Fajr Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فرهنگى ورزشى فجر شهید سپاسی شیراز, ''Bashgah-e Futbal-e Fajr-e Sepasi-ye Shiraz''), commonly known as Fajr Sepasi Shiraz, or Fajr Sepasi, is an Iranian football club based in

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...

, Fars, that competes in the

Persian Gulf Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League ( fa, لیگ برتر خلیج فارس, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Pro League ( fa, links=no, لیگ برتر ایران, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is the highest division of profe ...

. The club was founded in 1988. The football team plays their home games at the

Pars Shiraz Stadium The Pars Stadium ( fa, ورزشگاه پارس Varzešgâh''-è Pârs'', ) is a multi-use stadium in Shiraz, Iran. It is mostly used for football (soccer), football matches. The stadium holds 50,000 people. The stadium is the forth largest stadium ...

which has a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 50,000. The club is owned and supported by the Basij. The club is the second highest supported team in Shiraz after local rival

Bargh Shiraz , ''Lâlahhai-ye Naranji'') , shortname = , founded = , dissolved = , ground = Hafezieh StadiumShirazIran , capacity = 20,000 , chairman = Hadi Shirvani Shiri , owner = Hadi Shirvani Shiri and Amir Arsalan ...

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

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 Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...

, the team was renamed in Fajr Shahid Sepasi Shiraz Football Club. ''Shahid'' means ''martyr'' in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. The club was officially founded on 11 February 1988, the day of the Islamic Revolution. In 1991 the club had been bought by Sepah Pasdaran completely. Since then it is possibly for young players to serve their military service while playing for Fajr Sepasi. The emblem of the team has a calligraphic text in the middle that reads 'Ali' (as tribute to Ali Ibn Abitaleb) designed in four different direction in a symmetrical configuration. Curve-fitted on top of the emblem also reads an Arabic sentence 'قَوِّ عَلى خِدمَتِكَ جَوارِحي' ('qavvi alaa khedmatek a javaarihi) that can be translated to ' , God strengthen my limbs and body to serve you' which is an extract from supplication

Du'a Kumayl Dua Kumayl ( ar, دعاء كميل, ) is a '' dua'' or supplication attributed to Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who taught it to his companion, Kumayl ibn Ziyad. This supplication is used by Muslims to ward off ...

again attributed to Imam Ali.

1990s

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

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian football since then, and surprised everyone when they won the

Hazfi Cup Hazfi Cup (Jām-e Hazfi; ) is the Iranian football knockout cup competition, run by the Iranian Football Federation. The Iranian football league was not held during the 1980s, hence the winner of Hazfi Cup represented Iran in the Asian Club Ch ...

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. Jafar Jafari is the club's chairman since the establishment of the club in 1988. They kept the coach

Gholam Hossein Peyrovani Gholam Hossein Peyrovani ( fa, غلامحسین پيروانی, born March 29, 1955 in Shiraz, Iran) is a former Iranian football player and now manager. He was the coach of the Iran national under-23 football team from 2009 to 2010. He is also ...

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 Davoud Mahabadi ( fa, داوود مهابادی , born 21 August 1973 in Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 mi ...

and after poor results he was replaced by

Mohammad Ahmadzadeh Mohammad Ahmadzadeh ( fa, محمد احمدزاده, born January 10, 1961, in Bandar-e Anzali) is a former Iranian football, basketball and tennis player and current football coach. He played most of his career for Malavan and is also the team ...

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 The Persian Gulf Pro League ( fa, لیگ برتر خلیج فارس, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Pro League ( fa, links=no, لیگ برتر ایران, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is the highest division of profe ...

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

The Shiraz Derby is played between Fajr Sepasi and

, 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.

Honours

* Azadegan League **Champions (1):

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

**Champions (1): 2000–01 **''Runners-up'' (2): 2001–02, 2002–03 * Iranian 2nd Division **Champions (1): 1997 * AK Pipe International Cup **''Runners-up'' (1): 2001

Players

First team squad

''For recent transfers, see '' List of Iranian football transfers summer 2021''.

Former players

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

Head coaches

* Mansour Pourheidari (1996–1998) * Mahmoud Yavari (1998–1999) *

(1999–2009) *

(2009–2010) *

(2010) * Ali Kalantari (2010–2011) * Mahmoud Yavari (2011–2013) *

(2013) * Mahmoud Yavari (2013–2014) * Ali Kalantari (2014–2018) * Majid Saleh (2018–2019) *

(2019–2020) * Ali Kalantari (2020–present)

References

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydACiq1Y_Ks * https://web.archive.org/web/20151004210809/http://video.varzesh3.com/iran/premier-league/%D9%81%D8%AC%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D9%BE%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C1-1%D9%BE%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%BE%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%B3/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20151004210850/http://video.varzesh3.com/iran/premier-league/%D9%BE%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%BE%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%B3-2-3-%D9%81%D8%AC%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D9%BE%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C/

External links

Official club website
{{Persian Gulf Pro League Football clubs in Iran Association football clubs established in 1988 Sport in Shiraz 1988 establishments in Iran