From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naft Tehran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Ali Kamali at 21 — 7.89
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ali Kamali did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Gostaresh Foulad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persepolis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Amir Abedzadeh 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aria Barzegar 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Khuzestan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zob Ahan have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Alireza Haghighi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 12 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Sepahan, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Transfer targets17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Padideh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
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 Naft Tehran, another week without a signature from Mahyar Zahmatkesh.
The dugout17 Aug 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Mohammad Dejagah to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
10 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Naft Tehran — 7.29
1 for Mohammad Reza Rezaei, marked 7.29, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Esteghlal Khuzestan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Amir Abedzadeh 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Majid Shojaei 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Omid Moharrami is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmad Gholizadeh 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. Milad 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑12 by Saba, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mahyar Zahmatkesh arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mahyar Zahmatkesh has, at Naft Tehran, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Akbar Safarzadeh and Naft Tehran agree another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 12 goals between Naft Tehran and Saba, 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 Naft Tehran
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sardar Gholizadeh 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Masoud Nekounam 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Masoud Azmoun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.