IR Tanger
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| Full name | Ittihad Riadi Tanger الاتحاد الرياضي لطنجة | |||
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| Nickname(s) | Hercules, Boughaz's Knight | |||
| Short name | IRT | |||
| Founded | 1983 | |||
| Ground | Stade Ibn Batouta Tangier, Morocco | |||
| Capacity | 45,000 | |||
| Chairman | Abdelhamid Abarchan | |||
| Manager | Ahmed El Ajlani | |||
| League |  Botola | |||
| 2017–18 | 1st | |||
| Website | http://irtfoot.ma/ | |||
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Ittihad Tanger or Ittihad Riadi Tanger, abbreviation IRT (Template:Lang-ar), which means "Tangier Sports Union"[1] is a Moroccan football club based in Tangier, Morocco. The club was founded in 1983 as a union of a number of old clubs around Tangier at the time (including "Tangier Rebirth", "FC Iberia" as the main figures of the fusion). Ittihad Riadi Tanger has a basketball team, football, volleyball and Rugby teams, supporting wide range of sports as well. Their home games are hosted at Stade Ibn Batouta ( Stade de Marchan was their former home ground before it was demolished and rebuilt as a park). IR Tanger has a large fanbase in northern Morocco, especially in the Tanger–Tetouan-Alhoceima region as it is the only relatively one of the biggest clubs in the region and the country itself.
History
IR Tanger was set up by a fusion of a several clubs. Among these were Renaissance de Tanger ('Reborn of Tangier') and other clubs who were playing at the second Moroccan league divisions at the time. The fusion resulted in the a prominent club which stands out in Tangier, especially in the football field, without significant rivalries (Widad Juventud is another sports club operating in Tangier but with less public attention, alongside Maghreb Aqsa Club the oldest existing club participating in the third Division and the amateur section).
Around years 1989 and 1990 IR Tangier was one of the dominant club in the Botola crushing the most of the clubs in the first division, by the end of the season IR Tangier faced off Wydad Casablanca where the match made a conclusion, the team's game play was significant, entertaining with high caliber, however, the club lost due to political reasons and especially when the supporters of Wydad engaged with the most aggressive crowd of Tangier at that time.
In 2015–16 the team made a comeback after 8 years in the 2nd division, the club contracted with many local and foreign players where they made a great show in the spotlight of Botola with good results, finishing the first round in the 3rd place.
League and cup
| Season | League | Top goalscorer | Moroccan Cup | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Div. | Pos. | Pl. | W | D | L | GS | GA | P | Name | League | ||
| 2013–14 | 2nd | 3rd | 30 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 33 | 21 | 48 | Ahmed Hammoudan
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12 | Round of 32 |
| 2014–15 | 2nd | 1st | 30 | 13 | 15 | 2 | 22 | 11 | 54 | Badr Zaki Nacer
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4 | Round of 32 |
| 2015–16 | 1st | 3rd | 30 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 36 | 23 | 50 |  Hervé Guy
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7 | Quarter-finals |
| 2016–17 | 1st | 5th | 30 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 33 | 25 | 45 | Ahmed Hammoudan
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6 | Semi-finals |
| 2017–18 | 1st | 1st | 30 | 14 | 10 | 6 | 34 | 23 | 52 | Mehdi Naghmi
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13 | Round of 16 |
African competitions
| Year | Competition | Round | Opponent | Home | Away | Aggregate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | CAF Confederation Cup | PR |  AS Douanes
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1–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 
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| 1R |  AS Kaloum
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3–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 |
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| PO | Horoya AC
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3–2 | 0–2 | 3–4 | 
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| 2018–19 | CAF Champions League | PR |
- Notes
- PR: Preliminary round
- 1R: First round
- PO: Play-off round
Season results
Crest and shirt
The official crest was planned by the founders and decided in a democratic process. It shows the full name of the Club and the year of foundation, but different sport departments of the club replace the year with the icon of the sport. The Blue lining is in honour of the north region. The icon on the right is the symbol of Tangier.
The official home shirts are similar to the crest, colored blue and white. IRT's traditional away colors change every season but are usually based on light blue with a sponsor's logo on the top. The shirts are made by King Sports and Joma. However, the club signed a sponsorship deal with local sportswear manufacturer Bang sport once it got promoted to the first division.
Home Ground
The football Club hosted the home matches in the government built Stadium of Marchan of 15,000 seats. In 2011 the club moved to a new international stadium with a capacity of 45,000 (and a potential for a maximum of 75,000 seats) called Ibn Batouta Stadium. This stadium is planned to host the 2012 African Cup U21, the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and some matches of the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup. The old grounds of Marchan Stadium hosted several historical moments like the match between IR Tangier VS Wydad Casablanca in the 1989–90 season for the first place of Botola and an amical match in Ibn Batouta Stadium with Atlético Madrid.
In 2015 and 2016 the grand stadium of Batouta had his record attendance estimated over than 50,000. the stadium is notorious throughout Morocco and all over the Arab world for the masses of supporters that show up each game ( an average of 35,000 per game). which makes the club's finances rely mainly on ticket income.
Honors and Trophies
- Champions (2) :4 2000–01, 2014–15
Supporters and rivalries
The club has an ultras group Ultras Hercules, who were founded in 2007, there was actually an older ultra called Ultras Tanger founded in 2003, but there is no remaining of this group since it was extended to form Ultras Hercules, even though there are still a few existing groups on Facebook, Skyblog and Blogger mainly.
The rivarlry's moreover relative to their neighbour club of Tetouan which its characterises with an extensive match, we distinguish other big rivalries as Wydad, Raja and KAC supporters.
The Northern Derby
Their biggest rival is without a doubt Moghreb Tétouan, the first club of the neighboring city, Tétouan, it's one of the most awaited matches of the first division league, especially among northern Morocco as the two famous clubs of the region facing off each others, this derby is always attended by a great amount of people due to its value and importance among supporters. There is an other match considered sometimes as a Derby of region along with Chabab Rif Al Hoceima, but It's not as important as with Moghreb Tétouan.
Sponsors
- Gloria
- Renault
- APM Terminals
- Tanger-Med
- Moroccan Airports Authority
- Valencia
- STG telecom
Players
Current squad
- As of 12 September 2018
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Managers
Jorvan Vieira (1984–86)
Aziz El Amri (1996–97; 2001–02)
Raoul Savoy (2006)
Abdelhak Benchikha (2015–2017)- Ezzaki Badou (2017)
- Driss El Mrabet (2017–2018)
Ahmad Al-Ajlani (2018– )
References
External links
Media related to IR Tanger at Wikimedia Commons
