In late
1989 Parvin (or Soltan as many call him) became the Iranian national team manager. He had already gained experience managing Tehran powerhouse, Persepolis FC. At first his popularity grew even more as the team won the
1990 Asian Games football gold medal, but early elimination from the
1992 Asian Cup and failure to qualify for
World Cup 1994 cost him his job. He was fired in
1993 and replaced by
Stanko Poklepovic.
A number of years after he became the manager of Persepolis FC and helped the team to a number of league titles. He left the team briefly in the
2003-04 season but returned the year after as the technical director of the team. After a poor start for Persepolis in the
2005-06 season he again became the manager, only to leave at the end of the season due to the club's poor form.
In recent years Parvin has been criticized for the style of play his teams show on the field, which is considered by many to be thoughtless, ugly football with no real plan. Many also believe he completely ran Persepolis FC, and refused to let anyone else interfere, believing the team to be truly his own.
On
April 30, 2007, Ali Parvin bought the rights to
Azadegan League club
Ekbatan F.C. who he renamed to
Steel Azin F.C...