Fajr Sepasi F.C.

Fajr Sepasi

Full name	Fajr Shahid Sepasi Fars Football Club
Founded	1988, as F.C. Fajr Shahid Sepasi
Ground	Hafezieh Stadium Shiraz Iran (Capacity: 20,000)
Chairman	Vacant
Head Coach	Ali Kalantari
League	Persian Gulf Cup
2010-11	Azadegan League Group 1, 2nd
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

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

The club is one 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.

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

Fajr Shahid Sepasi emblem (1988-2007)

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]

They kept the coach Gholam Hossein Peyrovani till 2009 where he was appointed as Irans olympics teams 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.

Shiraz Derby

Main articles: Shiraz Derby

Season-by-season

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

Season	League	Position	Hazfi Cup	Notes	Asian Cup Winners Cup
1995–1996	Fars Province League	1st	Did not qualify	Promoted	Did not qualify
1996-1997	2nd Division	1st	1/16 Final	Promoted
1997-1998	Azadegan League	4th	Not held
1998-1999	Azadegan League	10th	1/16 Final
1999-2000	Azadegan League	3rd	1/8 Final
2000-2001	Azadegan League	9th	Cup
2001-2002	Iran Pro League	10th	Final		First Round
2002-2003	Iran Pro League	4th	Final		Did not qualify
2003-2004	Iran Pro League	11th	1/8 Final
2004-2005	Iran Pro League	11th	1/16 Final
2005-2006	Iran Pro League	10th	1/8 Final
2006-2007	Iran Pro League	10th	1/16 Final
2007-2008	Iran Pro League	14th	1/8 Final
2008-2009	Iran Pro League	9th	1/16 Final
2009-2010	Iran Pro League	16th	1/16 Final	Relegated
2010-2011	Azadegan League	2nd	1/32 Final	Promoted

Honors

• Hazfi Cup:

Winners (1): 2001

Runners-Up (2): 2002, 2003

• 2nd Division:

Winner: 1997

Players

As of August 18, 2011.^[2]

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 1 GK Cyrus Sangchouli 2 DF Omid Khalili 3 DF Khaled Shafiei 4 MF Alireza Jalili 5 MF Hadi Imani 6 DF Saeed Ghezelagchi 7 MF Mohammed Reza Pourmohammad 8 MF Mehrdad Karimian 9 MF Reza Haghighi 10 MF Mohammad Mehdi Nazari 11 FW Amin Shojaeian 12 DF Mohammad Afand 13 MF Hamid Reza Jokar

No. Position Player 14 Masoud Riki 16 GK Vahid Sheikhveisi 17 DF Abbas Kazemian 20 DF Ayub Kalantari 21 FW Hakim Hazbaeipour 22 FW Younes Shakeri 23 MF Javad Zeyghami 24 DF Majid Heydari 25 GK Mohammad Saleh Khalil Azad 26 Hossein Karimi 27 MF Vahid Nemati 30 MF Mehdi Rajabzadeh (Captain) 34 MF Hossein Faraji Moghadam

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers, summer 2011.

Former players

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

Famous players

Davoud Seyed Abbasi Siavash Akbarpour Ali Alizadeh Ali Ansarian Hossein Ashena Hashem Beikzadeh Alireza Emamifar Faraz Fatemi Mahmoud Fekri

Mehrzad Madanchi Sosha Makani Mehdi Rahmati Mehdi Rajabzadeh Omidreza Ravankhah Gholamreza Rezaei Ali Samereh Bahman Tahmasebi Farshid Talebi

Head coaches

• Mansour Pourheidari (1996-1998)
• Mahmoud Yavari (1998-1999)
• Gholam Hossein Peyrovani (1999–2009)
• Davoud Mahabadi (2009–2010)
• Mohammad Ahmadzadeh (2010)
• Ali Kalantari (2010-Present)

Notes

1. ^ "Basij buy out Sepah". IRNA. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20070930203734/http://www.irna.ir/fa/news/view/line-14/8509290196160853.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-15. 
2. ^ http://www.iplstats.com/playersteam3.htm

Official site of the club : http://shahidsepasi.ir/

External links

• Official club website