{"id":21021,"date":"2015-03-31T16:40:08","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=21021"},"modified":"2015-03-31T16:40:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T23:40:08","slug":"queiroz-ends-iran-coaching-reign-with-3-1-loss-against-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2015\/03\/31\/queiroz-ends-iran-coaching-reign-with-3-1-loss-against-sweden\/","title":{"rendered":"Queiroz Ends Iran Coaching Reign with 3-1 Loss Against Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eurosport – STOCKHOLM, Carlos Queiroz\u2019s reign as Iran manager ended with a 3-1 defeat away to Sweden in a friendly yesterday, but the Portuguese coach did not go quietly as he delivered some stinging criticism of his employers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iranian media began reporting on March 20 that Queiroz would leave the job, which he took in April 2011, following international friendlies against Chile and Sweden following a bust-up with the country\u2019s sporting authorities.<\/p>\n

Despite pleas from fans and players for Queiroz to stay, he confirmed at a post-match news conference that his time was up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a difference of opinion inside the federation. There are almost two federations, with two different opinions,\u201d the 62-year-old former Portugal and Real Madrid coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when one of the parties think that they have the right to come in your face and humiliate you, offend you, treat you without respect \u2014 me, my players, my staff \u2014 that is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queiroz led Iran to last year\u2019s World Cup in Brazil, where his team put in some decent performances despite finishing bottom of the group with one point, and in September the Portuguese extended his deal until 2018.<\/p>\n

That contract has now ended, with Queiroz describing himself as \u201cthe weak link\u201d in the power struggle between the country\u2019s FA and its sports ministry.<\/p>\n

The coach said he had been told he had not met \u201cthe minimum requirements\u201d for success laid down by the sports ministry.<\/p>\n

He said the humiliation and undermining of his position left him with only one option but that he was leaving with his head held high.<\/p>\n

Very proud<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is that, after four years, I feel very honoured and very proud of coaching this team and these players,\u201d Queiroz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been fantastic, outstanding \u2014 the commitment, the attitude, the dedication to the national team. I must say that I never saw and I never worked with such a group of players. They deliver so much and they receive so little.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queiroz also thanked the Iran fans \u2014 many of whom packed out the Friends Arena in Stockholm, making it seem more like a home game in Tehran than an away game in Sweden \u2014 for their support during his time in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never received so much love, so much attention, so much affection as I have received from the Iranian fans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to express my deep gratitude, recognition and my love for them,\u201d he added, saying they knew the truth about the reasons for his departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad to leave under these circumstances, but that\u2019s life. It\u2019s time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eurosport – STOCKHOLM, Carlos Queiroz\u2019s reign as Iran manager ended with a 3-1 defeat away…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":21022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":3316,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}