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Footballmedia -
The very first time I
met Branko Ivankovic up close and personal was about two and a half months
ago at Friedrichshafen camp in Germany. Iranian national team was about to
face Portugal in their second encounter, and Branko and his team were the
center of attention for millions of concerned Iranians.
At the time of meeting
with Branko and in spite of a crucial lose to Mexico, I found him to be
very relaxed, attentive and joyful.
But in reality and even with
his cheerful attitude, Iranian national team was at turmoil, and the
entire schemes of things were about to crumple in front of our eyes!
And they did!
Well, the world cup is a remote
memory now and the future of football in our country is not any better
today then it was few months’ back. Some how we are used to this “method”.
Truthfully I wanted to have an
opportunity to talk to Branko. I wanted to get to the bottom of things.
Perhaps I was looking to find
closure!
Before conducting this
interview I extended him the courtesy and warned him that he was about to
face some rough questioning. I asked him to take his time and move toward
inquires with patience. I also begged him to be real genuine and honest
with me.
Whether he was authentic with
his answers or not is something that my readers have to opt.
I have done my fair share…
Nader
Mr. Branko, many thanks for
accepting my request for an interview. Let me start by asking you about
the letter you have sent to Iranian media. First of all, does such letter
exist, and if it does, what were your reasons for sending such memo to
Iran at this point of time?
Branko
Yes. That is true. I sent such
letter to Iranian media because I wanted to say thank you to Iranian
people. I had spent about five years in Iran and I had an outstanding time
there. I wanted to thank everyone. During my employment with the national
team we did real well. The team improved a lot. We even made it to the
world cup and I am happy with excellent results that we obtained. So, I
kind of owed Iranian people a thank you note. But the time has come for me
to go my separate ways and that was the letter all about.
Nader
Mr. Branko, I am not going to
dispute your all around record with the national team. By all accounts you
achieved some very good results statistically and we are grateful for it.
But, when you put the “world cup” and “good results” together in one
sentence, it does not all add up!
This makes Iranians very angry.
What good results are we talking about?
Branko
I have talked about this before
but allow me to explain.
First of all, my target was to
qualify for the world cup. 2ndly I wanted us to advance to the second
round if possible. But don’t forget about the two very strong opponents
that we were about to face. You know very well how strong were the
Mexicans. As they proved later, they certainly played better than
Argentina and were no ordinary adversary. And Portuguese team needed no
introduction either. They made it to semifinals. We were in one of the
strongest groups in the world cup. Besides we were real unlucky to have
four injured players right before the games. They did not even have good
practices with their own teams because of this and that is the fact. Ali
Karimi for three months, Hashemian two months, Zandi four months and even
Mahdavikia who played all season, had a problem with his back right before
the world cup. Don’t forget that Daei and Golmohammadi did not even have a
minute to rest because of their club. I even add up on Sattar Zare to play
against Mexico and just three days before the games he went under surgery.
Under these circumstances we played real well. We only lost because we had
bad luck and made some very costly mistakes towards the end of the game…
Nader
I am sorry for interruption but
in your opinion, who was responsible for the mistake in Mexico game?
Branko
It really does not matter who
made a mistake but as a team we made four errors. First Kaebi, then
Mirzapour, then Rezaei and finally Golmohammadi. And of course after that
Mexico did not create any more opportunities, just like in Portugal game.
Portuguese scored from 25 meters out and then a lucky penalty. I do not
think we disappointed Iranians with our performance. It is my strong
belief that if we had better luck in the game against Mexico, we could
have made it to the second stage!
Nader
How about the Angola game?
The way you summed things up,
one would go under the impression that we should have beaten Angola real
easy. What happened?
Branko
Against Angola, Karimi did not
play; Nekounam had two yellow cards, Yahya was injured and it was very
difficult to win without the services of mentioned players. I say it again
that we had bad luck. We were not in the same condition that we were in
when we played the qualifying games!
Nader
There is a rumor that you
resigned from the national team on June 20th right before Iran
vs. Angola. Is that true?
