Team Melli's Pre-World Cup Mutiny

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.

On June 15 this year, a Portuguese journal claimed that Mehdi Taremi, a striker with Porto and for the Iranian national team, was lobbying for ex-manager Carlos Queiroz to return to Iran. Abola magazine claimed that after Iran’s 2-1 loss to Algeria in a friendly game three days earlier, Taremi had complained about current head coach Dragan Skočić along with some other key players, and called for his dismissal.

The report described the tense atmosphere of the Team Melli camp after the match. “Porto’s striker,” it asserted, “and other members of the team will be making efforts to remove Skočić and bring back Carlos Queiroz.”

Hamid Sajjadi, the current Minister of Sports, then met with Taremi and five other players in the aftermath of the game. Iranian media also reported that Hamid Sajjadi's adviser, who was also formerly the team’s PR manager, also wanted to see Queiroz invited back to Iran.

The IRGC-aligned Tasnim News Agency suggested the same. It named the other disgruntled players as Mehdi Taremi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Omid Ebrahimi, Alireza Beiranvand, Ehsan Hajsafi, and Sardar Azmoun.

Tasnim and Khabar Online also suggested the Ministry of Sports might be poised to overrule Iranian football bosses, with the latter suggesting Queiroz’s return to Iran had been “ordered” by “higher sources than the Football Federation”: namely the Office of the President. Taremi and Jahanbakhsh had spoken to President Ebrahim Raisi personally about this matter on June 14.

The situation only grew tenser when on July 8, Peyman Asadian, a sports presenter for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting host and sports news presenter of Iran's state television, posted  on his personal Twitter account: "The change of head coach of the national team has been finalized. Queiroz is the final choice. The Federation has been tasked with bringing back the man from Portugal.”

Several Iran players including Sardar Azmoun and Alireza Beiranvand then came out in support of Skočić on Instagram. Minutes later, Mehdi Taremi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Ehsan Hajsafi shared a joint statement criticizing their stance and publicly asking Skočić to step down.

It was agreed that Skočić would stay in post at least until the Football Federation’s board election in September. But then Mehdi Taj, who had publicly stated his intention to invite Queiroz to return, sensationally returned to the help. Skočić’s position was instantly in jeopardy, and a week later he was out of a job.

Prior to this, Mehdi Taremi put his head above the parapet again to lambast a group of Iranian MPs who had concerns about financial mismanagement at the Federation during Taj’s previous tenure. Writing on Instagram, he said parliamentarians should stop talking about “football issues” and not to “interfere” in the work of sports bosses.

This open support of Taj was in turn castigated by some Iranian media, with Taremi in particular accused of double standards: several times in recent months, Varzesh Media claimed, he had been shouted down by the Porto head coach and not dared to push back. The news website Sports Bank also reminded Jahanbakhsh that in his years at Bolton, he had said in an interview: “The head coach's opinion must be respected."