Malavan F.C.

Malavan Anzali FC
ملوان بندر انزلى

Full name	Malavan Bandar Anzali Football Club
Nickname(s)	White Swans (Persian: قوی سپید)
Founded	1969
Ground	Takhti Stadium, Bandar-e Anzali (Capacity: 30,000)
Owner	Anzali Trade Company
Chairman	Ardeshir Pournemat
Coach	Farhad Pourgholami
League	Iran Pro League
2010-11	Persian Gulf Cup, 8th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Malavan Bandar Anzali Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال ملوان بندر انزلى) is an Iranian football club based in Bandar-e Anzali, Iran.

The team is known to have some of the most passionate and loyal fans in Iranian football, and is one of the most successful teams not based in Tehran. It is attached to the Iranian Navy, and is known to have one of the best youth football programs in the country. It currently plays in Iran's top football league, the IPL.

Malavan is the football club of the multisport Malavan Sport and Cultural Club.

History

Establishment

Bahman Salehnia created the team in 1969 along with some young athletes from the port city of Anzali. After some time, the Iranian Navy decided to become the team's main sponsor and owner. Salehnia can be called the team's founder; he took over as the team's manger in 1973, and until 1998 remained in the position. Until 2010 the team has only had two coaches other than Salehnia, (Mohammad Ahmadzadeh and Nosrat Irandoost).

Success

Salehnia was last manager of the team when he helped the team climb out of the 1st division and back into the IPL. The club has never really had great success in the league but they were able to become the best non-Tehran based club and finishing third in the 1977 and 1989. Malavan has won the Hazfi Cup on three occasions, in 1976, 1987 and 1990. In 1988 Malavan participated in Asian Club Championship but after beating Saunders SC in first round they withdrew from tournament due to the Iran–Iraq War. They have been one of the most stable teams of the league in recent years where they only had few coaches during their history and always finished in mid table and challenge the big teams.They finished 12th in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 season. In 2010-2011 season they finished 8th and reached the final of Hazfi Cup but lost to Perspolis F.C..

Rivalries

Bandar Anzali and Rasht are two big cities in Gilan Province. Bandar Anzali is the biggest port in the north of Iran and Rasht is the capital of Gilan and there have always been a competition between these two cities specially in football. Malavan is the best team of Anzali and S.C. Damash is the best team in Rasht (Rasht also has Sepidrood).The match between these two teams ( Malavan vs Damash or Sepidrood ) is known as The Derbi Of Gilan or El Gilano. It has been 14 years since the last time a team from Rasht won Malavan.

In 2008-2009 season Malavan won Damash in Rasht with goals from Jalal Rafkhaei and Mehran Jafari. At the end of the match about 1000 seats were broken by Damash fans. In 2009-2010 season Malavan faced Sepidrood in Hazfi Cup after a very long time and beat them with two goals from Mehrdad Oladi and Milad Goharinia scored the only goal of Sepidrood.

Fans

Malavan is known to have some the most passionate and loyal fans in Iran. Their famous chant is Ghouye sepide khazari/Malavan bandar Anzali (Persian: قوی سپید خزری/ملوان بندر انزلی) which means the white swan of north/Malavan of bandar Anzali. Malavan fans are very passionate to Sirous Ghayeghran and they have a special chant that they always sing when their team is behind to remind the legacy of Ghayeghran to players. In 2010-2011 season when Malavan faced Esteghlal the semi-final of Hazfi Cup, a lot fans even more than the capacity of the stadium went to see the match and after Malavan won it , they celebrated the victory all over the city. In final even more went to stadium but when Malavan lost to Persepolis a lot of fans broke the fence of stadium and rushed into the ground.

Season-by-season

For details on seasons, see List of Malavan F.C. seasons

Board of Directors

Name Nationality Position Years Rashid Sazmand CEO (Chief Executive Officer) 1996–2006 Ardeshir Pournemat CEO (Chief Executive Officer) 2006–

^{[1] [2] [3]}

Current Coaching Staff

Position	Name
Head Coach	Farhad Pourgholami
Assistant Coach	Mohammad Habibi
Team Manager	Hossein Gholami
Doctor	Ali Pour-Tahmsabi

Malavan Coaches

Below is a list of Malavan coaches from 1968 until the present day.

Name Nationality Years Bahman Salehnia 1968–1997 Nosrat Irandoost 1997–2000 Mohammad Ahmadzadeh 2000–2002 Bahman Salehnia 2002–2004 Nosrat Irandoost 2004–2006 Mohammad Ahmadzadeh 2006–2010 Farhad Pourgholami 2010–

Players

First-team squad

as of 3 August 2011^[4]

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 Ali Hasani Sefat 2 DF Mohammad Ebrahim Khosravi 4 DF Babak Pourgholami 5 DF Alireza Jarahkar 7 MF Mohammad Hamrang 10 FW Jalal Rafkhaei 11 MF Mohsen Mosalman 12 DF Hamid Reza Divsalar 13 FW Mohammad Heidari 14 FW Zoran Zlatkovski 15 MF Saeed Salarzadeh 16 MF Alireza Ramezani 17 DF Mohammad Amin Haj Mohammadi 18 MF Mohammed Nozhati 19 FW Mehran Jafari 20 MF Hadi Azizi 21 MF Mohammad Rostami 22 GK Masoud Pourmohamad Jafar

No. Position Player 23 MF Amin Pour Ali 24 DF Arash Soosarian 25 MF Mehdi Daghagheleh 26 DF Ahmad Ahi 27 DF Aziz Maeboudi 28 DF Reza Talabeh 29 FW Shahin Saghebi 31 MF Mahyar Zahmatkesh 32 MF Mohammad Hadi Yaghubi 34 MF Omid Nezamipour 35 FW Soheil Rahmani 36 FW Hadi Dehghani 37 DF Nima Delavari 38 FW Arman Ramezani 39 MF Mohammad Jafari 40 MF Saeed Yousefzadeh 44 GK Iman Sadeghi — GK Mehdi Rahimzadeh

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

Notable players

1970s Manoochehr Darjezi Aziz Espandar Ghafour Jahani Akbar Misaghian Ali Niakani Mikhaeil Petrosyan Mahmoud Pishgah-Hadian

1980s Mohammad Ahmadzadeh Mahmoud Fekri Sirous Ghayeghran Farhad Pourgholami

1990s Mohammad Ghadirbahri Mohammad Habibi Aref Mohammadvand Payan Rafat

2000s Hassan Ashjari Mohammad Gholami Mohammad Hamrang Pejman Nouri Babak Pourgholami Jalal Rafkhaei Hadi Ta'mini Maziar Zare

Honors

National titles

• Hazfi Cup

Winners (3): 1976, 1987, 1990

Runner Up (4): 1988, 1989, 1991, 2010-11

• Azadegan League

Runner Up (1): 2003

Minor titles

• Vahdat Cup

Third Place (1): 1981

• RCD Cup

Runner Up (1): RCD Cup 1974

Notes

1. ^ http://www.persianleague.com/the-news/1-latest-news/356-Salehnia%20return%20to%20Malavan.html
2. ^ http://www.malavan.ir/aaa/news.php?item.594.1
3. ^ http://wikipedia.qwika.com/en2zh/Malavan
4. ^ http://fcmalavan.com/fa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1616:1390-02-25-08-11-06&catid=66:malavan-teams&Itemid=96

References

• Malavan Stats
• Malavan

External links

• Persian League- Latest Iran League News - Iran Football News
• Malavan
• Official website (English) (Persian)