Saipa F.C.

Saipa
Full name Saipa Football Club
Founded 1 February 1989
Ground Enghelab Stadium
Karaj, Alborz, Iran
(Capacity: 20,000)
Chairman Arash Kousha
Manager Majid Saleh
League Persian Gulf Cup
2010-11 Persian Gulf Cup, 11th
Home colours
Away colours
For the automobile company, see SAIPA.

Saipa Alborz Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال سايپا البرز) is a football team based in Karaj, Alborz Province, Iran. The team is owned by SAIPA, an Iranian automobile manufacturer. The team has never had a large fanbase, despite some success. It is known to have one of the best youth training programs in Iranian football.

Saipa F.C. is the football club of the multisport Saipa Cultural and Athletic Corporation.

Contents

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History

In 1989, SAIPA Company decided on starting a football team. They purchased a team playing in the 4th division of Tehran's league, and renamed it. They played in the 3rd division in 1990, and the 2nd division in 1991. That same year they purchased the Shipping Department team's shares, and participated in the 1st division of Tehran's local league. In that year they won the Tehran city championship as well as the Tehran Super Cup, thus attaining the right to play in Iran's top league at the time, the Azadegan League. In their first year in the Azadegan League they won the championship, as well as the Hazfi Cup. They also won the league championship again in 1994, but were relegated to the 2nd division in 1995. They were able to make their way back into the 1st division again. They became the champion of the IPL in 2007 with their manager/player Ali Daei. They played in ACL for the first and got through to the second round under Ali Daei but finished 13th in the league and could not perform as well as the season before. After that, Ali Daei was chosen as the Team Melli manager, so the club had to choose a new coach; they brought in a German coach who had a difficult time and stayed for only 2 months. The club replaced said coach with Mayeli Kohan and had an average seasons for the following two seasons and finished in midtable.

Season-by-season

The table below chronicles the achievements of Saipa in various competitions since 1993.

Season Pos. Hazfi Cup ACL
1993-94 1D* 1st Cup Did not qualify
1994-95 1D* 1st Second round
1995-96 1D* 16th Semifinal
1996-97 2D 2nd Did not qualify
1997-98 1D* 7th Not held
1998-99 1D* 4th
1999-00 1D* 3rd Semifinal
2000-01 1D* 7th Semifinal
2001-02 1D** 11th
2002-03 1D** 6th
2003-04 1D** 13th Semifinal
2004-05 1D** 13th Quarterfinal
2005-06 1D** 3rd 1/16 Final
2006-07 1D** 1st 1/8 Final
2007-08 1D** 11th 1/16 Final Quarterfinal
2008-09 1D** 10th 1/16 Final Did not qualify
2009-10 1D** 8th Third Round
2010-11 1D** 11th Fourth Round
2011-12 1D** 1/16 Final

* Azadegan League.
** Iran Pro League.

Honors

First-team squad

As of August 3, 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 GK Sajjad Biranvand
2 DF Majid Gholamnejad
3 MF Jaber Ansari
4 MF Roozbeh Shahalidoost
5 DF Majid Ayoubi
6 DF Morteza Ebrahimi
8 MF Ebrahim Sadeghi (Captain)
10 FW Karim Ansarifard (Vice Captain)
11 FW Amin Manouchehri
12 GK Vahid Mehdikhani
14 MF Mehdi Kheiri
16 MF Javad Ashtiani
17 MF Ali Reza Latifi
18 MF Hamed Shiri
No. Position Player
19 FW Sajjad Shahbazzadeh
20 DF Pirouz Ghorbani
21 FW Abbas Mohammad Rezaei
22 FW Milad Gharibi
23 FW Ali Zeynali
27 Nader Houshyar
30 GK Hossein Ashena
31 Alireza Ali Babaei
32 FW Farid Mousavi
33 MF Omid Ravankhah
35 Saeed Salarvand
36 Mohsen Ahmadi
40 MF Eshagh Sobhani

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers winter 2011–12.

Famous players

Managers

The following managers won at least one trophy when in charge of Saipa:

Name Period Trophies
Bijan Zolfagharnasab 1993-97 2 Azadegan League, Hazfi Cup
Nasrollah Abdollahi 1997–00
Behtash Fariba 2000–01
Hamid Alidoosti 2001–02
Giovanni Mei 2002–03
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan 2003–04
Bijan Zolfagharnasab 2004–06
Werner Lorant 2006
Ali Daei 2006–2008 Iran Pro League
Pierre Littbarski 2008
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan 2008–11
Majid Saleh 2011–

External links

Official