Mehdi Taj

• 1. Introduction

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  Mehdi Taj was turned away by Canadian authorities in April 2026. He was on his way to the FIFA Congress in Vancouver when he was stopped. He was Iran's football boss at the time, a man who had led the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran on and off since 2016. A border stop does not usually make international news. So what was it about Taj's record that turned a routine trip into an international incident? And how did a man who started out editing a sports magazine end up running Iranian football? He would also gain a vote inside Asian football's leadership, and a say in whether Iran's clubs should back a women's game.

• 2. Before the Federation

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  Jahan Varzesh made Taj its editor-in-chief in 1991, and he held that post for a decade, until 2001. During those same years, he was also working inside Sepahan's boardroom, serving as Secretary of the Board from 1992 to 1994. From 1994 to 1999, he moved up to president of the club itself. He then returned to the Secretary role from 2002 to 2006, a second stint in the same seat. Somewhere across those same years he also chaired the board of Foolad Metil. None of those roles, though, gave him control of the federation that oversees football nationwide.

• 3. Two Elections by 51 Votes

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  In 2008, Taj became First Vice President of FFIRI, a post he held until 2012. From 2013 to 2016, he ran the Iran Football League Organization as its president. On the 7th of May 2016, he was elected president of FFIRI outright, winning with 51 votes and succeeding Ali Kafashian. That first term ran from 2016 to 2019. Taj resigned in December 2019 because of heart problems.

  In May 2020, five months after stepping down, the Asian Football Confederation appointed him to its Emergency Committee. On the 30th of August 2022, Taj returned to the presidency, winning a three-candidate race for a two-year term. The margin was the same as six years earlier: 51 votes. That authority soon reached past Iran's own borders, into the running of Asian football itself.

• 4. Beyond Iran's Borders

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  Since 2019, Taj has served as one of five vice presidents of the Asian Football Confederation. Taj also carries a history of service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That history in the Guard Corps was the reason Canadian officials gave for blocking him. That international scrutiny sat next to a different part of his record: his stance on Iran's women's game.

• 5. Women's Football in Iran

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  Taj visited the training camp of the Iranian women's national football team. He said all of Iran's clubs should try to start a women's section of their own. In the economic sector, though, the same serious problems facing Iranian women's football remained as they had before. Taj also watched the final of the 2023 Women's World Cup. Whether his call for clubs to start women's sections would outlast those same economic obstacles was still an open question after that 2023 final.