Marked for Vouria Khodadad
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Sardar Khodadad out for 85 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rah Ahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Rah Ahan's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rah Ahan has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vouria Pouraliganji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rah Ahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ehsan Rezaeian 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Milad Khodadad 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ali Ebrahimi gets it from the manager
“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.
Loan watch12 Oct 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 Rah Ahan, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Omid Ebrahimi 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Malavan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Azmoun, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kaveh Ghoddos dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market24 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan bring in an old head
Carlinhos is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ehsan Rezaeian 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pejman Dejagah, and the manager let it.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rah Ahan, another week without a signature from Ehsan Rezaeian.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Rah Ahan have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market17 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mehdi Torabi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rah Ahan.