Marked for Parham Ghannad
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Malavan close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match30 Jan 2027
Malavan make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Malavan have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malavan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2027
Malavan make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I watch every Malavan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match30 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mohammed Reza Azadi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Malavan.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Jan 2027
Anger at Saba spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Saba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match2 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Saba's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Sepahan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Saba
Sajjad Shahbazzadeh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Gostaresh Foulad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Masoud Hajsafi left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
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Squad
Daniel Darzi falls out with a teammate over standards
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for Saba
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The dugout
No hiding place for Parham Ghannad
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Dec 2026
Malavan out of the cup
Esteghlal ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Malavan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ghaem Eslamikhah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Malavan, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abouazar Safarzadeh. 1‑0 against Rah Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Malavan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Alekasir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Zargham Saadavi named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Zargham Saadavi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ashkan Beiranvand on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match28 Nov 2026
A hiding for Saba
Beaten 0‑3 by Tractor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Saba
Sajjad Shahbazzadeh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nima Mirzazad
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
A six-pointer for Saba
Esteghlal Ahvaz next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Doors closed at Saba
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Masoud Hajsafi to a room that had heard them before.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Saba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Pouraliganji was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
The one thing Amir Shahim could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Saeid Karimi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Alekasir is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Malavan, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.33. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ashkan Beiranvand chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Match19 Sep 2026
Malavan and Foolad cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Foolad came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Malavan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Foolad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Saba
Sajjad Shahbazzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amir Karimi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Shahriar Mohammadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Majid Ebrahimi joins the Saba first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Majid Ebrahimi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Vahid Dejagah joins the Saba first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vahid Dejagah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match8 Aug 2026
Saipa take the points off Saba
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Issa Alekasir yet — 7.84
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ghaem Eslamikhah and Malavan agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Malavan
Saeid Karimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Malavan
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Malavan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ghaem Eslamikhah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Malavan asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Issa Alekasir. 2‑0 against Saipa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.