The Persian version of this article has published on my Instagram page, Dated: Sunday, October 5, 2025.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPcEGl9iMS3/?igsh=cHdqMms1NWxjNnQy

Captivity in the paradise of the lowly

Vahid Namazi

This is Iranian football—a symbol of the current state of affairs. A grim and sorrowful reflection of a subsidence land which still is the envy of many others! Was what we witnessed over these past two nights in the matches Esteghlal Vs Chadormalu, Sepahan Vs Zob Ahan, Persepolis Vs Golgohar and Foolad Vs Tractor anything other than this? Beyond ugliness, poor taste, gross mismanagement, and a stubborn insistence on driving a wedge between the people and the beautiful, significant, and lucrative phenomenon called football, what else is there to see in Iran’s league matches?

As fans, critics, journalists, or ordinary citizens, what lofty or unimaginable expectations do we have of a football match that a bunch of incompetent and incapable managers fail to deliver? What part of this football of yours is supposed to be enjoying for us? Your pothole-ridden, patchwork pitches? The forced displacement of teams from their home cities? The beating of fans by paid-off and stooges? The awfull broadcasting and media coverage by national television? Or the intimidating, ill-equipped, filthy, and degrading environments you’ve created for fans?

Once upon a time in this country, under the constant shadow of enemy bombers and missiles, despite all the misery and shortages, every week at Azadi Stadium, in the Tehran Clubs’ Cup matches, Esteghlal and Persepolis would play against their opponents on the same day, back-to-back, and nothing bad would happen. This reminder is not an endorsement of the amateurism or flawed management of those days—it’s a testament to the competence of the managers back then and the feasibility of something you lot can’t even come close to achieving today! What sin have these kind-hearted people committed to be trapped in the hands of your ineptitude?

Football is a “meta-phenomenon” from which the entire world reaps countless opportunities, yet we are moving in the exact opposite direction. While Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sports, right next door, signs a six-year, €110 million online broadcasting rights deal with its contractor, we are hurtling backward at breakneck speed, proposing bans on fans bringing cameras into stadiums so no eye can witness our inefficiency and incompetence—oblivious to the fact that the drum of scandal of our failures has been beating for a long time, deafening the ears of all who hear it!