Sanat Naft Abadan F.C.

SN Abadan
صنعت نفت آبادان

Full name	Sanate Naft Abadan Football Club
Nickname(s)	Iran's Brazil (Persian: برزیل ایران‎‎)
Founded	2 October 1972; 44 years ago
Ground	Takhti Stadium Abadan
Ground Capacity	8,000
Owner	N.I.O.C
Chairman	Ali Issazade
Head Coach	Faraz Kamalvand
League	Persian Gulf Pro League
2016–17	Persian Gulf Pro League, 12th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Sanate Naft Abadan Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال صنعت نفت آبادان‎‎) is an Iranian football club based in Abadan, Iran. They currently play in the Persian Gulf Pro League after being promoted from the Azadegan League in the 2015–2016 season. The team is sponsored by Iran's national petroleum industry and is part of the sports club Sanat Naft Athletic Club. Sanat Naft has a reserve team, Sanat Naft Novin who currently compete in the 2nd Division.

Despite their lack of success in past years, they are still heavily supported by the people of Abadan, and have cemented a place in Iran's football history.

Club history

Establishment and Early years

Prior to the establishment of the Takhte Jamshid League in 1972, The people of Abadan mostly followed two clubs, Kargar FC and Jam FC. Kargar had been established by workers from Abadan's oil refinery. Ten years later, Parviz Dehdari along with some of his class mates at Razi School established Jam FC. These teams had a large number of fans until 1972. When the Takhte Jamshid League was established, the city of Abadan was given one spot. The club was to be managed by Iran's oil industry. Fans were immediately drawn to the team, as it would be competing in Iran's top football league. Many of the better players from Kargar and Jam moved to Sanat Naft. The club's original kit colors were white, blue and black. The city of Abadan and the Khūzestān Province had very technical players and the club adapted a style of play similar to the Brazil of the 1970s after Parviz Dehdari became the chairman of the club. To emphasize their admiration for Brazilian football, the club changed its team colors to yellow, blue and white, similar to that of the Brazilian national team. The clubs nickname, Iran's Brazil, soon appeared.

Post Revolution

Football was extremely popular in Abadan, and the number of fans was growing everyday, but everything stopped when the Iranian Revolution took place in 1978. Football was no longer a priority, and it was shoved even farther out of the limelight when the Iran–Iraq War began in 1980. Abadan and Khuzestan were heavily hit during the war. Abadan's massive refinery was shut down, and hundreds of thousands left the city. From 1980 to 1988 the club was based in Shiraz. Once in Shiraz, the club had to start from Iran's third division, but was able to make it back to the top flight with the help of its players. Since many natives of Abadan had left the city during the war for other cities, fan support for the club was always good no matter where the team was playing.

After the war the club went back to Abadan, but due to the war's negative effects on the city and poor management in the football club, Sanat Naft has not been able to have any major success.

Iran Pro League

Sanat Naft were present in Iran's Azadegan League until the 2001–02 season when they were relegated. They made it back to the Iran Pro League in 2002, but the club was relegated the same season.

Portuguese coach Acácio Casimiro signed a one–year deal as head coach of Sanat Naft on 18 June 2006 but was later replaced by Ebrahim Ghasempour. After Sanat Naft was promoted to the Iran Pro League they were immediately relegated the same season under head coach Ahmad Tousi. Tousi took over for Ghasempour as he was sacked after 20 games. The club was in last place with only 16 point to show under Ghasempour with a record of 4 wins 4 ties and 12 losses. In the next 14 games under Tousi the club went 5 wins with 4 ties and 5 losses with a total of 19 point.

2005 promotion controversy

Sanat Naft made it to the promotion playoffs in the 2004–05 season. Until the very last game of the promotion playoffs, Sanat Naft was in second place and head of Rah Ahan on goal difference. On the last day despite Sanat Naft's win against Payam Mashhad, Rah Ahan defeated Shahid Ghandi by a score of 6–1 to finish second, ahead of Sanat Naft on goal difference.

Sanat Naft officials immediately suggested that Shahid Ghandi had allowed Rah Ahan to win by such a huge score. Sanat Naft was not able to prove this allegation with evidence. Later Sanat Naft claimed that Rah Ahan had used an ineligible player; this went through several courts and Rah Ahan was found guilty.

