page_title: Football in Iran
section_title: Tehran XI
hierarchical_section_title: Football in Iran / Iran national football team (Team Melli) / The predecessor of Iran national football team / Tehran XI
caption_attribution_description: English: The very first Iran selection football team that traveled to Baku in 1926.
context_page_description: Football is the most popular sport in Iran, with wrestling and volleyball as close contenders. Football has been a part of life for Iranians for many decades now and is played in schools, streets, and football clubs nationwide.
context_section_description: In 1926 Tehran XI (selected players from Tehran Club, Toofan and Armenian Sports Club)
  traveled across the border to Baku, USSR, this was the first away football match for an Iranian team. This Tehran Select team is the predecessor of Iran's national football team.
  In 1929 it was time for a return visit, and so a team from Baku was invited to play in Tehran in late November. To impress the visitors, grass had been planted on the state-owned football field. The last of the three games, all of which were won by the visitors, was attended by Abdolhossein Teymourtash, the powerful minister of court. The humiliating defeats, suffered on home ground, caused great consternation, so much so that some young men gave up football altogether. In subsequent years the interest in football waned, and newspapers hardly reported on those matches that did take place. 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.
  Head Coach:  Mir Mehdi Varzandeh
  Squad: 
  The results were as follow:
caption: The very first Iran selection football team that traveled to Baku in 1926.
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