Federation Must Have a Special Plan for the Under-23 Team; / Alinezhad: Iran's 4-Goal Defeat Was Predictable

The Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee believes that insufficient cooperation from clubs and weak planning were the main factors behind the Under-23 team's failure in Nagoya.

According to Sport Seh, Iran's Omid football team in the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games, despite winning 3-1 against the UAE and a goalless draw against China, lost to North Korea in the last match of the group stage with a score of 4-1 and failed to advance to the next round. This result, which has been accompanied by many criticisms, now has the reaction of Alinejad, the Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee, and he has explained the reasons for this failure.

He said about this incident: This is not a new issue and this incident has been repeated many times. This season, despite the fact that such an event was expected to happen, the opinion of the Federation and other groups was that the team should be sent. I think what was predicted happened. The main problem of accompanying clubs with Team Omid, which is the main axis; Naturally, when the coach does not have his players, not much is expected from him.

Alinejad continued: Mr. Abdi, the head coach of Omid National Team, gave an interview at Imam Khomeini Airport before leaving and said that if the situation was like this, it would be better not to send the team. It was not a good situation and the preparation was done as it should and maybe. Losing 4-1 to North Korea is not a good thing, but there is no need for an expert opinion and all the people know the story and are upset, but the dimensions of the story will be checked by the monitoring center and we will announce it in a report to the ministry and the federation.

Referring to the responsibility of the federation in planning for the Omid team, he said: If we want to enter the Olympics or something happens in the next competitions, the federation should have a special plan for the Omid team. The management has been aware for four years and like other fields, the responsibility of the teams rests with the federations. If the committee had previously

The Olympics had a role, it was not true, and the federation is responsible for the technical responsibility of this field and it is zero to one hundred with itself.

In the end, he said: The responsibility was with the federation itself, and we finally decided to provide the conditions for sending them. Four athletes from two clubs arrived late and we tried to send them from countries other than Iran and enter Nagoya as soon as possible. We tried to provide good facilities that do not have any special problems, but the result was not favorable and appropriate, and if we want something special to happen, the federation must have more special programs for Team Omid.