Fajr Sepasi Shiraz F.C.

Fajr Sepasi Shiraz
فجر سپاسی شیراز
	crest
Full name	Fajr Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club
Founded	11 February 1988; 36 years ago
Ground	Hafezieh
Capacity	15,000
Owner	Bassij
Chairman	Jafar Jafari
Head Coach	Gholam Hossein Peyrovani
League	Azadegan League
2015–16	Azadegan League, 4th
Website	http://fajrfc.ir/
Home colours	Away colours

Fajr Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club (Template:Lang-fa), commonly known as Fajr Sepasi Shiraz, or Fajr Sepasi, is an Iranian football club based in Shiraz, Fars, that competes in the Azadegan League. The club was founded in 1988.

The football team plays their home games at the Hafezieh Stadium which has a seating capacity of 15,000. The club is owned and supported by the Basij.

The club is the second highest supported team in Shiraz after local rival Bargh Shiraz and was known as Moghavemat Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club between 2007 and 2011. Because of the club's affiliation with the Basij, there is the possibility for young players to serve their military service while playing for Fajr Sepasi.

History

Establishment

In 1988, a group of youngsters, who were from Shiraz along with Jafar Jafari, established a football team named Behzad. They started playing in the 2nd division of Shiraz's local city league.

After the death of Majid Sepasi during the Iran–Iraq War, the team was renamed in Fajr Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club. Shahid means martyr in Persian. The club was officially founded on 11 February 1988, the day of the Islamic Revolution.

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

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] Jafar Jafari is the club's chairman since the establishment of the club in 1988.

They kept the coach Gholam Hossein Peyrovani till 2009 where he was appointed as Iran's olympics team head 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.

In 2010 for the first time in the club's history, the team was relegated to the Azadegan League for the 2010–2011 season. Fajr quickly rebounded gaining promotion to the Iran Pro League in 2011.

Azadegan League

At the end of the 2013–14 season Fajr Sepasi finished 14th and was relegated to the Azadegan League. In their first season back in the second tier Fajr finished 14th and missed out on promotion.

Shiraz Derby

Main articles: Shiraz Derby

The Shiraz Derby is played between Fajr Sepasi and Bargh Shiraz, but due to Bargh's relegation to the Azadegan League and then the 2nd Division, the derby has not been played in over 5 years.

Season-by-season

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

Season	Division	League	Position	Hazfi Cup	Notes	AFC Champions League
1995–96	3	Fars Province League	1st	Did not qualify	Promoted	Did not qualify
1996–97	2	2nd Division	1st	1/16 Final	Promoted
1997–98	1	Azadegan League	4th	Not held
1998–99	1	Azadegan League	10th	1/16 Final
1999–00	1	Azadegan League	3rd	1/8 Final
2000–01	1	Azadegan League	9th	Cup
2001–02	1	Iran Pro League	10th	Final		First Round
2002–03	1	Iran Pro League	4th	Final		Did not qualify
2003–04	1	Iran Pro League	11th	1/8 Final
2004–05	1	Iran Pro League	11th	1/16 Final
2005–06	1	Iran Pro League	10th	1/8 Final
2006–07	1	Iran Pro League	10th	1/16 Final
2007–08	1	Iran Pro League	14th	1/8 Final
2008–09	1	Iran Pro League	9th	1/16 Final
2009–10	1	Iran Pro League	16th	1/16 Final	Relegated
2010–11	2	Azadegan League	2nd	1/32 Final	Promoted
2011–12	1	Iran Pro League	13th	1/8 Final
2012–13	1	Iran Pro League	12th	1/4 Final
2013–14	1	Iran Pro League	14th	1/16 Final	Relegated
2014–15	2	Azadegan League	5th	1/8 Final
2015–16	2	Azadegan League	4th	Did not enter

Honors

Hazfi Cup:

Winners (1): 2001

Runners-Up (2): 2002, 2003

2nd Division:

Winners (1): 1997

AK Pipe International Cup:

