It is not surprising that there is ire from Tehran when fans chant slogans invoking the names of capitals from other countries. “Tabriz, Baku, Ankara, our path leads elsewhere than the path of the Persians.” Shouting that the “Persian Gulf” should be called the “Arabian Gulf” is also a surefire way to upset many in the capital and elsewhere, as Donald Trump and his administration will find out if they try to do so.
The Iranian government, suspicious of large crowds even when they are gathered to support the national team, are wary of Tractor’s pulling power. This season, there has been an average of over 42,000. They are a big draw away, too. On visits to Tehran to take on the twin titans of Persepolis and Esteghlal, thousands come to support them in the cavernous Azadi Stadium.
Persepolis may traditionally be the club of the capital’s working class in contrast to Esteghlal, the establishment’s team, but for Tractor both are part of the ruling regime. These games can be bad-tempered. In 2018, there were 15,000 away fans, swapping ethnic insults with Esteghlal supporters but security forces waded in when the visitors started chanting “death to the dictator”, namely Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Now Tractor have football-related chants to rile Persepolis and Esteghlal, winners of around two-thirds of all the league titles in Iranian history. On 2 May, a 4-0 victory in Shams Azar clinched the championship with two games to spare. Fans in Tabriz and in other cities in the region took to the streets and partied.
It was a long night but then it had been a long time coming. In 2018, one of the richest men in Iran, Mohammad Reza Zonouzi, took over the club. The billionaire brought in John Toshack as coach. It wasn’t a random appointment. As well as taking Swansea City through the divisions in the 1970s and 80s, then going on to manage Real Madrid, the former Liverpool forward had also coached Besiktas in Turkey and led Khazar Lankaran to the Azerbaijan Super Cup in 2013. Soon after, Harry Forrester and Lee Erwin left Rangers and Kilmarnock respectively to join up with the Welshman, as did the former Celtic star and Republic of Ireland international Anthony Stokes.
That dismissal seemed harsh (Sven-Göran Eriksson was supposed to be the replacement) and set the scene for coaches and players to come and go over the following years. The title remained absent but then came Dragan Skocic last summer. The Croat led Iran through qualification for the 2022 World Cup but was fired in July of that year, reinstated days later and then jettisoned in favour of Carlos Queiroz just weeks before the tournament started.
Skocic brought in Iran’s first-choice goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand as well as Mehdi Torabi, Danial Esmaeilifar and Shoja Khalilzadeh. There was some controversy as the first three were all signed directly from Persepolis and the fourth is a former player of that club (also, Torabi is still remembered for lifting up his shirt in the past to reveal pro-government slogans). While these were not the big names of the last decade – the same is true of the foreign imports – they were solid, experienced players. The Red Wolves reached the top of the league at about a third of the way through the campaign and pretty much stayed there for the duration.
Next is Asia. Iran has just one automatic place in the group stage of AFC Champions League Elite, so it may be that the rest of the country will get behind its only guaranteed representative – but then maybe not. Regardless, Tractor will plough on.
Sourse: Tractor SC complete journey to upset Iran’s establishment and claim historic title | Football | The Guardian