The Persian version of this article has published on my Instagram page, Dated: Saturday, September 20, 2025.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO0UEbXiOSr/?igsh=MW5pczFkaDhoZjQ4NQ==

This is the paradise of incompetents

Vahid Namazi, Journalist and Football Researcher

Writing about the ugliness of Iranian football is a painful task, but it must be done, hoping that someone might take notice and act on it someday—though, given the current management, which has deliberately fostered this ugliness, transformation seems unlikely. A deliberate “lack of taste” permeates Iranian football. Just look at how matches are organized, the television coverage, the imaging, the broadcasting, and the scheduling. This is the result of the incompetent management of “inept” individuals overseeing Iranian football—those who make grand claims but lack the capability to organize a standard football match.

Let me cite a few examples that occurred within just a few hours: the inept managers of Tehran’s sports, before the start of this Premier League season and even earlier, put on all sorts of displays to boast about the readiness of Takhti Stadium. Yet, what we see in live TV broadcasts, news agency images from outside the stadium and its access routes, and footage from spectators’ mobile phones is a patchy, faded, and worn-out pitch resembling those of rural leagues, alongside unsightly stands and filthy seating areas. These scream one thing: incompetent managers (who, it’s said, have committed violations in selecting the contractor for the stadium’s turf). If they haven’t deliberately squandered budgets or engaged in theft, they’ve merely wasted money, nothing more.

In another example, both infuriating and heartbreaking, large metal pieces fell like rain from the roof of the supposedly newly renovated and “apparently ready” Pars Stadium in Shiraz, injuring a spectator’s face! By God, such incidents are unthinkable even in the stadiums of fifth-tier countries. In any underdeveloped nation, at the very least, where thousands gather, protocols are established and enforced to protect lives. Now, this happened in a stadium that has been showing off its preparations for the Premier League matches for the past two or three weeks, and they must have reported this kindness to their superiors and issued an invoice for it, to be paid from the people’s pockets! Now they are running around and visiting that unfortunate injured spectator, taking photos, and even invoicing for this visit! Here, neither people’s leisure time, nor their money, nor even their precious lives matter. No sensible person wants to constantly complain or write about ugliness and corruption, but you, incompetent and unqualified managers, leave us any choice?