Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C.

Esteghlal Ahvaz Football Club is an Iranian football club based in Ahvaz, Iran.

The team currently plays in Iran's Premier Football League.

History

Establishment

The club was founded in 1948 with the help of Hakim Shoushtari. The club was one of Taj Tehran F.C. branches at the time, and was called Taj Ahvaz F.C. From the beginning the club was able to attract some of the better Khuzestani players.

Takht Jamshid Cup

In 1973 the team was promoted to the Takht Jamshid Cup, but league rules allowed for only one team of the same name to participate, therefore Taj Tehran F.C., remained in the league, and Taj Ahvaz F.C. was forced to stay in the lower leagues.

Post-revolution success

After 1979 Islamic Revoloution in Iran, Taj Ahvaz F.C. changed its name to Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C. . The IranIraq War hit Ahvaz and Khuzestan hard, and very little attention was paid to the club at that time. Finally in 1991 the team was promoted to the Azadegan League and was allowed to participate, despite two teams having the same name. In 1997, the club was relegated, but returned to the IPL in 2002. The club started to develop during its initial and second season in the IPL, because of the amount of money they spent, thanks to club chairman, Ali Shafizadeh. The club became known as Iran's Chelsea after that.

Season-by-season

The table below chronicles the achievements of Esteghlal Ahvaz in various competitions since 2002.

Club honours

National Championships

Runner Up (1): 2006/2007

Club chairmen

Nasrollah Heibodi (-2002)

Ali Shafizadeh (2002-2006)

Shahram Shafizadeh (2006-Present)

Club managers

Amir Ghalenoei (Sep 2002)

Jalal Cheraghpour (Oct 2002)

Bahram Atef (2002-2003)

Nasser Hejazi (2003-2004)

Luka Bonacic (2004-2005)

Martik Khachatourian (2005)

Mahmoud Yavari (2005)

Srdan Gemaljevic (2005-2006)

Firouz Karimi (2006 - Nov 2007)

Majid Jalali (Nov 2007 - May 2008)

Karim Boustani

Reza Ahadi (August 2008)

Akbar Misaghian (August 2008 - Present)

_{Martik Khachatourian has remained as Esteghlal Ahvaz's Technical Director.}

Current management team

Players

As of November 10 2007 according to IPLstats.

First-team squad

(Suspended)

2008/2009 Transfers

In:

Out:

Famous players

Ebrahim Tahami

Fereydoon Fazli

Milad Meydavoudi

Ebrahim Mirzapour

Jalal Kameli Mofrad

Hojat Zadmahmoud

Ruhollah Bigdeli

Ali Badavi

Mojtaba Shiri

Bassim Abbas

Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail

Mohammed Nasser Shakroun

Ahmed Kadhim Assad

Sasa Ilic

External links

Official

Official club website

Khuzestan Football Association

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C.

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