Saipa F.C.

Saipa
سايپا
Full name	Saipa Football Club
Nickname(s)	Carmakers ; The Foxes ; Oranges
Founded	1 February 1989; 35 years ago
Ground	Shahid Dastgerdi Stadium
Capacity	8,250
Owner	Aihan Amerian
Chairman	Kamran Amerian
Manager	Mahmoud Fekri
League	Azadegan League
2023-24	Azadegan League, 5th
Website	Club website
	Current season

Saipa Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال سايپا, Bashgah-e Futbal-e Saipa) is a football club from Tehran, Iran. The team is owned by SAIPA, an Iranian automobile manufacturer. The team has never had a large fanbase. In the 2006–07 season, under the guidance of Ali Daei, Saipa won their only Persian Gulf Cup title. Saipa has also won the Azadegan League twice and the Hazfi Cup once. Saipa is the football club of the multisport Saipa Cultural and Athletic Corporation.

History

Early days

In 1989, SAIPA Company decided to start its own football team. They purchased a team playing in the 4th division of Tehran's city league, and renamed it Saipa F.C. After back to back promotions starting in the first year, the Karaj based club was playing in the 2nd division by 1991. That same year they purchased the Shipping Department team's shares, and participated in the 1st division of Tehran's local league. In that year they won the Tehran city championship as well as the Tehran Super Cup, thus attaining the right to play in Iran's top league at the time, the Azadegan League.

Azadegan League

In their first year in the Azadegan League they won the championship, as well as the Hazfi Cup. They also won the league championship again in 1994. The team was relegated into the second division in 1995, but were promoted again in the following year. Since their second promotion to the top tier, the club has remained in the middle of the league table.

Persian Gulf Pro League

Ali Daei era

By 2001, the club's on-field performance remained stable, occupying mid-table position most years. Shortly following Iranian goalkeeper Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh's retirement, he was linked with the head coaching job at Saipa. It never materialized, but the club signed another Iranian, Ali Daei in a move from Saba Battery. The club had finished third in the previous season and now, with Werner Lorant as a coach, the team aimed to work for the title. Shortly after the season began though, Littbarski was fired and Ali Daei took on the role of player/coach. Daei scored the winner in the title winning game. Daei extended his contract, this time as a full-time coach. He was appointed head coach of the national team but kept his role at Saipa until the end of the season.

Return to mid-table and relocation to Tehran

Following the title winning year which saw the team play in the AFC Champions League, Saipa turned back into the mid-table places of the league again. Before the start of the 2015–16 Persian Gulf Pro League season Saipa announced they had moved their home city from Karaj to nearby Tehran.

Season-by-season

The table below chronicles the achievements of Saipa in various competitions since 1993.

Season		Pos.	Hazfi Cup	ACL
1993–94	Azadegan League	1st	Winners	did not qualify
1994–95		1st		Second round
1995–96		16th		4th Place
1996–97	Second Division	2nd		did not qualify
1997–98	Azadegan League	7th	Not held
1998–99		4th
1999–2000		3rd	Semifinal
2000–01		7th	Semifinal
2001–02	Pro League	11th
2002–03		6th	Quarterfinals
2003–04		13th	Semifinal
2004–05		13th	Quarterfinals
2005–06		3rd	Round of 16
2006–07		1st	Quarterfinals
2007–08		11th	Round of 16	Quarterfinals
2008–09		10th	Round of 16	did not qualify
2009–10		8th	Third Round
2010–11		11th	Fourth Round
2011–12		8th	Round of 16
2012–13		9th	Round of 16
2013–14		8th	Round of 16
2014–15		7th	Round of 16
2015–16		8th	Semifinals
2016–17		13th	Semifinals
2017–18		4th	Round of 16
2018–19		7th	Semifinals	Play-off
2019–20		14th	Quarterfinals	did not qualify
2020–21		15th	Round of 16
2021-22	Azadegan League	14th	Third Round
2022-23	Azadegan League

Honours

Iran Pro League/First Division
- Champions: 1993–94, 1994–95, 2006–07
Hazfi Cup
- Winners: 1993–94

