At that time they were working at port cities Bushehr, Khorramshahr, Bandar Abbas and major oil refineries such as Abadan and Masjed Soleiman in the province of Khuzestan, the latter area even boasting a football league.

In 1907, the British Ambassador in Tehran Cecil Spring Rice founded Iran's first Football Tournament which had only 3 teams: Embassy of Great Britain, Imperial Bank of Persia and Indo-European Telegraph Company.

In other parts of southern Iran, (e.g. cities such as Shiraz) football was introduced by the British officers of the South Persia Rifles (1916–1921) to the Iranian troops they commanded, who then spread the game among the civilian population.

The Iran Club squad consisted of Karim Zandi, Khan Sardar brothers, Amir-Aslani brothers, Mohammad Ali Shokooh, Azizollah Afkkhami, Reza Kalantar, Sheybani, Hasan Meftah, Herand, Galustyan, Khajeh-Noori, Reza Rabizadeh, Hambarson, Ashrafi.

Before this, football was only played by foreign residents in Mashhad (especially the employees of the Telegraph Office and the British Consulate-General).

In places that had not entertained a significant foreign presence, such as Ardabil, it seems that the game was introduced in the 1920s by young men who had spent some time in the Caucasus.

[3][better source needed] By the 1950s and early 60s, football had become a popular sport in Iran, and teams from Khuzestan were considered the most successful.

[clarification needed] Tehran then slowly started becoming the football capital of Iran, and numerous great clubs emerged from there.

On 27 December 2019, Zahra Khajavi broke the clean sheet record of Iranian football by not receiving any goal for 953 minutes.

[8]The COVID-19 pandemic in Iran forced the fixtures to be played without spectators, bringing new financial problems that lasted for years for some clubs.

In the AFC Champions League (organised by the Asian Football Confederation, problems on the Iranian sides were attracting media attention.

The humiliating defeats, suffered on home ground, caused great consternation, so much so that some young men gave up football altogether.

However, all this changed with the return of crown prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from Switzerland in 1936 and arrival of Thomas R Gibson in the 1930s to promote the game.

The results were as follow: One man can be remembered, who contributed to Iranian football during the post-World War One period.

British Army XI lineup included players such as Wilf Mannion, Migger and Bick,[18] Bertie Mee, Jimmy McCabe.

In the 1980s the Iran–Iraq War hindered the development of the national team and Iran missed out on several World Cups due to withdrawing from the qualifying stage.

Iran fields youth national teams in men's and women's sections predominantly at the U17, U20 and U23 levels having enjoyed moderate success.

The Iranians are the regular participants of the FIFA Futsal World Cup reaching the third place in 2016 after eliminating the favorites, Brazil.

Iran has also appeared in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup seven times, reaching the quarterfinals on three occasions (2013, 2015, 2017), and finishing in third place once (2017).

Iran women's national beach soccer team, is being reviewed by the Iranian Football Federation.