According to Varzesh3, from the mid-1990s we witnessed the presence of Foolad at the top level of Iranian football; the popular representative of Khuzestan was initially in the shadow of teams such as Esteghlal Ahvaz or Sanat Naft, but they very soon achieved great successes and, having experienced winning the Premier League, became the most powerful representative of Khuzestan province. But in the first years of the emergence of a club named Foolad, a strange event occurred during the team's encounter with Persepolis.
On 8 Esfand 1377, Persepolis was the guest of Foolad in Ahvaz. But at that time, council elections had been planned in this province, and for this reason the Security Council did not permit this match to be held in Ahvaz. They asked Foolad club to travel to Tehran to hold this match, and in fact, on this basis, it was planned that both the home and away matches would be played in Tehran. But Foolad club at that time was not inclined to make this long journey and, probably because of the exorbitant costs and such matters, did not show up for this match.
Interestingly, Persepolis players, knowing that Foolad had not travelled to Tehran for this match and would not show up, went to Azadi Stadium and even took a souvenir photo before the start of the match. But in the end, as predicted, Foolad players did not appear on the pitch, and this match was declared 3-0 in Persepolis's favour. Perhaps it is hard for today's young Iranian football fans to imagine such an event recurring, but just three decades ago we witnessed a team's absence because of elections being held and the opposing team's victory.
Persepolis that season reached a historic and unattainable record in Iranian football, achieving 14 consecutive victories in the Azadegan League competitions. Including two wins in the Hazfi Cup, they reached a total of 16 consecutive wins, and this historic and great record in Iranian football has remained immortal to this moment. At the start of that season, the Croatian Ivan Matkovic was in charge of Persepolis, but from early Mehr, Ali Parvin returned to football after 5 years away and, in that very first season of his presence at Persepolis, achieved this great record.
Persepolis at the end of that season succeeded in recording a double, winning the championship in both the league and the Hazfi Cup, and had one of its historic and brilliant seasons. Interestingly, Persepolis won the first-leg match, on 24 Mehr 1377 (16 October 1998), with the single goal of Behnam Seraj.
Hamid Motahari, the current head coach of Foolad, played for Persepolis for the last time that day and, after suffering a strange and untimely back injury, said farewell to football forever a short time later. In the end, Persepolis's run of consecutive victories, which had begun in the month of Mehr, was broken on 21 Esfand (12 March 1999), with a 2-1 loss to Pas, with the brilliance of Vahid Hashemian and Rasoul Khatibi, at Azadi Stadium.
Source: Varzesh3
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