Branko
Yes that is true. Before the
world cup Mr. Dadkan and me had a discussion about this and I told him
that I would be leaving the team. Five years at the helm of team melli was
enough. I chose June 20th deliberately. We had no chance of
advancing anymore and that’s when I did it. It was Reza Chalangar as
translator, Mr. Begovic, Dadkan and me in that meeting before the game. I
told them that July 1st is my last day.
Nader
So, it was you who called for
this meeting and not Dadkan?
Branko
Of course it was I!
I did not see it necessary to
go back to Iran and just sit for three months. It was time for a new coach
to step in. I did not want to waste anyone’s time!
Nader
Then you were still the coach
when we played against Angola?
Branko
Yes I was.
Nader
Thank you for clarifying the
situations. There were rumors that Dadkan fired you and against Angola you
were officially out. This clears doubts now!
Mr. Branko, I have a question
in regards to Mr. Reza Fazeli. What could you tell me about him and his
assignment?
His presence in the camp not
only steered trouble (him being an agent and all), also it was a matter of
conflict of interest to have him there as an official FIFA representative.
Branko
We did not find Reza Fazeli,
FIFA did. All I know that there were about 100 applicants for this
position and after consultation with IFF, FIFA had decided to have Fazeli
as the official representative to take care of certain matters for Iranian
national team. Perhaps having a person who spoke both Persian and German
helped them to come to this conclusion. This is a good question that one
might ask Dr. Dadkan. I had nothing to do with it.
Nader
Mr. Branko, who was your
official agent?
Did you have one?
Branko
As you know I came to Iran with
Mr. Blazevic. Unfortunately after our disqualification for the world cup
(Japan/Korea), we had to head back home. In January of that year Mr.
Safaei Farahani called me directly and invited me to come back to Iran. I
did this through my direct contact with him and there were no agents
involved in this. Later of course I talked to Dr, Ghaffari, Mr. Vaziri and
Dr. Dadkan.
Nader
There are conflicting stories
in regard to your contract. I am sorry that I have to ask you about it but
if possible, please clear this out as well.
Branko
Let me tell you something that
it was very unprofessional of Mr. Mostafavi to discuss this with the
Iranian media. This is a private matter and he went public with it. I did
not appreciate it. However, during my period of coaching I got paid way
less than many coaches who managed national teams around Asia. IFF got a
good deal!
Nader
Let’s go back to the world cup.
On the second half against Angola, you ask Karimi to get on the field and
play. What did he say and what happened?
Branko
Of course I did not play him
from the beginning. My strategy was to have him toward the end of the game
and win. I asked him to play and he refused!
Nader
Why?
Did he complain of injuries or
there were other issues?
Branko
No. Even before the game he did
not complain about injuries and that was not an issue. Perhaps he was
angry why I did not play him from the beginning. That’s all!
Nader
Let’s talk about Daei briefly.
How much of an influence did
you and Dr. Dadkan have in playing Daei that much? We all knew that he was
not fit; yet he got some major playing time.
Branko
Look, I have said this many
times before and I tend to repeat it again. Daei and Hashemian were the
best combination for the national team and I stand by my decision. Look at
the national team today; the lack of good combination upfront is evident.
I specifically chose Daei to be my striker upfront because I wanted to
take advantage of the “height” problem in Mexican defense. Of course I was
also aware of his fatigue at the time. He was tired and I should have used
him for a half of 60-70 minutes. We played excellent against Mexico in the
first half and missed some serious opportunities to score. I knew that in
the world cup level he could not play a full 90 minutes and be competitive
and genuinely wanted to substitute him, but Mexico scored two back to back
goals and then I was forced to keep him for full 90 minutes. We had to
equalize or else and Daei was an important key.
Nader
Is that why you benched him in
the game against Portugal?
Branko
That is right. I needed faster
players who could score on counter attacks. And I was right. Khatibi
should have scored that goal by the way!
That could have again changed
the course of the world cup for us. And unfortunately it did not happen.
Nader
What was your biggest dilemma
in Iran?
Branko
The media!
They do not respect anyone.
That includes former players of the national team as well. True examples
of that are Parvin and Hejazi. The media frequently lashed out at Ali Daei
who literally put Iranian football on the world map.
Ali Daei means Iran. He means
Asia!
The Iranian media did not
respect that.
Nader
Do you still follow Iranian
football?
