported in an exclusive news report about Queiroz's meeting and conversation with Taj, before returning to Portugal, and claimed that the meeting was decisive for determining the future of the coach’s future in Iran.

The greatest coaching successes of Queiroz after his participation in Iranian football can be summed up to the two World Cups in 2014 and 2018. The rest of his record in the World Cup and the two rounds of the Asian Nations Cup in 2015 and 2019 and the elimination in the 2022 World Cup cannot be defended. He also failed in qualifying competitions to reach the 2022 World Cup in Qatar along with the national teams of Colombia and Egypt.

Before Queiroz arrived in Iran, Taj had claimed that his contract would only last until the end of the 2022 World Cup, and after the Qatar World Cup, Javad Nekounam would replace him as head coach.

But Javad Nekounam did not even agree to act as Queiroz's assistant in Qatar due to disagreeing with the Islamic Republic’s policies.

It seems that none of the current Iranian football coaches such as Ali Daei, Amir Ghalenoei, Yahi Golmohammadi, and Javad Nekounam are willing to accept such a position at this time. At the same time, prominent foreign European coaches are probably familiar with the topic of "getting a salary from a child-killing government" and would not accept the risk of cooperating with the Islamic Republic.

Queiroz is perhaps the only current option for the Islamic Republic; a failure who has nothing special to offer - and of course a man who, according to the confidential bulletins of Fars news agency, is in the pockets of the IRGC and the regime.