Homeland won the Asian Cup three consecutive times (1968, 1972, 1976) to which the team has not been able to add since.In 1978, homeland made its first appearance in the World Cup after defeating Australia in capital. Homeland lost two of three group stage matches against the Netherlands and Peru.
Team Melli managed to surprise some in the footballing community by securing one point in its first ever World Cup appearance against Scotland which saw Iraj Danaeifard cancel out an own goal scored by Andranik Eskandarian for the 1–1 draw.After the 1979 Revolution, football was somewhat neglected and cast aside. During the 1980s, the national team did not feature in World Cup competitions due to the homeland–Iraq War (1980–88) and domestic football embraced the inevitable effects of conflict.
