Fajr Sepasi F.C.

Shahid Sepasi

Full name	Fajr Shahid Sepasi Fars Football Club
Founded	1988, as F.C. Fajr Shahid Sepasi
Ground	Hafezieh Stadium Shiraz Iran
Ground Capacity	15,000
Chairman	Jafar Jafari
Head Coach	Ali Kalantari
League	Azadegan League
2013–14	Iran Pro League, 14th (relegated)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Fajr Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال فجر شهید سپاسی شیراز‎) is an Iranian football club based in Shiraz, Iran.

The club is one of the more financially restricted teams in Iran's football, and is owned by Iran's Basij. Prior to the club's affiliation with the Basij many young players who had yet to serve in the military (2 year military service is mandatory in Iran) choose to play for Fajr Sepasi, because of the close relationship between the team and the Iranian military.

The club consists of mostly young players, and does not have a very large following in Shiraz, Bargh, Fajr's rival has a much stronger fan base in the city. The biggest win of Fajr in IPL was in December 2012 when they defeat Aluminium Hormozgan F.C. by 6 goals.

History

Establishment

In 1988, a group of youngsters, who were from Shiraz along with Jafar Jafari, established a football team named Behzad. They started play in the 2nd division of Shiraz's local city league. When Majid Sepasi, was killed in the Iran–Iraq War, the team renamed itself Fajr Shahid Sepasi, to honor him. By 1991 the club had been bought by Sepah Pasdaran. In 1995 they became champions of Fars province, and in 1996 were promoted to the Azadegan League. The club has remained in the highest level of Iranian football since then, and surprised everyone when they won the Hazfi Cup in 2001.

Takeover

Moghavemat Shahid Sepasi emblem (2007-2011)

In December 2006 Sepah Pasdaran sold its shares in sport to Basij, therefore all Fajr teams were renamed to Moghavemat teams. Fajr Sepasi are now officially known as Moghavemat Shahid Sepasi Shiraz, although the name is not in common use yet.^[1] Jafar Jafari is the club's chairman since the establishment of the club in 1988.

They kept the coach Gholam Hossein Peyrovani till 2009 where he was appointed as Iran's olympics team head coach and had to leave the club so Peyrovani left the club after 10 years being in charge and he was finished his last season in mid table and was replaced by Davoud Mahabadi and after poor results he was replaced by Mohammad Ahmadzadeh and got relegated in the first season without Peyrovani.

In 2010 for the first time in the club's history, the team was relegated to the Azadegan League for the 2010-2011 season. Fajr quickly rebounded gaining promotion to the Iran Pro League in 2011.

Shiraz Derby

Main articles: Shiraz Derby

The Shiraz Derby is played between Fajr Sepasi and Bargh Shiraz, but due to Bargh's relegation to the Azadegan League and then the 2nd Division, the derby has not been played in over 5 years.

Season-by-season

The table below chronicles the achievements of Fajr Sepasi in various competitions since 1995.

Honors

• Hazfi Cup:

Winners (1): 2001

Runners-Up (2): 2002, 2003

• 2nd Division:

Winners (1): 1997

• AK Pipe International Cup:

Runners-Up (1): 2001

Players

As of November 27, 2013^[2]

First-team squad

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

No. Position Player 4 MF Alireza Jalili 6 MF Hadi Imani 8 MF Mehrdad Karimian (Captain) 9 FW Amin Shojaeian 11 MF Mehrzad Madanchi 12 MF Mohammad Afand 14 MF Masoud Rigi U23 18 DF Mohammad Ansari U23 20 MF Farshid Esmaeili U21 21 FW Mohammad Reza Hosseini

No. Position Player 23 GK Mohammad Saleh Khalil Azad U23 25 DF Samad Zare 26 DF Ramtin Soleymanzadeh 27 MF Bahram Rashid Farokhi U23 28 MF Abdolreza Zarei U19 30 GK Mohammad Khazaei 34 DF Mohammad Ali Faramarzi U21 36 MF Mohammad Daneshgar U21 38 MF Meysam Khodashenas 44 FW Mohammad Heidari

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers summer 2014.

Former players

For details on former players, see Category:Fajr Sepasi players.

Head coaches

• Mansour Pourheidari (1996–98)
• Mahmoud Yavari (1998–99)
• Gholam Hossein Peyrovani (1999–09)
• Davoud Mahabadi (2009–10)
• Mohammad Ahmadzadeh (2010)
• Ali Kalantari (Sept 1, 2010–Nov 30, 2011)
• Mahmoud Yavari (Nov 27, 2011–May 31, 2013)
• Gholam Hossein Peyrovani (July 1, 2013–Sept 7, 2013)
• Mahmoud Yavari (Sept 15, 2013–Jun 28, 2014)
• Ali Kalantari (Aug 10, 2014– )

References

External links

• Official club website