Down the memory lane : Iran football in the seventies.

[purple_haze]

perspolees jaan..............
It is possible that I may be wrong.....but, I , like you, also go to Iran often, may be twice a year...( for my job )....and I also have attended a game in mashahd,as I have many reletives there and Tehran..............
mashad, is totaly esteghlali.......
and here is what I hear in Iran.

1-Perspolice has more fans in Tehran.
2-Esteghlal has more fans in shahrestans.
3-Perspolise is more popular with the thugs .
4-Esteghlal is more popular with the educated.
5-Hejazi is more respected than parvin.
6-perspolise is considered , the mafia.
7-esteghlal is considered as anti-establishment.( opposite of the shah's time).
8-perspolise fans are more vocal,as esteghlalis stay at home.

Well Bahram jan, it's one of those things that is mostly based on hearsay and in this particular case and with those statements above, it surely depends on who and where you hear it from. You can hear most of that from each group about the other. Point 3 and 4 for example is something that the blue fans have always claimed ever since the last regime. Point 6 and 7... to be honest just sounds funny and almost superstitious and exactly like something a group of fans would fabricate against their rivals.

For point 1 and 2, it's as I and the good Dr explained. It depends where you would happen to be. The thing you said about Mashad, I too thought that was the case and they were more blue oriented, but then I checked the Mashad Samen stadium in this season's Abu-PP match and there were a lot of Perspolis fans to my surprise, so I'm not so sure anymore.
About Khuzestan being blue dominated and Tabriz and Shiraz being red dominated I'm totally sure though.
About the rest of the provinces, I can't really say.

[zzgloo]

absolutely not!
I explained it above
and in sharestans except for abadan and ahvaz where government has always been more influential ( I think they have always had more blue fans) the rest of Iran is crushing majority red...I have been to games in Tabriz, sheeraz and mashad...

perspolees jaan..............
It is possible that I may be wrong.....but, I , like you, also go to Iran often, may be twice a year...( for my job )....and I also have attended a game in mashahd,as I have many reletives there and Tehran..............
mashad, is totaly esteghlali.......
and here is what I hear in Iran.

1-Perspolice has more fans in Tehran.
2-Esteghlal has more fans in shahrestans.
3-Perspolise is more popular with the thugs .
4-Esteghlal is more popular with the educated.
5-Hejazi is more respected than parvin.
6-perspolise is considered , the mafia.
7-esteghlal is considered as anti-establishment.( opposite of the shah's time).
8-perspolise fans are more vocal,as esteghlalis stay at home.

[perspolees]

purple_haze e aziz..................
indeed,I would be very interested to clarify this issue......
Do you have a result of any poll, or a currant PP ,SS game picture of stands with respective flags of the fans ?.......can any one, shed light on this, with an evidence ?.....................
My friends in Tehran, tell me, the most cities, the SS fans are more, and in Tehran may be equal ......Is that not correct ?

absolutely not!
I explained it above
and in sharestans except for abadan and ahvaz where government has always been more influential ( I think they have always had more blue fans) the rest of Iran is crushing majority red...I have been to games in Tabriz, sheeraz and mashad...

[perspolees]

please keep in mind, at that time, almost 90% of fans were perspolisee, and being taji, required a certain caurage...and kind of being outcast in your neighborhood !!!.....as i am told,that is no longer the case,and the blue fans may out number the reds these days...may be by 55 to 45 %.......
A pp player would have dared to go to SS..., so thats why the other way around was more popular........

your numbers are off.
persepolis is still a crushing majority
we had 30 mil then we have 80 mik now
we ahd a tehran with 1 million then and now 15 mil so statistically speaking isf the showing in the stands is the number whent he two teams played we would have about the same if we had about that big a stadium! back then tehran was able to produce 30k into a 100k stadium if that for the blues...now multiply that by 15 thats why esteghlal could fill a stadium for championship celebration and 40 -45 k shows up to the derby, they are still less than persepolisis in the derbies. so if we really had that big a stadium I have no doubt that we could fill up 700k ( 10 times what it was back then) for a championship game...

This league ( and even the one that esteghlal won and we were not that good)still you could see that persepolis average game fan numbers is at least twice teh blues..

and even if we were to say that you are remotely right you are contradicting yourself because esteghlal migration to persepolis has been much higher than the other way around even after the rev. ..

[purple_haze]

I don't think he went to Taj and came back to PP and back to Taj. But then again, I left Iran around 63 Iranian calender, so after that I don't remember. Actually he was a good player actually I dare to say very good player. He was very good in the air. The thing is in Iran if the player isn't good in dribbling the ball, he is not among fan's favorite. That was the main reason, Daie was never a fan favorite to the level he could be. It was the same with Fathabadi.

Yeah Ali jan he was good, butunfortunately for him, the competition was even better at that time. Mohammadkhani, Changiz, Alidoosti, Bavi to name a few.

[Ali Chicago]

I don't think he went to Taj and came back to PP and back to Taj. But then again, I left Iran around 63 Iranian calender, so after that I don't remember. Actually he was a good player actually I dare to say very good player. He was very good in the air. The thing is in Iran if the player isn't good in dribbling the ball, he is not among fan's favorite. That was the main reason, Daie was never a fan favorite to the level he could be. It was the same with Fathabadi.

[purple_haze]

I didn't know that.. I thought he started with PP and then went to SS..

then in that case, this guy was a blue, Red, and then blue again..

he is probably the only player to ever do that..

