2011–12 Persian Gulf Cup Explained

Competition:	Persian Gulf Cup
Season:	2011–12
Winners:	Sepahan 4th Pro League title 4th Iranian title
Relegated:	Shahin Bushehr Shahrdari Tabriz Mes Sarcheshmeh
Continentalcup1:	Champions League
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:	Sepahan Tractor Sazi Esteghlal Saba Qom
League Topscorer:	Karim Ansarifard (21 goals)
Matches:	306
Total Goals:	720
Biggest Home Win:	Saipa 5–0 Fajr Sepasi (9 March 2012)
Biggest Away Win:	Mes Sarcheshmeh 0–4 Damash (18 November 2011) Sanat Naft 0–4 Saipa (19 December 2011)
Highest Scoring:	Malavan 3–4 Sepahan (7 April 2012)
Highest Attendance:	100,000 Persepolis – Esteghlal (16 September 2011)
Lowest Attendance:	0 (spectator ban) Tractor Sazi – Saba Qom (2 August 2011) Malavan – Rah Ahan (7 August 2011) Tractor Sazi – Shahin Bushehr (11 August 2011) Shahin Bushehr – Tractor Sazi (15 January 2012) Damash – Sepahan (3 February 2012)
Attendance:	2,856,000
Average Attendance:	9,488
Longest Wins:	7 matches Sepahan
Longest Unbeaten:	13 matches Zob Ahan
Longest Winless:	12 matches Rah Ahan
Longest Losses:	4 matches Mes Sarcheshmeh Mes Kerman
Prevseason:	2010–11
Nextseason:	2012–13

The 2011–12 Persian Gulf Cup (also known as Iran Pro League) was the 29th season of Iran's Football League and 11th as Iran Pro League since its establishment in 2001. Sepahan were the defending champions. The season featured 15 teams from the 2010–11 Persian Gulf Cup and three new teams promoted from the 2010–11 Azadegan League: Damash as champions, Mes Sarcheshmeh and Fajr Sepasi. The league started on 2 August 2011 and ended on 11 May 2012. Sepahan won the Pro League title for the fourth time in their history (total fourth Iranian title). Saipa's Karim Ansarifard's 21 goals made him the top scorer.

Teams

Stadia and locations

Team	City	Venue	Capacity
			11,000
			95,225
			22,000
			12,000
		Takhti Anzali	8,000
			12,000
			12,000
			8,250
			95,225
			12,000
			10,610
			14,000
		Takhti Abadan	25,000
		Foolad Shahr	15,000
			14,000
			66,833
			80,451
		Foolad Shahr	15,000

Personnel and kits

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

width=100	Team	width=190	Manager	width=190	Captain	Kit manufacturer	width=180	Shirt sponsor	width=80	Past Season
Damash	Mehdi Tartar	Reza Mahdavi	Adidas	Damash Shahr Baran	Promoted ^[1]
Esteghlal	Parviz Mazloomi	Mojtaba Jabbari	Uhlsport	City Bank	2nd
Fajr Sepasi	Mahmoud Yavari	Mehdi Rajabzadeh	Majid	HICE	Promoted
Foolad	Majid Jalali	Jalal Kameli Mofrad	Uhlsport	Foolad Khuzestan Co.	6th
Malavan	Farhad Pourgholami	Babak Pourgholami	Majid	Iran Navy	8th
Mes Kerman	Ebrahim Ghasempour	Farzad Hosseinkhani	Uhlsport	Resalat Bank	7th
Mes Sarcheshmeh	Asghar Sharafi	Ali Samereh	Uhlsport	None	Promoted
Naft Tehran	Hossein Faraki	Hamid Reza Fathi	Uhlsport	National Iranian Oil Company	13th
Persepolis	Mustafa Denizli	Ali Karimi	Uhlsport		4th
Rah Ahan	Ali Daei	Hossein Pashaei	Daei	Refah Bank	15th
Saba Qom	Abdollah Veisi	Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh	Majid	Vegal	10th
Saipa	Mojtaba Taghavi	Ebrahim Sadeghi	Uhlsport	SAIPA	11th
Sanat Naft	José Alberto Costa	Abbas Merdasi	Majid	National Iranian Oil Company	9th
Sepahan	Zlatko Kranjčar	Moharram Navidkia	Lotto	Foolad Mobarakeh Complex	Champion
Shahin	Hamid Derakhshan	Vahid Talebloo	Uhlsport	Post Bank	14th
Shahrdari Tabriz	Ali Asghar Modir Roosta	Ebrahim Mirzapour	Majid	City Bank	12th
Tractor Sazi	Amir Ghalenoei	Morteza Assadi	Uhlsport	Hamrah-e-Avval	5th
Zob Ahan	Mansour Ebrahimzadeh	Mohammad Salsali	Uhlsport	Zob Ahan Steel Co.	3rd

