Marked for Abbas Habibi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Malavan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Hossein Sadeghi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Malavan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Farzin Moamelegari 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Malavan told Abbas Habibi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
When it matters, Mehdi Abdi plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Esteghlal Khuzestan next, and one man in the Malavan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Mehdi Abdi story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mehdi Abdi signs something — a contract at Malavan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeid Karimi 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 watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Esteghlal Khuzestan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Malavan and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Zob Ahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mehdi Abdi
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
28 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Abbas Habibi named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abbas Habibi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Malavan
Ghaem Eslamikhah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
Ramin Azizi is 19, and Malavan have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Issa Alekasir
“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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The formation has left Ramin Azizi behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Malavan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match26 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Malavan?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Foolad? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Younes Akbarpour has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Malavan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Saeid Karimi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Abbas Habibi
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.31 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Malavan had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Malavan man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Seyed Ali Yahyazadeh was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Gostaresh Foulad will be the happier side with the point.