Players

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	Mehrdad Bashagardi
2	DF	IRN	Asghar Nasiri
3	DF	IRN	Mohammad Hossein Heydari
4	DF	IRN	Mojtaba Bijan
5	DF	IRN	Mojtaba Mamashli
6	MF	IRN	Aref Haji Eydi ^U25
7	MF	IRN	Alireza Ghasemi
8	MF	IRN	Amirhossein Mousazadeh
9	FW	IRN	Reza Khaleghifar
10	MF	IRN	Mohammad Ebrahimi^U25
11	MF	IRN	Akbar Afaghi
16	FW	IRN	Rahman Jafari
17	MF	IRN	Sina Zamehran
22	GK	IRN	Nima Alipour
23	DF	IRN	Hamidreza Divsalar


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
27	DF	IRN	Arash Mehri Babadi^U23
28	MF	IRN	Mohammad Hossein Babagoli
30	MF	IRN	Mohammadreza Moslemi Javid^U23
31	MF	IRN	Pouya Mokhtari ^U23
35	MF	IRN	Alireza Safari ^U19
36	MF	IRN	Mohammadtaha Tabatabataei ^U21
38	MF	IRN	Mehdi Goudarzi ^U19
44	MF	IRN	Reza Faraji
47	MF	IRN	Morteza Hosseinzadeh
48	MF	IRN	Mehdi Kashefi^U23
70	FW	IRN	Shahin Balijani
72	MF	IRN	Mehdi Hanafi
77	MF	IRN	Mehrshad Seydi^U23
80	DF	IRN	Pouria Bali^U23
97	DF	IRN	Mehdi Bayat^U25
3	{{{pos}}}	IRN	Mohammad hadavand Mirzaei

Individual Records

All Top Appearances

#	Name	Nationality	Apps
1	Ebrahim Sadeghi	Iran	452
2	Majid Ayoubi	Iran	319
3	Roozbeh Shahalidoost	Iran	254
4	Hamed Shiri	Iran	166
5	Mohsen Khalili	Iran	156
6	Ali Zeinali	Iran	150
7	Omid Sharifinasab	Iran	149
8	Javad Ashtiani	Iran	143
9	Hamed Fallahzadeh	Iran	138
10	Ebrahim Shakouri	Iran	133

All Top Scorers

#	Name	Nationality	Goals
1	Mohsen Khalili	Iran	62
2	Karim Ansarifard	Iran	56
3	Ebrahim Sadeghi	Iran	41
4	Amin Manouchehri	Iran	25
5	Hamed Shiri	Iran	22
6	Sajjad Shahbazzadeh	Iran	21
7	Mehdi Torabi	Iran	20
8	Javad Kazemian	Iran	16
9	Arman Ramezani	Iran	15
10	Omid Sharifinasab	Iran	14

Manager

Coaching staff

Staff^[1]	Name
Head coach	Faraz Kamalvand
First team coach	Asghar Maziar
Assistant coach	Mehdi Zarei Kazem Borjlou
Goalkeeping coach	Farshad Bakhtiarizadeh
Fitness coach	Ali Asghar GhorbanaliPour
Doctor	Mahyar Mortazavi
Analyzer	Mohammad Palizvan
Technical Manager	Asghar Hajiloo
B team Manager	Kianoush Rahmati

The following managers had managed Saipa since 1993:

Name	Period	Trophies
Bijan Zolfagharnasab	1993–97	2 Azadegan League, Hazfi Cup
Nasrollah Abdollahi	1997–00
Behtash Fariba	2000–01
Hamid Alidoosti	2001–02
Giovanni Mei	2002–03
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan	2003–04
Bijan Zolfagharnasab	2004–06
Werner Lorant	2006
Ali Daei	2006–08	1 Persian Gulf Cup
Pierre Littbarski	2008
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan	2008–11
Majid Saleh	2011–12
Mojtaba Taghavi	2012–13
Engin Firat	2013–14
Majid Jalali	2014–16
Hossein Faraki	2016–17
Ali Daei	2017–19
Ebrahim Sadeghi	2019–21
Faraz Kamalvand	2021