From the time the World Cup was announced to be held in Qatar until the start of the final match, it was a golden opportunity for Iran’s economy to benefit from the advantages of hosting the World Cup in one of its neighboring countries, and also to benefit from its economic talents by having a more effective presence in the World Cup games. This was a dream that had been formed in the minds of many officials in the country for a long time, and given the good political relations between Iran and Qatar, as well as the problems that Qatar had with other Arab countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain in previous years, this opportunity seemed very accessible. The idea of Qatar co-hosting with Iran and holding some games on the island of Kish was even discussed, and rumors of this kind were heard every day. However, as we got closer and closer to the start of the games, dreams gave way to reality, and in the end, what should not have happened

In this regard, there is a need for hours of thinking, contemplation, and thorough examination of sociology and behavior in order to understand why, while football increases nationalism and strengthens the spirit of solidarity in many countries, it has caused even more polarization in our country. In addition to those who wanted Iran to be eliminated or lose in these competitions, there were also those who celebrated every loss of the country. This means that if Iran had not qualified for this round of the World Cup, we would probably have seen less division and duality in society. This issue, for whatever reason it may have happened, is the most significant loss for Iran. Perhaps we can move on from losses in sports or even economics, but the attachment or lack of attachment of people to their country is a process that is not easily changed and requires a reassessment of many governmental, cultural, and media issues, and is not easily overcome. In this regard, the weakness of Iran’s national media, namely the state-run

In the sports arena, Iran was unable to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the World Cup in one of its neighboring countries, and the dream of advancing to the next stage was once again postponed to the future and four years later. But even worse was that the worst defeat in the history of the national team in World Cups was recorded in this tournament, and we received six goals in a friendly match against England. Of course, we also lost our friendly match against the United States, and although we beat Wales, the wounds of these two defeats were much greater than that victory. Especially since in this tournament, we saw the shining performances of other teams in Asia and even Africa, and except for the host country Qatar, other Asian countries had much better performances than us, and we witnessed the advancement of three Asian teams to the next stage. In fact, the Iranian team, as the oldest team in the competition, did not have the ability to win and soon gave up the field to its

Along with this issue, the discussion of replacing the coach and replacing Queiroz with Skocic was another thought-provoking aspect of Iran’s presence. We let go of a coach who saved the national team in the worst conditions and led them to their quickest qualification for the World Cup with good results. We added a new coach and multiple assistants to the national team at a high cost and ultimately suffered our worst defeat in history. It doesn’t seem that if Iran’s former coach (Skocic) had also been present in this World Cup, we would have had worse results or at least he would have utilized younger players to prevent Iran from being labeled as the oldest team in the tournament. All of these show that the extra cost imposed on the country for changing the head coach and assistants was completely wasted and had no achievement. In fact, many believe that if we were in a different group where teams like England or the United States were not present and the games were not politicized,

In addition to the above topics, the discussion of economic issues and the lack of use of Qatar as a host country for Iran is also interesting. The island of Kish, as an island in the Persian Gulf with similar weather conditions and altitude to Qatar, was unable to be used as a training or preparation location for any of the World Cup teams; even the Iranian national team preferred to hold their final training camp in Austria instead of Kish. When we ourselves do not believe in holding a training camp on this island, what expectation can we have for the presence of other teams in Kish?

From the perspective of accommodation for travelers and spectators, we had zero performance and were unable to act as a housing center. Compare this with other countries, including the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, which had several flights every day for World Cup spectators to attend in Qatar and return to their countries. When it is said that not even one hotel room reservation was made on Kish Island, we see that, like in the past, we make slogans and others take action. We see that we were unable to take advantage of this opportunity to attract at least Muslim spectators or at least present a more desirable image of ourselves to the world.

Despite the mentioned failures, we also had winners. The first winner, as mentioned earlier, was the new coach of the national team and his assistants who added another appearance in the World Cup to their resume. They also benefited from their current contract and will receive a higher amount for future contracts that they may sign in Iran or other parts of the world.

The second winner was also a member of the Iranian national team who, in addition to participating in the World Cup and achieving poor results, benefited from various rewards. The most important and controversial issue was the discussion of foreign car allowances, which were given to players and caused protests from a large group of athletes from other sports. It is surprising that in these economic and sanction conditions, foreign car allowances are given to players (while football players have no financial problems) and that the corruption of importing foreign cars is openly announced. It is also surprising that some players claim to be with the people and like them, but in the awards section they accept these special allowances, which shows their duplicity in their actions.

Perhaps if we add the discussion of justice to the above points, Iran’s presence in the World Cup will also be accompanied by a failure in social justice and in this regard, we did not have appropriate and proportional performance and our failure would become heavier.

Overall, it must be said that our country’s record in the mentioned areas above has been nothing but a failure. Hopefully, in the next World Cup, we can at least turn some of these losses into victories.