The bottom 4 teams of the league are the teams that finished at or near the top last year. In a reverse order, four favorites of this year Zobahan, Sepahan, Perspolis and Paas are occupying the bottom of the table. Paas, champions of last year and one of Iran’s representative in the Asian Club Championships is in 13th position and Sepahan, the other representative in the same Asian tournament is 15th.

Below, you would find the IPL rankings table after its second week matches.

Interestingly, only 1 team, Saipa has won both of its matches. Last year, Saipa won its second match in the 20th week of the season.

One of the two most anticipated games of the week was between Esteghlal of Tehran and Saba Battery. This game was held in front of 50,000 fans in Tehran and as expected was a physical and difficult match. Saba Battery has 4 former starters of Esteghlal who have left their old team due to problems with Esteghlal’s coaching and management. Saba Battery’s head coach and assistant coaches are also former Esteghlal coaches and players. As a result, this game was more than just a match. The match ended in a 1 – 1 tie but a number of players were injured including Iran’s National Team Capitan, Ali Daei and another national team forward, Reza Enayati.

In the other anticipated match, REDs of Perspolis ended with another disappointment when they tied visitors, Bargh of Shiraz. In the off-season, Perspolis hired a German head coach, Sobel, and brought back legendary Ali Parvin as its technical management. Parvin has taken complete control of the team and sooner or later we should expect the German coach to leave the club.

Below, lets review the stats and maths of the week.

0 – Combined # of IPL teams from North West (Azerbaijan), South East (Sistan and Blauchestan), South (Boosher and Bandar Abbas) and West (Kurdistan, Hamedan, Kermanshahr and Lorestan).

2 – As it is a football RULE that when you get two yellow cards in one game, you are red carded and ejected. Not in Esteghlal – Saba Battery game. Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh of Saba got two yellow cards and stayed in the game. The referee later on claimed one of the cards was not shown to Bakhtiarizadeh but to Akbarpour. Right!

3 – As the number of boring 0 – 0 matches after two weeks and 15 games. Two of them involving the “Master of Irrelevance”, Mr. Shahrokhi’s team, Paykan. For the record, Paykan had 4 goalless ties the entire season last year. Some habits are hard to break but this team is heading to break all unimpressive records.

5 – As the combined number of points 5 teams of Esteghlal, Perspolis, Paas, Sepahan and Zobahan have of the possible 30 points they could have earned in the first 2 weeks. Their combined points are 1 less than Saipa.

5 - # of games I project the current German coach of Perspolis would last before quitting or getting fired.

5 - Minimum # of under 23 years old players each IPL team had to submit for this season. Sorry, no, the fact that Foolad of Ahvaz has 18 under 23 players in its roster does not make up for other teams lack of youth.

5 - # of teams in IPL backed by military and “Sepah” forces. They are: Abumoslem (Mashad), Fajr (Shiraz), Malevan (Anzali), Paas (Tehran) and Saba Battery (Tehran).

10 - # of fans arrested after Perspolis - Foolad game in Ahvaz last week due to violence. A stone thrown by 1 fan hit Foolad and Iranian National Team player Baadavi in the chest and he was down for a while.

13 – As the # of foreign players who played in week 2 of IPL. 1 more than last week. This week, Esteghlal of Ahvaz and Pegah of Rasht each used three foreign players. Isn’t it amazing that Esteghlal of Ahvaz sees the need to use foreign players while on the other side of the same city; Foolad has produced 17 current national team players in senior, U23 and U17 level? They play in the same city. Don’t they?

17 or 26 – Only in IPL. “Graili”, Shemushack player wore #17 in the first half and #26 in the second half. Apparently his shirt was ripped in the first half but the team had no spare shirt with the same # and hence a new #. Good thing “Graili” did not get a yellow card in the first half or else it would have been really confusing for the referee.

20 - # of referees who work in IPL and First Division leagues. 55 other assistant referees also assist these games.

25 – Maximum # of players for an IPL roster. Teams could provide 22 players now and 3 more at mid point of the season.

41 – As the number of committed fouls in the game between Esteghlal and Saba Battery. That is an average of 1 foul every 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

94 – Fajr Sepassi player, Rezaei, scored the winning goal in the 94th minute and broke Shemushack of Noshahr’s heart.

160 – As the sum of the ages of 5 Perspolis players. That’s OK, if they are too old, at least their hearts are young. Too bad young hearts on the field lose to young legs!

16,563 – Average fan attendance per game in week 2. Twice better than the first week. The main factor was that both Perspolis and Esteghlal played in Tehran this week.

132,500 – As the total # of fans in stadiums in week 2 for 8 games. While large crowds for each of Perspolis and Esteghlal home games were expected, between 20,000 and 30,000 fans went to Rasht stadium to watch the two teams of Gilan, Malevan and Pegah play.

280,000 – Reported dollars of Perspolis’s head coach contract, Sobel. Sobel is reported to have already received half of his contract dollars. Not bad for a coach that just after 2 weeks is learning the laws of Iranian style football and may not be around for a whole season.

500,000 – In dollars as what is reported as annual salary asked by Branko Ivankovich to stay as Iran’s national team head coach.

750,000 – In dollars as the amount UAE’s Alahli Club offered Esteghlal for national team player Nikbakht. And looks like Esteghlal has declined the offer.

1,000,000 – As 1 million Tomans the penalty for Bakhtiarizadeh for intentionally injuring Enayati in Esteghlal and Saba Battery match.