Volleyball Nations League:
No change of fortunes after Paes sacking as Iran falls to eighth defeat
Iran suffered an eighth successive defeat in the 2024 Volleyball Nations League, losing 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-23, 27-25) to newcomer Turkey in the final outing in Week 2 of the preliminary round.
Saturday’s setback in Fukuoka, Japan, came less than 24 hours after Brazilian head coach Mauricio Motta Paes had been axed by the Iranian Volleyball Federation following a five-set defeat against Bulgaria.
Paes had been appointed to the job in February, taking over from Iranian Behrouz Ataei, to lead the country’s last-ditch attempt to secure an Olympic quota through the FIVB Men’s Ranking by the end of the VNL preliminary round.
His spell, however, was cut short after seven games in charge for what was described as the 61-year-old’s failure in “exploiting the players’ potentials”, with the decision aimed at protecting “the international reputation of the Iranian volleyball.”
“The federation will surely plan for a rejuvenation within the squad after the Nations League and I can only promise that a world-class coach will be hired after the competition. We will have four years to prepare for the next Olympics,” Milad Taqavi, the chairman of the sport’s governing body in the country, said on Friday.
Iranian Payman Akbari, a number two to Paes, was named the interim coach for the rest of the VNL campaign but could do little to change the team’s fortunes in Saturday’s match, with his men overwhelmed by Turkish opposite-spiker Kaan Gürbüz, who notched up a remarkable game-high 34 points to inspire his team to a maiden VNL victory.
Amin Esmaeilnejad was Iran’s top scorer for the day with 18 points, while skipper Milad Ebadipour and middle-blocker Alireza Moslehabadi chipped in 14 and 13 points respectively.
“There is no doubt that we are in a crisis. The team’s morale was severely damaged after the Bulgaria defeat and there was nothing we could do about it in such a short space of time. We’ll have to make sure the players will restore their confidence and enthusiasm for the future games,” Akbari said after Saturday’s loss.
Next for Iran is a visit to Manila, Philippines, for the final week of the preliminary fixtures.
Sitting rock-bottom of the 16-team table, Iran will face USA on June 19 before taking on the Netherlands a day later.
Akbari’s men will square off against reigning Olympic champion France and then conclude their campaign against Germany on June 23.
The top eight of the table will progress to the VNL Finals in Lodz, Poland – starting with the quarterfinals on June 27.