Rah Ahan Tehran F.C.

Rah Ahan
راه‌آهن

Full name	Rah Ahan Yazdan Sports Club
Nickname(s)	Crystal Boys (Persian: كريستالي ها‎‎)
Founded	2 January 1937 (1937-01-02)
Ground	Shahid Derakhshan Stadium (currently) Rah Ahan Stadium
Ground Capacity	8,000 12,000
Owner	Peyman Kianian
Chairman	Babak Afshar
Head Coach	Sirous Dinmohammadi
League	Azadegan League
2016–17	Azadegan League, 15th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Rah Ahan Yazdan Sports Club (Persian: باشگاه ورزشی راه‌آهن یزدان‎‎), commonly known as Rah Ahan Tehran Football Club is an Iranian football club based in Tehran. They currently play in the Azadegan League. Rah Ahan is one of the oldest Iranian football clubs.

History

Establishment

Rah ahan was formed in 1937 in Tehran by Iran Railways but were bought by Qeshm Air. They are one of the oldest Iranian football clubs still in existence. In 1939 Rah ahan participated in the Tehran Local League for the first time. Their first official match was on 4 January 1940 against Bazargani F.C., they won the game 11–0. Nowadays Rah ahan is owned by the businessman Peyman Kianian.

1950s

During the World War in the 1940s Rah Ahan dissolved its football operations, it was not until the 1950s when Rah Ahan restarted its football team. After its re-establishment the club under the name of Pirouz played on the dirt pitches near the railway station. The players of the team composed of the Railway workers. In 1955 with the arrival of Rasoul Madadnavi from Tabriz, the club was again renamed to Rah Ahan and began to attract players from outside the railway company. After achieving good results in the 1958 season Rah Ahan was promoted to the 1st Division Tehran League, but due to new restrictions regarding private clubs in the Tehran Local Leagues, the club was denied the right to compete and eventually ceased its operations.

Pre Revolution

In 1963 Rah Ahan was again re-established and were placed in the 2nd Division Tehran Local League, in 1966 Rah Ahan was finally promote to the top division of the Tehran Local Leagues. In 1973 the Takht Jamshid Cup, Iran's first national league, was founded. In their first two years in the Cup, Rah Ahan finished a respectable 7th and 9th. In 1976 they were relegated to the 2nd Division. In their only season in the 2nd Division, Rah Ahan finished 1st in the league and were again promoted to the Takht Jamshid Cup. In 1978 they were again relegated to the 2nd Division, but they could not finish the 2nd Division season because of the Iranian Revolution.

Iran Pro League

After the establishment of the Iran Pro League in 2001, Rah Ahan was placed in the second tier Azadegan League. In 2005 Rah Ahan was promoted to the Iran Pro League after a second-place finish in the Azadegan League. Since then they have mostly been an average team where they have finish in the mid table but since the arrival of Ansarifard as the chairman they have looked more stable. They finished 11th in the 2008–09 season and avoided the relegation in the season after on the last week.

Ali Daei

In 2012–13 season and under Ali Daei, and with him at charge the team got out to an early start, and were 4th in the Iran Pro League after the opening few weeks, after that the team had an average year, dropping to 8th by season's end. In the same year they went on tour in Turkey, beating Galatasaray A2 4–1, and losing to Super Lig side Istanbul BB 3–2. At the end of the 2012–13 season Ali Daei left Rah Ahan to sign with Persepolis.

Trouble Years

Mansour Ebrahimzadeh was announced as Rah Ahan's new manager for the 2013–14 season, with him at charge Rah Ahan finished an average 11th place. At the end of the season, Ebrahimzadeh announced that he is stepping down as Rah Ahan's manager. Former Persepolis manager Hamid Estili was named as his replacement. Rah Ahan encountered severe financial problems and under Estili the club performed poorly, shortly after Estili was fired and replaced with former Rah Ahan player Farhad Kazemi.

In the 2015–16 season, Rah Ahan ran into financial troubles and finished 15th in the Persian Gulf Pro League and were relegated. This was the first time Rah Ahan will play in the Azadegan League in 12 years.

Season-by-season

For details on seasons, see List of Rah Ahan F.C. seasons

Reserves

The table below shows the achievements of the club's reserve team in various competitions.

First-team squad

As of 19 January 2016^[1]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Vahid Azizi 3 DF Bahman Shirvani 4 DF Milad Abtahi 6 DF Hadi Shakouri 7 DF Milad Zanidpour 8 FW Aliakbar Farhang 10 FW Mohsen Bayatinia 11 FW Kianosh Mirzaei U21 12 MF Ali Aminoalroaei U23

No. Position Player 14 FW Amirmohammad Panahi U23 16 MF Alireza Latifi U23 31 DF Amir Reza Nasr Azadani U21 34 MF Farzad Ashoubi 35 DF Milad Golmohammadpoor U21 40 MF Ali Pazouki U21 70 FW Mohammad Reza Soleimani U21 72 MF Mehdi Hanafi U23 74 GK Kasra Kazemi U21 FW Amir Mohammad Madani U23

Loan list

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

No. Position Player GK Mohammad Ali Ramezanian (at Khoneh Be Khoneh) FW Soheyl Hezar Jaribi (at Khoneh Be Khoneh)

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers winter 2015–16.

Former players

For details on former players, see Category:Rah Ahan players.

Managers

IPL managers

Last updated 18 February 2015.

Name	Nat	From	To
Firouz Karimi		June 2004	February 2006
Abbas Razavi		February 2006	November 2006
Akbar Misaghian		December 2006	February 2008
Davoud Mahabadi		February 2008	October 2008
Mahmoud Yavari		October 2008	April 2009
Mehdi Tartar		April 2009	June 2009
Ernie Brandts		July 2009	December 2009
Mehdi Tartar		December 2009	June 2010
Rasoul Korbekandi		June 2010	September 2010
Mehdi Tartar		September 2010	July 2011
Ali Daei		July 2011	May 2013
Mansour Ebrahimzadeh		July 2013	June 2014
Hamid Estili		June 2014	February 2015
Ali Latifi (Interim)		February 2015	February 2015
Farhad Kazemi		February 2015	September 2015
Mehdi Tartar		September 2015	February 2016
Ioannis Topalidis		February 2016	May 2016
Mehdi Pashazadeh		July 2016	January 2017
Sirous Dinmohammadi		January 2017	Present

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Head Coach	Sirous Dinmohammadi
Goalkeeping Coach	Niko Sternberg
Athletic Coach	Dominic Palmer

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rah Ahan FC.