Yeah he probably is and the interesting thing is that it didn't create any reactions among the fans, like nobody cared . But that's probably got to do with the fact that he never really was a top notch player. Kinda like the Alizadeh scenario where no one cares, although he was still way better than Alizadeh is or could ever be and was still a national player.

[BehzadB]

Yes you are right. From what I recall, he spent a little time with Esteghlal before joining PP around 59-60...

I didn't know that.. I thought he started with PP and then went to SS..

then in that case, this guy was a blue, Red, and then blue again..

he is probably the only player to ever do that..

[purple_haze]

purple_haze e aziz..................
indeed,I would be very interested to clarify this issue......
Do you have a result of any poll, or a currant PP ,SS game picture of stands with respective flags of the fans ?.......can any one, shed light on this, with an evidence ?.....................
My friends in Tehran, tell me, the most cities, the SS fans are more, and in Tehran may be equal ......Is that not correct ?

No I don't think it is yet. It's closer than before but not equal or 55% to 45% for Esteghlal. I would think it's more like 60 to 40 for PP. About the internet polls, almost all of them that I've seen have had a similar result. For example on this site, the latest ones are here and here.

In other cities that Tehran it's kind of spread and looks different in different provinces (kinda like the political preferences in different states in USA).

For instance, in some provinces, mostly the southern ones like Khuzestan, the majority are blue fans, while there is a pronounced red majority in the Azerbaijan province and Fars.

[zzgloo]

No Bahram jan, I can assure you that even if the percentage has changed a bit, the majority has yet to be changed. A simple look at the number of both teams' fans for games in Azadi or even simply any internet poll would clarify that.

purple_haze e aziz..................
indeed,I would be very interested to clarify this issue......
Do you have a result of any poll, or a currant PP ,SS game picture of stands with respective flags of the fans ?.......can any one, shed light on this, with an evidence ?.....................
My friends in Tehran, tell me, the most cities, the SS fans are more, and in Tehran may be equal ......Is that not correct ?

[purple_haze]

aha!

THEN THIS DUDE IS ONE OF TEH RARITIES WHICH WENT THRU BLUR-RED-BLUE thing three times!

and that game I recall too purple what an amazing player that mohammadkhani was!! he was truly one of the burnt ones..truth be said that 27yo law they passed ( stupid that ws) also burnt one of the greatest keepers asia had ever seen...i.e. Nasser Hejazi

still he qualifies as one of the rarities who left the reds to go to blues, majority has been the other way around...

Yeah he was a regular yoyo alright

About the 27yo thingy, you must mean Hejazi's retirement from international football, right? Because as I remember in that last game against PP, he was clearly over 30, I think he was 35, but it was ofcourse not an international game. Mohammadkhani was actually 27 at that stage. He went to play in some arab country together with his then best friend, Hamid Derakhshan and a whole bunch of other TM players after the Asian Games '86, but later came back to represent both PP and TM as captain.

[purple_haze]

please keep in mind, at that time, almost 90% of fans were perspolisee, and being taji, required a certain caurage...and kind of being outcast in your neighborhood !!!.....as i am told,that is no longer the case,and the blue fans may out number the reds these days...may be by 55 to 45 %.......
A pp player would have dared to go to SS..., so thats why the other way around was more popular........

No Bahram jan, I can assure you that even if the percentage has changed a bit, the majority has yet to be changed. A simple look at the number of both teams' fans for games in Azadi or even simply any internet poll would clarify that.

[zzgloo]

please keep in mind, at that time, almost 90% of fans were perspolisee, and being taji, required a certain caurage...and kind of being outcast in your neighborhood !!!.....as i am told,that is no longer the case,and the blue fans may out number the reds these days...may be by 55 to 45 %.......
A pp player would have dared to go to SS..., so thats why the other way around was more popular........

[perspolees]

aha!

THEN THIS DUDE IS ONE OF TEH RARITIES WHICH WENT THRU BLUR-RED-BLUE thing three times!

and that game I recall too purple what an amazing player that mohammadkhani was!! he was truly one of the burnt ones..truth be said that 27yo law they passed ( stupid that ws) also burnt one of the greatest keepers asia had ever seen...i.e. Nasser Hejazi

still he qualifies as one of the rarities who left the reds to go to blues, majority has been the other way around...

[purple_haze]

well then that makes things easier!
Shahbaz was there with those players that you mentioned in the last ( not finished) takhte jamsheed league.
Fathabadi has won espandi ( the first semi league after revolution) and couple of tehran championship ( during war with Iraq the only league in Iran) with Persepolis..so in 57 if he was playin for teh blues as you mention he was playing in 61-62-63 with the reds...

Yes you are right. From what I recall, he spent a little time with Esteghlal before joining PP around 59-60, played in PP until the end of 64 and went back to Esteghlal in 65. He was partnering Changiz as Esteghlal's forwards in the 1365 derby against PP, with Shahrokh Bayani playing for PP. Mid way through the first half he had a collision with Vahid Ghelich, the PP keeper and injured him badly, so Ghelich was taken to hospital and Behrooz Soltani after being totally absent for 2 years, got subbed in for Ghelich.
PP won the match 3-0, Bayani scoring 2 goals and my favourite PP player of that era and the MVP of that match, Naser Mohammadkhani scoring the 3rd. He even set up the other 2 goals for Bayani, the first one being a penalty after an amazing run by Mohammadkhani through the blues' defense and being brought down in the penalty area by Saeed Maraghechian and the second one after another fast run by him and a precise passback to Bayani. BTW it was Naser Hejazi's last official match as Esteghlal's GK.