Marked for Saeid Shojaei
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Supporters organise against the Esteghlal Ahvaz board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Esteghlal Ahvaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mani Sharifnejad 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.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Esteghlal Ahvaz know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.46, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ramin Pouraliganji after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Falah Daram knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Esteghlal Ahvaz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Mehdi Besak 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Dec 2026
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Parham Movaghari 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
1‑3 to Padideh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hakim Nasari, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Ramin Pouraliganji to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Esteghlal Ahvaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milad Ahmadipouri 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Falah Daram asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Farjad Fayaz is the weekend's best young player
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Esteghlal Ahvaz are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match23 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Esteghlal Ahvaz
Position 16 and 2 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad23 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 Esteghlal Ahvaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Sepahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafo Abdumannopov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milad Jahanbakhsh, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Esteghlal Ahvaz are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑3 against Foolad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mani Sharifnejad 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.
The dugout16 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.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 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 Ramin Pouraliganji to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The form table has caught Mehdi Besak
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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ramin Azizi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Esteghlal Ahvaz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
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.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 0‑5 beating by Esteghlal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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 dugout12 Oct 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.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Esteghlal Ahvaz
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Esteghlal Ahvaz's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Esteghlal Ahvaz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
The dugout21 Sep 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ramin Pouraliganji to a room that had heard them before.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Esteghlal Ahvaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustafo Abdumannopov 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Parham Movaghari, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Milad Ahmadipouri’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Esteghlal Ahvaz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 14. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 35 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑19 to Foolad, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad3 Aug 2026
1 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Esteghlal Ahvaz know exactly what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 19 goals between Esteghlal Ahvaz and Foolad, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Esteghlal Ahvaz
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milad Jahanbakhsh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.