Marked for Vahid Noorafkan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Mohammad Beiranvand and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adib Zarei, and the manager let it.
Match2 Oct 2027
A goal on 94 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I want to play”: Amir Taremi speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Karim Khodadad
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Karim Khodadad has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rah Ahan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The form table has caught Ali Rezaeian
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.
Match2 Oct 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Esteghlal Khuzestan leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Rah Ahan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Aug 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Aug 2027
Still nobody has beaten Rah Ahan
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rah Ahan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
At 20 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Rah Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ehsan Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Taremi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Suood Ali keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rah Ahan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Rah Ahan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market9 Aug 2027
Majid Yazdani hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rah Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Hasan Shoushtari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: Gostaresh Foulad have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ahmad Cheshmi. The answer from Rah Ahan has not changed — yet.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Nekounam 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vahid Noorafkan commits to Rah Ahan for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rah Ahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Suood Ali is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market29 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Beiranvand signs something — a contract at Rah Ahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Rah Ahan
12 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rah Ahan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Nov 2026
Rah Ahan cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Amir Vafaei 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammad Shojaei and Rah Ahan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Nov 2026
Rah Ahan at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 13, 13 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.