Iran: Dragan Skocic (Croatia) takes over Wilmots

The Iranian Football Federation announced Thursday the appointment of Dragan Skocic as head coach. He succeeds the Belgian Marc Wilmots.

The former Iran coach Marc Wilmots resigned from his post a few months after being appointed head coach of the Iran team. The Belgian technician confirmed the information on his Twitter account, deploring a "failure by the Iranian Football Federation to respect its contractual obligations. "Before taking over Iran, Wilmots (50) had been in charge of the national teams of Belgium (2012-2016) and Côte d'Ivoire (2017)," he said. The IRIFF (Iranian Football Federation) President Mehdi Taj left the AFC trophy ceremony early to go and meet Marc Wilmots in Hong Kong to finalize the amicable termination of his contract.

On Thursday, the appointment of the Croat Dragan Skocic to succeed the Belgian Marc Wilmots , who left the club last December, was announced. Skocic, 51, is a regular in the country.

Having arrived in 2013, he has coached four Iranian D1 teams, including Sanat Naft of Abadan, currently seventh in the championship, which he coached until then. The Iranian football team has finally got its head coach, and despite the coronavirus, training continues. The team needs to prepare and the coach prepares them for friendly matches against other teams to keep them ready for the qualifying phases of the 2022 Fifa World Cup. The next friendly match of the Iranian national team will be against the team from Oman and their match is scheduled for June 8, 2020.

According to the official agency Irna, Skocic's contract runs until the end of the second round of qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar for the Asian Zone (June 2020). The former midfielder, the first Croatian League player to go abroad to play, will have his work cut out for him. With four points, Iran are currently struggling in Group B. They are currently in third place after two consecutive defeats to Bahrain (1-0) and Iraq (2-1) in October and November 2019.

To qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in China, Team Melli will have four games to win in late March and early June. Skocic is following in the footsteps of his predecessors: Stanko Poklepovic, Tomislav Ivic, Miroslav Blazevic and Branko Ivankovic. These coaches have all successfully led the Iranian football team.

Skocic said "the Iranian people are wonderful" and added they are very hospitable. He highlighted that it is "an honour" to have his name "alongside the other great Croatian coaches". The Croatians are highly respected here, so I am very happy to have had the opportunity to coach Iran, a great footballing country," he added. Indeed, football is one of the most popular sports in Iran and many Iranians like to bet on this sport. Since it remains banned in the country, Iranians can place bets on foreign sites that are secure and licensed using VPN.

As a football expert, he has led three of the four teams he has coached to "the greatest successes in their history". However, the 51-year-old feels challenged by the Melli team's management and says it is "in fact the biggest challenge" of his career. "We have a difficult task ahead of us." Those are the words of Skocic. Iran will need to win four games in late March and early June. Team Melli will meet Hong Kong in Tehran and Cambodia later for an away match. They will then face Bahrain and Iraq in Tehran.In their quest for a sixth appearance at the world championship, the team is five points behind Iraq in Group C but has played fewer games.