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Sports

Game Over for Dragan Skočić

August 28, 2022
Payam Younesipour
3 min read
Dragan Skočić oversaw a record 10 consecutive wins by Team Melli this year, but was dogged by criticism from domestic pundits
Dragan Skočić oversaw a record 10 consecutive wins by Team Melli this year, but was dogged by criticism from domestic pundits
The return of ex-Football Federation president Mehdi Taj saw Carlos Queiroz return to the fold and replace Skočić a year later
The return of ex-Football Federation president Mehdi Taj saw Carlos Queiroz return to the fold and replace Skočić a year later

This article is part of a 22-part miniseries on the history and stars of Iranian football released ahead of Iran's participation in Group B of the 2022 Qatar World Cup in November. You can explore the rest of the series here.

 

Dragan Skočić became head coach of the Iranian national football team during the preliminary stage of the World Cup qualifiers. At the time Iran was in the middle group of five, and in danger of early elimination.

Under Skočić’s leadership in June 2021, Team Melli beat Hong Kong 3-1, Bahrain 3-0, Cambodia 10-0 and finally Iraq 1-0. Then in the final stage of the qualifiers, the team was up against South Korea, the UAE, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It was a somewhat politically-charged group; the Islamic Republic has a bitterly contested military-political presence in the latter three countries, notably via proxies like Hezbollah, and had recently come to blows with Seoul over frozen assets.

In this round, too, the Iranian national team enjoyed a resounding success: eight wins, one draw, and just the one defeat. Nevertheless, for reasons other than the team’s performance record, Skočić faced public backlash from a number of football pundits, media outlets and even players.

In an interview with an Iranian sports reporter in May this year, Javad Nekounam, head coach of Foulad FC and an ex-captain of Team Melli, questioned how seriously Skočić was taking his selections for the team: “Some brokers,” he said, “will provide players for the national team in a batch, and submit them to the head coach.”

Then in a report published in June, the newspaper Shargh revived speculation about Skočić having benefitted from the support of aghazadehs: the pampered children of Iran’s wealthy and powerful elite. Before his surprise appointment, Skočić is understood to have attended a behind-closed-doors meeting with Ali Taj, a sports media personality and son of Mehdi Taj, ex-head of the Football Federation, in the latter’s home. Like Nekounam, Shargh also accused Skočić of relying on highly-paid “brokers” to fill the slots on the national team.

That same month, Marzieh Soleimani, a reporter and photographer for the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), claimed on Twitter that Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Mehdi Taromi, two players on the national team, had been seen in the presidential offices in Tehran. She demanded to know what a pair of footballers had been doing meeting with President Ebrahim Raisi – and before him Hamid Sajjadi, the Minister of Sports, in Qatar. Some journalists interpreted this as the beginning of a joint effort by the government and Team Melli players to oust Dragan Skočić and – unbelievably given all that happened during his tenure – reinstate Carlos Queiroz.

A sudden joint statement published by eight players on the team poured petrol on the fire. Sardar Azmoun, Alireza Beiranvand, Mohammed Hossein Kananizadegan, Vahid Amiri, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Ali Gholizadeh, Ahmad Nurollahi, and Omid Nourafkan shared an Instagram post asking for Dragan Skočić to stay in post and expressing their support for him. Hours later, the team’s three captains shared messages castigating their fellow players in response, saying Skočić was the reason for the team’s “disordered situation”.

Simultaneously in June, the Football Federation’s technical committee met and voted to terminate Skočić’s contract. Some members of this committee, too, expressed concern about Skočić’s alleged contact with brokers, while others argued more straightforwardly that he was underqualified to manage the team in Qatar – despite Iran’s success in the World Cup qualifiers.

Just a week later, the Football Federation's board of directors overturned the vote. Skočić, who is also reasonably popular among Iranian fans, was given a stay of execution and remained in post until the Federation board elections at the end of August.

Then, however, all bets were off. The Federation's ex-president Mehdi Taj, whose previous tenure from 2016 to 2019 was marked by serious financial mismanagement and grift allegations, was voted back into the driving seat ahead of the World Cup one a single-issue manifesto: to bring back Queiroz. Barely a week later, news broke in Iran that a deal had been struck and Queiroz's return was confirmed on Wednesday, September 7.

At the time of publication, neither Skočić nor Queiroz had issued a statement on the events of last week.

 

 

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