Two seasons later Sanat Naft was automatically awarded a promotion spot to the Persian Gulf Pro League starting in the 2007–08 season.^[1] They could not stay in league and were relegated at the end of the season.

Return to the Persian Gulf Pro League

After spending two years in the Azadegan League the club was again promoted to the Iran Pro League in 2010. In their first year Sanat Naft finished a respectable ninth place. The following year the club again finished in a respectable 10th place. Before the 2012–13 Iran Pro League season there were high expectations for Sanat Naft. The club was a major disappointment and finished 16th and was relegated back to the Azadegan League.

After a few seasons in the lower division, in the 2015–16 season after a last day 2–1 win against third place team Fajr Sepasi, Sanat Naft returned to the top flight after a three year absence.

Players

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 1 GK Nasser Salari U23 2 DF Mohammad Vahid Esmaeilbeigi 3 DF Aziz Maeboodi 5 DF Ali Abdollahzadeh 6 MF Magno Batista 7 MF Mohammadreza Pourmohammad 8 DF Morteza Asadi (Captain) 10 MF Farid Karimi 11 MF Augusto César 12 GK Davoud Noushi Soufiani 13 MF Karrar Jassim 14 MF Omid Jahanbakhsh 15 DF Hossein Baghlani

No. Position Player 17 FW Mohammad Shadkam 18 FW Reza Jabireh U21 19 DF Hossein Saki U21 20 MF Zobeir Niknafs 21 MF Milad Mousavi U23 23 MF Moslem Mojadami U21 24 DF Alireza Nourmohammadi 29 FW Luciano Pereira 30 MF Milad Shabanloo U23 31 Meysam Davoudpour U21 33 GK Mohammad Deris U23 35 GK Yaser Papi U21 40 DF Ali Helichi U23

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers summer 2017.

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 FW Fakher Tahami (at Tractor Sazi)

No. Position Player

Managers

Name Nat From To Harry Gome February 1972 December 1974 Gholam Hossein Vaghef January 1975 December 1976 Manouchehr Salia February 1977 June 1991 Jasem Ahleyourf June 1991 June 1992 Ali Firouzi June 1992 June 1994 Abdolvahed Bazme June 1994 June 1995 Ali Firouzi June 1995 June 1999 Gevorg Papiyan June 1999 December 1999 Fereydoun Moeeni December 1999 June 2000 Ebrahim Ghasempour June 2000 June 2002 Mansour Pourheidari June 2002 November 2002 Ebrahim Ghasempour November 2002 June 2003 Abdolreza Barzegari June 2003 October 2003 Hassan Dashti October 2003 June 2004 Baýram Durdyýew July 2004 January 2005 Parviz Mazloomi January 2005 June 2006

Name Nat From To Acácio Casimiro June 2006 June 2007 Ebrahim Ghasempour June 2007 February 2008 Ahmad Tousi February 2008 June 2008 Mojtaba Taghavi July 2008 February 2009 Bijan Zolfagharnasab February 2009 February 2010 Acácio Casimiro February 2010 February 2011 Gholam Hossein Peyrovani February 2011 November 2011 José Costa November 2011 September 2012 Acácio Casimiro September 2012 May 2013[2] Saeed Salamaat May 2013[3] June 2013 Ebrahim Ghasempour June 2013 March 2014 Behnam Seraj March 2014 August 2014 Carlos Manuel August 2014 December 2015 Nader Dastneshan December 2015 January 2017 Firooz Karimi January 2017 May 2017 Faraz Kamalvand May 2017

Club management

Position	Nation
Manager	Faraz Kamalvand
First team coach	Behnam Seraj
Assistant coach	Peyman Saheb Jami
Assistant coach	Mojtaba Kheirandish
Goalkeeping coach	Kazem Farhani
Fitness coach	Alireza Jalili
Fitness coach	William Markozy
Analyzor	Babak Ebadi
Analyzor	Amir Mohebi
Doctor	Reza Rahmani
Physiotrapist	Farid Shiyasi
Masseur	Karapet Israelian
Logisitics	Karim Rikani
Technical Manager	Gholamreza Aminifar

Notes

External links

Official

• (in Persian) Official club website
• Player and Results