Niroye Zamini

Tehran's military establishments have long fielded their own football teams, and the Ground Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army are no exception: their club plays under the name Niroye Zamini, carrying the nickname Sarbaz, "Soldier." The club took its current form in 1980, in the aftermath of the revolution, and won the 17th of Shahrivar League that same decade, an early marker of the identity it settled into.

What has followed since has been a story of drops and recoveries rather than steady progress. Niroye Zamini fell out of the Azadegan League in 2003, 2009 and 2015, and the 2009 relegation came with a harder blow: the club dissolved over its finances and its licence passed to Gostaresh Foolad. It was rebuilt before the year was out, starting again in the lower divisions. Promotion back to the second tier followed twice, in 2003–04 and 2010–11, and the club's most recent title came in the 2023–24 Iran Football's 2nd Division, won on penalties against Kavir Maghaz Tehran after a goalless final, a result that sent Sarbaz back into the Azadegan League for 2024–25.

The club plays at the Takhti Stadium, which holds around 20,000. Among the players who passed through its ranks before moving on to Persepolis, Esteghlal or the national team, Ali Reza Mansourian stands out, a name later known in Iranian football as a manager as much as a player.

Niroye Zamini's sharpest rivalries run along the same lines as its own identity: matches against Fajr Sepasi, tied to the Ground Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and against Havadar SC, linked to the Guard Corps' Air Force, carry the weight of two branches of the armed forces facing off, even without a fixed name attached to either fixture.