Way back in the preliminaries for the 1998 World Cup, Iran also drew the Maldives as its first opponent. Iran then went on to cream the islanders 17-0, setting the world scoring record in the process.
Iran has been looking for a coach for its national team since Afshin Qotbi retired in January when Iran was eliminated from the Asian Cup in the quarterfinals.
Iran soon tried to hire Queiroz to lead the team. News reports said he had agreed, settled on a salary and even named his 
three assistants. But something happened at the last moment and he went home last month. Some news reports said his family was unwilling to live in Iran.
But Queiroz flew back to Tehran Monday and the Iranian Football Federation said he had signed a contract to lead the national team for 3 1/2 years to the end of the World Cup finals.
Queiroz, 57, said, “I am here in Iran to help the team make it to the 2014 World Cup finals. This is my most important aim, and I hope, with everyone’s help, we can make it.”
Queiroz coached the Portuguese and South African national teams and the top-of-the-line Real Madrid Spanish club team. He was for many years an assistant coach with Manchester United. Most recently, he led Portugal to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. He was sacked last September after the finals in a disciplinary feud sparked by a six-month ban for insulting officials of Portugal’s anti-doping body.
Iranian coaches have often complained of frictions with officials of the Iranian Football Federation, who have frequently intervened in decisions normally left to coaches. Some fear Quei-roz’s temperament and the interventionist tendencies of Iranian soccer officials may not be a good match.
No salary for Queiroz was announced, but PressTV said Queiroz would receive $2 million a year. Officials said Queiroz would also “supervise” Iran’s under-23 team, which is trying to qualify for next year’s Olympics, and its youth squad as well as coaching the national team, Team Melli.
Iran has made it to the quadrennial World Cup finals—the premier competition in international sports—three times: 1978; 1998; and 2006. But it got nowhere near a slot in the 2010 Cup finals.
The preliminaries for the 2014 World Cup are similar to those of recent years. Eventually, 32 teams from around the world will assemble in Brazil in 2014 for the finals. But the preliminaries start with regional elimination rounds.
Asia has 46 teams. Three teams have decided not to compete: Guam (which Iran beat 19-0, breaking its own scoring record) in the run up for the 2002 World Cup); Brunei and Bhutan.
In the first round of play, 16 of the Asian minnows have been assigned to play each other in a pair of home and away games. Everyone else, including Iran, gets a bye in the first round.
In the second round, the eight winners from the first round will join 22 other Asian teams, including Iran. The 30 teams will be paired off to play home and away matches. Iran last week drew the Maldives for this round.
In the third round, the 15 winners from the second round—almost certainly including Iran—will be joined by the top five Asian teams from the 2010 World Cup preliminaries: Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Australia (which went to the finals) plus Bahrain. Those 20 teams will be divided into five groups of four teams, which will play a round robin of home and away games.
The two top teams from each group will advance to the fourth round. Iran has made it to the fourth round for four straight World Cups. If it does not this time, it would be worse than a shock. Iran is now ranked fourth in Asia in FIFA’s monthly computer ranking of national teams, so a failure to make the top 10 would be devastating. In the fourth round, the 10 teams will be divided into two five-team groups. The top two teams from each group will go to Brazil for the finals. The third-placed teams in each group will play one another to determine who is fifth in Asia. That team will then play a similarly placed team from another continent in home and away games to determine which goes to the finals in Brazil. (Bahrain was that fifth-ranked team in the 2010 Cup competition, but it lost to New Zealand and did not make the Cup finals.)
Here is Iran’s history in these World Cup preliminaries.
Iran first went to the World Cup in 1978, just before the revolution. Soccer faded in Iran with the revolution and the war; Iran dropped out of international soccer, but returned and began to do well in 1990s. In 1998 and 2002, Iran finished third in its Asian World Cup group and faced the playoffs due the third placed teams. In both years it beat the other Asian team. In 1998, it then beat Australia, the Oceania champion, and went to the finals. In 2002, it lost to Ireland and did not go. In 2006, Iran finished in the top two in its group and went straight to the finals. In 2010, however, Iran finished in fourth place in its group and went home.
Effectively, in the last four World Cups, Iran has gone from fifth in Asia to fifth, to third and then to seventh. The Iranian national team, Team Melli, is still licking its wounds from its miserable showing the last time out.
But first comes the Maldive Islands, a tiny string of a thousand islands in the Indian Ocean with just 400,000 people. The highest point in the Maldives is 7-feet-7. In other words, some basketball players are higher than the Maldives, whose government is very concerned that climate change melting the icecaps and raising the level of the sea could quite literally wipe the Maldives off the face of the map.
When Iran creamed the Maldives 17-0 back in 1997, the Maldive Islands was near the bottom of the world’s 203 national soccer teams. After that embarrassment, the Maldives invested in its team, which now ranks 161st in the world. Iran ranks 65th. The islanders should still be a pushover, although double-digit scoring should not be anticipated.
In other soccer news, Iran’s Olympic team, limited to men under 23 years of age, drew Iraq in the preliminaries for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Here are last week’s draws for the first two World Cup rounds. None of the major teams, like Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE, drew any major opponents.
Asian qualifying draw
Round 1—
Played June 29 and July 3
Malaysia v Taiwan
Bangladesh v Pakistan
Cambodia v Laos
Sri Lanka v Philippines
Afghanistan v Palestine
Vietnam v Macao
Nepal v East Timor
Mongolia v Myanmar
Round 2—
Played July 23 and July 28
Thailand v Afghanistan/Palestine
Lebanon v Bangladesh/Pakistan
China v Cambodia/Laos
Turkmenistan v Indonesia
Kuwait v Sri Lanka/Philippines
Oman v Mongolia/Myanmar
Saudi Arabia v Hong Kong
Iran v Maldives
Syria v Tajikistan
Qatar v Vietnam/Macao
Iraq v Yemen
Singapore v Malaysia/Taiwan
Uzbekistan v Kyrgyzstan
United Arab Emirates v India
Jordan v Nepal/East Timor
