| Full name | Ipatinga Futebol Clube | |||
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| Nickname(s) | Tigrão (Big Tiger) Tigre de Aço (Steel Tiger) Quadricolor (Quadracolor) |
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| Founded | May 21, 1998 | |||
| Ground | Ipatingão, Ipatinga, Brazil (Capacity: 70,500[1]) |
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| President | Itair Machado | |||
| Head Coach | Guilherme | |||
| League | Campeonato Brasileiro Série B | |||
| 2011 | Série C, 3rd (promoted) | |||
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Ipatinga Futebol Clube, commonly known as Ipatinga, is a Brazilian football club, based in Ipatinga, Minas Gerais. They were founded on May 21, 1998.
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The club was founded May 21, 1998 when entrepreneur Itair Machado, who is a former player for Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro, and at the time was the sponsor of Social Futebol Clube, which is a club located in Coronel Fabriciano city (a neighbor city of Ipatinga), with the support of Gercy Mathias, who was the president of the amateur club Novo Cruzeiro Futebol Clube, located in Ipatinga's neighborhood of Novo Cruzeiro; Cosme Mattos, former sportsman; Doctor Rinaldo Campos Soares, president of Sistema Usiminas; Doctor Ronaldo Monteiro de Souza, president of Usisaúde, and Francisco Carlos Delfino (also known as "Chico Ferramenta"), then mayor of Ipatinga. Together, they professionalized Novo Cruzeiro Futebol Clube and renamed the club as Ipatinga Futebol Clube.
After establishing a team of professional players the administrators entered the team to the state championship where the team came in second place in the second division in 1998. In the following year, the team competed in the first division, coming in second place in the 2nd Module of the division. As a result, in 2000 Ipatinga Futebol Clube played against the state's elite teams throughout the 1st Module of the first Division, ending the competition in fourth place.
Seven years after its foundation, the team won the state title in 2005, beating Cruzeiro and finished as runner-up of the competition in the following year. In 2006, Ipatinga competed in the Copa do Brasil, which is the second most important national competition in Brazil. By reaching the semifinals, the team beat Botafogo and Santos, respectively the champions of that year's (2006) Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo state championships. However, Ipatinga was eliminated by Flamengo, of Rio de Janeiro, in the semifinals. Shortly after the competition was over, three players and the coach of Ipatinga transferred over to Flamengo. In 2006, the club also finished in Campeonato Brasileiro Série C's third position, thus being promoted to the following year's Brazilian Championship Second Level. After being runner up in 2007's Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, Ipatinga gained promotion to the elite of Brazilian football in 2008's Série A.
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Ipatinga plays in a municipal stadium named Estádio Municipal Epaminondas Mendes Brito, usually known as Ipatingão, built in 1982, with a maximum capacity of 15,000 people.[2] Its capacity was previously 35,000[3] but it was reduced to 15,000 due to safety reasons.[2]
The club colors are the same colors as the city of Ipatinga's. Ipatinga's mascot is a tiger, and was chosen in a popular contest. The tiger had 7948 votes, in second the eagle had 2529 votes, in third the cat had 846 votes, in fourth the parakeet had 713 votes, and in fifth the parrot had 202 votes.
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