Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C.

Esteghlal Ahvaz

Full name	Esteghlal Ahvaz Football Club
Founded	1948
Ground	Takhti Stadium Ahvaz Iran
Ground Capacity	30,000
Owner	Ali Shafizadeh
Chairman	Karoun Ya'ghoubi
Head Coach	Davoud Mahabadi
League	Azadegan League
2012-13	Azadegan League Group 1, 10th
Home colours Away colours

Esteghlal Ahvaz Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال استقلال اهواز‎) is an Iranian football club based in Ahvaz, Iran. They currently compete in the Azadegan League.

History

Establishment

The club was founded in 1948 with the help of Hakim Shoushtari. The club was one of Taj Tehran branches at the time, and was called Taj Ahvaz F.C. From the beginning the club was able to attract some of the better Khuzestani players.

Takht Jamshid Cup

In 1973 the team was promoted to the Takht Jamshid Cup, but league rules allowed for only one team of the same name to participate, therefore Taj Tehran, remained in the league, and Taj Ahvaz F.C. was forced to stay in the lower leagues.

Post-revolution success

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Taj Ahvaz F.C. (Persian: تاج اهواز‎) changed its name to Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C. (Persian: استقلال اهواز‎). The Iran–Iraq War hit Ahvaz and Khuzestan hard, and very little attention was paid to the club at that time. Finally in 1991 the team was promoted to the Azadegan League and was allowed to participate, despite two teams having the same name. In 1997, the club was relegated, but returned to Iran's Premier Football League (IPL) in 2002. The club started to develop during its initial and second season in the IPL, because of the amount of money they spent, thanks to club chairman Ali Shafizadeh. The club became known as Iran's Chelsea after that.^{[citation needed]} Despite being the only private club in the league they could not win anything and they finally came so close and finished second in the league in 2006–07 by only 2 points. They continued to be an average team in 2007–08 and 2008–09 seasons which finished in mid table for both seasons. Their instability in 2010–11 season caused a relegation where they changed their head coach three times.

Ahvaz Derby

Main articles: Ahvaz Derby

Season-by-season

The table below chronicles the achievements of Esteghlal Ahvaz in various competitions since 1999.

Club honours

• National Championships

Runner Up (1): 2006/2007

• Azadegan League

Champions (1): 2001–02

• 2nd Division

Champions (1): 2011–12

Club chairmen

• Nasrollah Heibodi (-2002)
• Ali Shafizadeh (2002–2006)
• Shahram Shafizadeh (2006–2011)
• Safar Jamalpour (2011–present)

Club managers

Players

As of December 17, 2011^[1]

First-team squad

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 GK Taleb Sharifi MF Aghil Daghagheleh FW Farzad Jaafari MF Alireza Shadkam DF Saeed Beigi GK Arya Hassanzadeh DF Reza Jalilli Sabet FW Seyed Mohammad Bagher Mousavi DF Mosayeb Jomehzadeh

No. Position Player MF Sassan Ghasemi MF Mojahed Khaziravi MF Mohammad Kooti MF Ebrahim Latifi DF Kamyar Ghanbari MF Rasoul Ramazani FW Mehdi Niyayeshpour DF Meisam Zoraghi GK Ebrahim Sheikhinasab

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers winter 2012–13.

Famous players

See also

• Esteghlal Tehran Football Club
• Esteghlal Meli-Sanati Khuzestan Football Club
• Esteghlal Dushanbe Football Club
• 2011-12 Hazfi Cup
• 2011–12 Iran Football's 2nd Division

References

External links

• (Persian) Official club website
• (Persian) Khuzestan Football Association