From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
Naft Tehran win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Siah Jamegan will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hossein Noorafkan is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yu Funabashi 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.
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Rotem Hatuel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Naft Tehran
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Naft Tehran are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ariel Chaves in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Ignacio Pereira
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Saeid Beiranvand 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Alireza Haghighi
Nobody at Naft Tehran is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
10 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.
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Naft Tehran
Position 16 and 3 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ariel Chaves 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 Sep 2026
Yu Funabashi gets it from the manager
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
29 new faces, and Naft Tehran are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeid Beiranvand 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 4.77, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Naft Tehran's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naft Tehran has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 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 Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Esteghlal Ahvaz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Néider Barona
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
Naft Tehran throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Tractor the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Naft Tehran will enjoy reviewing.
Match12 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Naft Tehran
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Naft Tehran are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Imanol Varela scored one and made one — 7.64
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.64, and 2 involvements.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ignacio Pereira 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aref Haji Eydi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match2 Sep 2026
A 0‑0 win over Padideh, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Naft Tehran
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Naft Tehran are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A first appearance Majid Vafaei will want to forget — 5.55
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.55, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Naft Tehran board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yu Funabashi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Naft Tehran
A 0‑3 beating by Esteghlal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yu Funabashi 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Pereira 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.
Squad31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Naft Tehran
26 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
3.83 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Naft Tehran's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naft Tehran has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yu Funabashi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naft Tehran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Naft Tehran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imanol Varela 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Market24 Aug 2026
Lucas Chacana is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 22 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ariel Chaves 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Néider Barona, and the manager let it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market17 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Naft Tehran
Kalen Ryden arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nobody at Naft Tehran is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Naft Tehran
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Zob Ahan kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Naft Tehran will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ariel Chaves 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ariel Chaves
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Yu Funabashi finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Naft Tehran have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ariel Chaves is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑5 against Saba, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yu Funabashi gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yu Funabashi has just signed for Naft Tehran, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
2 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pejman Hajsafi 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mehdi Pouraliganji 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Naft Tehran dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 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 Yu Funabashi.
Market3 Aug 2026
Every supporter in the ground could have named the hole in this team, and most of them did, loudly, for months. Yu Funabashi has been signed to close it.