Marked for Hossein Mohammadi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Rah Ahan
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saman Yazdani 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Tractor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Mehrdad Rezaei for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Esteghlal Ahvaz will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match12 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Esteghlal Ahvaz are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hamed Pakdel 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Younes Shakeri
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Esteghlal Khuzestan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Esteghlal Ahvaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sirvan Ghorbani 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.79. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad14 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Masoud Dejagah
“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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Karim Vafaei leaves Rah Ahan the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
The small margins put Rah Ahan out
Out, 0‑0 to Zob Ahan, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market7 Sep 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ehsan Ebrahimi 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ahmad Noorafkan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vouria Karimi, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Abolfazl Zadehattar
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Abolfazl Zadehattar has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rah Ahan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.16 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Rah Ahan had the best player on the pitch.
Market7 Sep 2026
Esteghlal Ahvaz are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Rah Ahan will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. 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
Kaveh Taremi 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.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.