Iran may have topped its group in qualifying for the fast-approaching 2014 Fifa World Cup but, at home, football remains fraught with allegations of match fixing, favouritism and bribery. In many ways, football in Iran is a microcosm of the republic’s complex political system, with athletes and sports clubs implicated in a web of corruption incubated by the closed nature of society. And, as is the case in broader society, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is often to be found at the heart of it.