Managerial changes

Before the start of the season

width=110	Team	width=195	Outgoing head coach	width=180	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	width=195	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Saipa	Mayeli Kohan	Contract expired		11th (2010–11)	Majid Saleh
Sepahan	Amir Ghalenoei	Contract expired		1st (2010–11)	Luka Bonačić
Tractor Sazi	Faraz Kamalvand	Contract expired		5th (2010–11)	Amir Ghalenoei
Persepolis	Ali Daei	Contract expired		4th (2010–11)	Hamid Estili
Shahrdari	Hamid Derakhshan	Sacked		12th (2010–11)	Miodrag Ješić
Shahin Bushehr	Akbar Misaghian	Sacked		14th (2010–11)	Hamid Derakhshan
Rah Ahan	Mehdi Tartar	Sacked		15th (2010–11)	Ali Daei

In season

Team	width=220	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	width=220	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Sanat Mes Kerman	Samad Marfavi	Resigned		17th	Miroslav Blažević
Mes Sarcheshmeh	Ahmad Sanjari	Sacked		18th	Asghar Sharafi
Damash Gilan	Mehdi Dinvarzadeh	Sacked		16th	Ebrahim Ghasempour
Shahin Bushehr		Resigned		9th	Firouz Karimi
Sepahan Isfahan	Luka Bonacic	Sacked		5th	Zlatko Kranjcar
Fajr Sepasi Shiraz	Ali Kalantari	Sacked		17th	Mahmoud Yavari
Sanat Naft Abadan	Gholam Peyrovani	Resigned		13th	José Alberto Costa
Persepolis Tehran	Hamid Estili	Resigned		9th	Mustafa Denizli
Shahrdari Tabriz	Miodrag Ješić	Sacked		13th	Ali Asghar Modir Roosta
Damash Gilan	Ebrahim Ghasempour	Resigned ^[2]		7th	Mehdi Tartar^[3]
Shahin Bushehr	Firouz Karimi	Sacked		16th	Hamid Derakhshan
Sanat Mes Kerman	Miroslav Blažević	Sacked		14th	Ebrahim Ghasempour
Saipa	Majid Saleh	Sacked		10th	Mojtaba Taghavi

League table

Statistics

Top Goalscorers

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Karim Ansarifard	Saipa	21
2	Founéké Sy	Sanat Naft	20
3	Reza Enayati	Saba Qom	18
4	Ali Karimi	Persepolis	11
5	Saeed Daghighi	Shahrdari Tabriz	10
Mojtaba Jabbari	Esteghlal
Reza Norouzi	Foolad
Flávio Paixão	Tractor Sazi
Mehdi Rajabzadeh	Fajr Sepasi
10	Bahador Abdi	Rah Ahan	9
Omid Alishah	Rah Ahan
Farhad Majidi	Esteghlal
Emad Mohammed Ridha	Sepahan
14	9 players		8
23	7 players		7
30	7 players		6
37	13 players		5
50	16 player		4
66	24 player		3
90	45 player		2
135	92 player		1
_	13 players ¹		OG
_	technical loses of 3–0		1
Total goals (Including technical loses)	720
Total games	306
Average per game

¹ Siamak Kouroshi from Naft Tehran 2 owne goals.
Last updated: 16 May 2012
Source: IPL Stats

Cards

width=50	Position	wight=200	Player	wight=180	Club	width=40	width=40	width=40	width=40	Total
1	Márcio José	Naft Tehran	10	1	0	11
2	Majid Gholamnejad	Saipa	10	0	0	10
Hossein Kaabi	Rah Ahan	9	0	1
Ali Samereh	Mes Sarcheshmeh	8	2	0
5	Siavash Akbarpour	Tractor Sazi	9	0	0	9
Mohammad Ebrahimi	Tractor Sazi	9	0	0
Amir Mohammadi	Mes Sarcheshmeh	9	0	0
Andranik Teymourian	Esteghlal	8	0	1
Maziar Zare	Persepolis	8	1	0
10	8 player		-	-	-	8
18	13 player		-	-	-	7
31	25 player		-	-	-	6
56	46 player		-	-	-	5
102	38 player		-	-	-	4
140	63 player		-	-	-	3
203	60 player		-	-	-	2
263	86 player		-	-	-	1
Total Cards			1101	34	33	1168

Last updated: 16 May 2012
Source: IPL stats

Matches played

Position	Player	Club	Appearance
1	Abouzar Rahimi	Damash Gilan	33
Mehdi Rahmati	Esteghlal
3	Rahman Ahmadi	Sepahan	32
Morteza Asadi	Tractor Sazi
Omid Ebrahimi	Sepahan
Pirouz Ghorbani	Saipa
Hanif Omranzadeh	Esteghlal
Alireza Ramezani	Malavan

Last updated: 16 May 2012
Source: IPL stats

Hat-tricks

Player	For !	Against	Result	Date
	Persepolis	Sanat Naft Abadan
	Malavan	Zob Ahan
	Naft Tehran	Malavan
	Esteghlal	Shahin Bushehr
	Foolad	Naft Tehran
	Sanat Naft	Persepolis
	Persepolis	Esteghlal
	Saipa	Fajr Sepasi
	Sepahan	Rah Ahan
	Rah Ahan	Persepolis
	Persepolis	Rah Ahan

