From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ehsan Pahlevan 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
“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
Gostaresh Foulad left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom28 Sep 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Erfan Ghahremani 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Parsa Jafari 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 Zob Ahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 5.48. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayan Mosleh 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Omid Latifi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Hasan Shoushtari takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hasan Shoushtari provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market14 Sep 2026
So close: Nima Entezari’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Esteghlal moved on, Nima Entezari reports back to Zob Ahan, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shayan Mosleh 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Persepolis made Zob Ahan work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Pablo Marí has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zob Ahan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Zob Ahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Omonoia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
The one thing Rahman Jafari could not do
Shots: 5, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
The small margins put Zob Ahan out
Out, 1‑1 to Rah Ahan, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces7 Sep 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.” 8 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Shayan Mosleh 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ehsan Pahlevan
“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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Zob Ahan
5 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pablo Marí knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pablo Marí trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Esteghlal Ahvaz, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.36, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Zob Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Hasan Shoushtari 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
Shayan Mosleh 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Shayan Mosleh
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zob Ahan.
Squad31 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Pablo Marí
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Zob Ahan will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Zob Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Zob Ahan spend $460.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $460.0K for Abolfazl Zamani, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayan Mosleh 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rahman Jafari, and the manager let it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Abolfazl Zamani is 20, and Zob Ahan have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Hasan Shoushtari 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market24 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Shayan Mosleh may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Zob Ahan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Hasan Shoushtari 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 Hasan Shoushtari, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Omid Latifi leaves them behind him
Shots: 7. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shahin Taherkhani 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Saipa leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ehsan Pahlevan 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bibars Natcho, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Pouya Mokhtari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.67. 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Match8 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zob Ahan has been clear about where Shahin Taherkhani stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rahman Jafari and Zob Ahan agree another 4 years.
Squad3 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 Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Zob Ahan
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayan Mosleh 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Ali Eslami again, and this time the name on the line is Esteghlal Ahvaz. Zob Ahan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alireza Moharrami 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amir Taremi 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milad Shojaei is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.