From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Zob Ahan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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 Malavan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$220.0K was the most the club would pay and Zob Ahan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad24 Aug 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 targets24 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mojtaba Fakhrian 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $233.6K — a club that wants Ali Eslami enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Malavan asked and Padideh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Zob Ahan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Sepahan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alireza Ramezani. The answer from Malavan has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Malavan have done the hard part with Al Ahli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sina Khadempour and Malavan agree another 3 years.
Match8 Aug 2026
Tractor left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jafar Salmani 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ali Cheshmi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sardar Pouraliganji has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sardar Dejagah has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ali Karimi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ghaem Eslamikhah and Malavan agree another 3 years.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Malavan
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Malavan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ghaem Eslamikhah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Malavan
Hossein Sadeghi 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Malavan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramin Noorafkan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saeid Hosseini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market3 Aug 2026
One of our own: Amir Karimi joins the Malavan first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Amir Karimi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Al Shaab: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.