Fastest hat-trick of the season

Éamon Zayed for Persepolis against Esteghlal, 9 minutes (2 February 2012)

Scoring

First goal of the season: Hossein Kazemi own goal for Zob Ahan against Rah Ahan (2 August 2011)
Fastest goal of the season: 10 seconds – Pejman Shahpari for Saba against Foolad (16 October 2011)^[4]
Widest winning margin: 5 goals
- Saipa 5–0 Fajr Sepasi (9 March 2012)
Highest scoring game: 7 goals
- Malavan 3–4 Sepahan (16 April 2012)
- Persepolis 3–4 Rah Ahan (6 May 2012)
Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 5 goals
- Tractor Sazi 5–1 Shahrdari Tabriz (25 September 2011)
- Saipa 5–0 Fajr Sepasi (9 March 2012)
Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 3 goals
- Malavan 3–4 Sepahan (16 April 2012)
- Persepolis 3–4 Rah Ahan (6 May 2012)

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
Month	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Abdollah Veisi	Saba Qom	Karim Ansarifard	Saipa
September	Hossein Faraki	Naft Tehran	Iman Mousavi	Naft Tehran
October	Parviz Mazloomi	Esteghlal	Ivan Petrović	Shahin Bushehr
November	Ebrahim Ghasempour	Damash Gilan	Omid Alishah	Rah Ahan
December	Majid Saleh	Saipa	Founéké Sy	Sanat Naft
January	Zlatko Kranjčar	Sepahan	Jlloyd Samuel	Esteghlal
February	Mustafa Denizli	Persepolis	Reza Enayati	Saba Qom
March	Amir Ghalenoei	Tractor Sazi	Bruno Correa	Sepahan
April	Zlatko Kranjčar	Sepahan	Flávio Paixão	Tractor Sazi

Annual awards

Team of the Season

Goalkeeper: Rahman Ahmadi (Sepahan)
Defence: Ehsan Hajsafi (Tractor Sazi), Pejman Montazeri (Esteghlal), Jalal Hosseini (Sepahan), Hossein Mahini (Zob Ahan)
Midfield: Ali Karimi (Persepolis), Omid Ebrahimi (Sepahan), Mojtaba Jabbari (Esteghlal), Flávio Paixão (Tractor Sazi)
Attack: Founéké Sy (Sanat Naft), Karim Ansarifard (Saipa)

Player of the Season

Goal.com selected Farhad Majidi as the best player of the first half of the season and Ali Karimi as the best player of the second half. Karim Ansarifard and Omid Alishah also won the best young players of the tournament.

Attendances

Highest attendances

Rank	Home team	Score	Away team	Attendance	Date	Week	Stadium
align=center	1	Persepolis	align=center	0–2	Esteghlal	align=center	100,000		7	Azadi
align=center	2	Esteghlal	align=center	2–3	Tractor Sazi	align=center	85,000		6	Azadi
align=center rowspan="3"	3	Tractor Sazi	align=center	0–2	Esteghlal	align=center	80,000		23	Sahand
Esteghlal	align=center	2–3	Persepolis	align=center	80,000		24	Azadi
Tractor Sazi	align=center	0–0	Fajr Sepasi	align=center	80,000		29	Sahand
align=center	6	Esteghlal	align=center	2–0	Fajr Sepasi	align=center	75,000		4	Azadi
align=center rowspan="2"	7	Esteghlal	align=center	1–0	Damash	align=center	70,000		2	Azadi
Persepolis	align=center	1–2	Shahrdari Tabriz	align=center	70,000		3	Azadi
align=center	9	Persepolis	align=center	1–1	Malavan	align=center	65,000		1	Azadi
align=center	10	Persepolis	align=center	3–1	Sanat Naft	align=center	60,000		5	Azadi

Notes:
Updated to games played on 11 May 2012. Source: iplstats.com

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Moghavemat Sepasi promoted to IPL . 28 July 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120402071919/http://www.persianfootball.com/live/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3584:moghavemat-sepasi-promoted-to-ipl&catid=14:ipl-league-persian-gulf-cup&Itemid=180 . 2 April 2012 . dead . dmy-all .
Web site: Ghasempour resigns as Damash coach . 28 December 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120204231134/http://www.tehrantimes.com/sports/93981-ghasempour-resigns-as-damash-coach . 4 February 2012 . dead . dmy-all .
Web site: Mehdi Tartar appointed as Damash coach . 31 December 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120516020537/http://www.tehrantimes.com/sports/94065-mehdi-tartar-appointed-as-damash-coach- . 16 May 2012 . dead . dmy-all .
Web site: Fastest goal of IPL 11th . 25 November 2011 . 16 June 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120616094715/http://www.irna.ir/News/30580221/%D9%BE%DA%98%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87-%D9%BE%D8%B1%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%B5%D8%A8%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%82%D9%85-%D8%B3%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%B9-%D8%AA%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%86-%DA%AF%D9%84-%D9%84%DB%8C%DA%AF-%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%AF%D9%87%D9%85-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%B1-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AF/%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7/ . dead .