Runners-Up (1): 2001

Players

As of July 23, 2015^[2]

First-team squad

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	IRN	Mohammad Saleh Khalil Azad
2	DF	IRN	Javad Nasir
3	DF	IRN	Farid Mokhtari
4	DF	IRN	Reza Moradi (on loan from Foolad)
5	DF	IRN	Iman Salimi
6	DF	IRN	Mostafa Mahi
7	MF	IRN	Mehdi Karimian (captain)
8	MF	IRN	Amin Mashayekh
9	FW	IRN	Ali Gholamrezapoursarkareh
10	FW	IRN	Ebrahim Salehi
11	MF	IRN	Ali Moslanejad ^U23
12	FW	IRN	Mohammad Reza Nejat
13	MF	IRN	Hamid Joukar
14	DF	IRN	Mohammad Hosseini ^U21
15	MF	IRN	Majid Jalalifar ^U23
16	FW	IRN	Mehdi Chahkoutahzadeh
17	DF	IRN	Seyed Ahmad Hayat Manesh


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
18	MF	IRN	Ali Fathian ^U23
19		IRN	Saeid Zare
20	FW	IRN	Sadegh Sadeghi Baba-Ahmadi
21	GK	IRN	Reza Taheri ^U23
22	MF	IRN	Milad Ahmadian ^U21
23	DF	IRN	Ehsan Joudaki
24	DF	IRN	Alireza Valizadeh
25	DF	IRN	Mohammad Javad Jalali
26	DF	IRN	Hamid Orangi
27	FW	IRN	Nader Mohammadnejad
28	FW	IRN	Mohammadreza Biose
29	FW	IRN	Babak Abdollahzadeh ^U21
30	GK	IRN	Mehdi Sedghian ^U21 (on loan from Sepahan)
32	FW	IRN	Milad Saremi ^U23
33	FW	IRN	Milad Safaei
34	MF	IRN	Iman Basafa (on loan from Esteghlal)

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers summer 2015.

Former players

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

Head coaches

Mansour Pourheidari (1996–98)
Mahmoud Yavari (1998–99)
Gholam Hossein Peyrovani (1999–09)
Davoud Mahabadi (2009–10)
Mohammad Ahmadzadeh (2010)
Ali Kalantari (Sept 1, 2010 – Nov 30, 2011)
Mahmoud Yavari (Nov 27, 2011 – May 31, 2013)
Gholam Hossein Peyrovani (July 1, 2013 – Sept 7, 2013)
Mahmoud Yavari (Sept 15, 2013 – Jun 28, 2014)
Ali Kalantari (Aug 10, 2014– )

References

^ "Basij buy out Sepah". IRNA. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
^ "فجر سپاسی". Ffiri.ir. Retrieved 2013-11-10.

External links

Official club website

[1] "Basij buy out Sepah". IRNA. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-04-15.

[2] "فجر سپاسی". Ffiri.ir. Retrieved 2013-11-10.

[1]

[2]

v t e Hazfi Cup
Seasons	1976 1977–78 1978–1985 1986 1987 1988–89 1989–1990 1990–91 1991–92 1992–1993 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–1998 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2021 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Final	2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Winning managers

v t e Football in Iran
League competitions	Persian Gulf Pro League Azadegan League League 2 League 3 Provincial Leagues Ardabil Provincial League Bushehr Province League East Azarbaijan Province League Gilan Province League Golestan Province League Khuzestan Premier League Tehran Province League Kowsar league (women's) Futsal Beach soccer
Cup competitions	Hazfi Cup Super Cup
Defunct competitions	Takht Jamshid Cup
National teams	Men's B-team Women's M U-23 M U-20 W U-20 M U-17 W U-17 M Futsal W Futsal M U-20 Futsal M Beach
Lists and categories	League system Champions List of clubs List of venues Managers List of managers League winners Cup winners football award winners List of highest payments Top goalscorers all-time by season Clubs in the AFC Champions League
Records List of clubs List of venues International players Men Women