Branko,
Yes I do. I have a satellite
dish here at home and this morning I watched Persepolis play against
Sepahan. How can I not follow Iranian football?
Nader
I heard that IFF owes you money
at this point. Is that true?
Branko
Yes. They have to pay me a
month salary and the bonus for qualifying!
I deserve it!
I worked honestly in Iran and
they should pay me promptly.
Nader
At any time during your
coaching career in Iran, did you feel that you were losing control?
Branko
Not at all! It was not an easy
task to achieve but I can proudly say that I never lost control. May be it
was because I had excellent assistants on the bench!
Nader
Mr. Branko with all due respect
to you, I should personally disagree with your above statement. I
indisputably believe that with better staff on the bench you could have
been more successful. I think your crew on the bench failed us. How could
have an educated professor like yourself have such indifferent crew on the
bench?
* Note to readers: (at this
point Branko gets a little bit agitated, but I had to ask this question).
Branko
Let me ask you a question. Tell
me who in your opinion would have been better then Faraki, Sajadi,
Shahrokhi and Begovich?
Nader
There are numerous names to
mention, but for now I would say, Nasser Hejazi and Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh
for goalkeeping job and perhaps Dr, Zolfagharnasab and Majid Jalali for
the other matters.
Aren’t they good enough to get
the job done? Most of them even have world cup experiences.
Branko
Hejazi and Abedzadeh were never
goalkeeper coaches. Begovic was. In my opinion Faraki understands the
coaching situations much better than Hejazi. And in regards to Dr,
Zolfagharnasab, he was Ivic’s assistant when he prepared Iran for France
98 and there was no way that I could use him. His style of coaching was
close to Ivic and very different from mine. Positively we could not work
together. Let me tell you, I was the boss and I chose my assistants. I
stand by my decision. I say it again; I got excellent results with this
crew. So my decision was right to keep them!
Nader
Basically you are telling me
that in Iran, we had no body better to assist you on the bench other than
the people who helped you?
Branko
That is right!!
Nader
If you had a chance to go back
and change “one” thing in history, what would it be?
Branko
I would certainly wish that
Karimi, Hashemian, Zandi and Mahdavikia to be healthy for the world cup!
They were our main players and
we got unlucky!
Nader
How come you did not invite
Iman Mobali or Karim Bagheri to the national team?
Branko
Tell me how come they don’t
play for the national team now?
Nader
In the case of Karim Baqheri,
he announced that he does not like to play for the national team no more.
Branko
He said the same thing to me 4
years ago!
After declaring that, we shook
hands and that was the end of it.
Nader
All right, I accept your
reasoning for Bagheri, but today’s Mobali is not the same as he was back
then. He was on top of his form. How much of an impact that infamous foul
on Daei had in your decision-making?
Please be honest with me!
Branko
My duty was to invite good
players and Mobali’s decision on going to Emirates did not help his cause.
His quality went down after
that.
I did not invite him because he
lost his form not because of the foul on Daei, but let me tell you
something; frankly speaking, that vicious foul was a “big” minus on
Mobali. It did not help him at all…
Nader
Have you met with Mr. Ghalenoei
yet?
If so, give your thoughts on
him.
Branko
Yes, I met him in Berlin few
days back and we talked. I wished him success. That is his destiny now.
Now he will get to know what it takes to be the national coach. I want
Iran to succeed so my well wishes were authentic!
Nader
In your sincere opinion, do we
(Iran), have the best talents in Asia or not?
Branko
Yes. You guys truly have it in
you. It is in your genes!!
I have said this many times
before; your country and the football federation should invest hugely in
the infrastructure of your football. They should invest in youth football.
Iranians have the potential of being “THE” best. All you have to do is put
these talents through the right channels. This was not a complement. It
was an absolute truth!
Nader
What is in your future?
Branko
I had an offer from Croatian
national team. I also have few prospects from Asia right now, both on the
national and club level. Hopefully by next month I will make a decision.
Nader
Mr. Branko, many thanks for
granting this interview. I wish you the best of luck in your future
endeavors and many thanks for your hard work. We shall never forget you.
Branko
Thank you and good luck to you
as well. I wish Iran and Iranians all the best. They are part of my life
now.
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