Tractor Sazi F.C.

Pre Revolution

Tractor Sazi was formed in 1970 in support of Tractor Manufacturing Company in Tabriz. They played in the Pasargad League for five years until 1975. They finished 1974–75 as the winner of the Pasargard League and promoted to the Takht Jamshid Cup (now Iran Pro League). In their first season in the Takht Jamshid Cup, they were in poor form, as result Tractor Sazi relegated to the Pasargard League after just one year in the first division. They were also lost the Hazfi Cup final to the Malavan in the cup's inaugural edition. After their relegation, Hossein Fekri remained as the club's manager and led them to a return to the first division for the 1977–78 season, which they finished it in the 5th place. In 1978–79 season which never finished due to Iranian Revolution, they were in the 8th place with twelve matches. Their rival at these times was Machine Sazi, which is also based in Tabriz.

Post Revolution

In the 1980s the national league was suspended due to the Iran-Iraq War, therefore Tractor was forced to compete in the Tabriz Local Leagues for many years. In the 1986–87 Qods League the East Azerbaijan Provincial team, with a mix of players from Tractor Sazi and rivals Machine Sazi, made it to the final, but were defeated in the final by the Isfahan Provincial team.

1990s

Romanian coach Vasile Godja was in charge of Tractor Sazi's youth teams from 1986. He was also a worker of the Tractor Company and discovered various talents as the B team's coach. He also discovered and trained various talented players like Karim Bargheri, Sirous Dinmohammadi, Alireza Nikmer and Hossein Khatibi, which in time became players of Iran's national team. In 1990, he was promoted as the first team coach which he led the club in the 1992–93 season finishing third place in national competition followed by Persepolis and Pas Tehran. Esmail Halali was their star in this period. Under his leadership in 1994, Tractor Sazi made the finals of the Hazfi Cup again this time losing to Bahman in the final, and won in 1995 the MILLS International cup in India.

Godja left the team in 1997 after eight years in charge of the club. Mohammad Hossein Ziaei then became the player-coach of Tractor Sazi. At this time, notable players of the team started their migration to the other clubs. 1998 to 2001 they finished they finished the league around the middle of the standings.

Iran Pro League

In 2001, IRIFF formed the Iran Pro League as the professional league. The inaugural 2001–02 season under Reza Vatankhah and Mahmoud Yavari's management, saw Tractor Sazi relegated to the Azadegan League after the club finished bottom of the league.

Relegation to Azadegan League

Tractor Sazi spent seven seasons in the Azadegan League, second division, and was unable to climb to the Iran Pro League. Tractor qualified to the promotion play-off in the 2006–07 season but lost to Shirin Faraz 4–2. After the appointment of Faraz Kamalvand as the manager before the 2008–09 season, Tractor Sazi was promoted to the Iran Pro League for the first time in 8 years.

Return to Pro League

In the 2011–12 season and under Amir Ghalenoei's management, Tractor Sazi finished 2nd, their best result in the history, therefore securing a spot for the 2013 AFC Champions League. This was the first time Tractor Sazi had qualified for the competition, they qualified for the 2014 and 2015 edition as well. In July 2012, former S.L. Benfica and Sevilla FC coach, Toni Oliveira was named as the club's manager. He led the club as the runner up of Iran Pro League.

Champions League

After a fall out between Oliveira and the club chairman, Oliveira was sacked and Majid Jalali was brought in for the 2013–14. After a poor run of results Jalali was fired and Toni Oliveira returned, and almost immediately leading Tractor to a Hazfi Cup Championship, and a place in the 2015 AFC Champions League. They also finished the season in the 6th place, after defeated Esteghlal 3–1 on the last match at Azadi Stadium. Tractor was also unable to qualify for the knock-out stage of AFC Champions League for the second consecutive year, after ended 4th in its group in both 2013 and 2014 editions. In 2015, Tractor again was eliminated in the group stage of the AFC Champions League for the third straight time.

On 15 May 2015, the final season match was played between Tractor Sazi and Naft Tehran. The match took place at Sahand Stadium in Tabriz. After communication issues at the stadium, Teraktor Sazi staff mistakenly thought that Sepahan was losing to Saipa, which would mean Tractor would win the league with a draw. Tractor Sazi tied the game, believing that a 3–3 draw with Naft had won them the title. While they were celebrating with their fans on the field, they found out that the actual result of the parallel game was 2–0 for Sepahan and that Sepahan were league champions. Tractor Sazi finished as runners-up for the third time.

Ghalenoi Era

Midway through the 2015–16 season Tractor head coach Toni Oliveira was one again sacked and replaced with experienced manager Amir Ghalenoi. On 24 February 2016 Tractor won their first match of the 2016 AFC Champions League in a 4–0 win against Emirati club Al Jazira. Tractor won the return leg 1–0 on 2 March 2016 in Abu Dhabi as well. After the first two games, Tractor Sazi surpassed the most points they ever gained in the AFC Champions League group stage. Tractor Sazi qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League for the first time in their history on 19 April 2016 after defeating Saudi club Al-Hilal in 2–0. Tractor eventually lost in the Round of 16 to Emirati club Al Nasr.

In the 2016–17 season, Tractor defeated Zob Ahan in the semi final of the Hazfi Cup to reach the final against Naft Tehran. In January of 2017 it was revealed that Tractor had been suspended from two transfer windows by FIFA due to outstanding debts to former players. This led to the club terminating the contract of Sajjad Shahbazzadeh whom they had signed days earlier.

Fans

Tractor Sazi is the most popular team in Iranian Azerbaijan and had the most fans attendance in home games in the Iran Pro League in 2010–11, 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons. As of 2013, the club have more than 482,000 registered official fans. Navad, the main sports program in Iran also named Tractor's fans as the best fans in Iran.

For the last dramatic game of the 2014–15 IPL between Tractor and Naft Tehran (3–3) there were 81.756 spectators.

Tractor Sazi is known as "Tiraxtur" between its fans. The club's title is also Qırmızı Qurdlar which means Red Wolves in Azerbaijani language. After scoring a goal, The club fans also celebrate it in Bundesliga style. They repeat the scorer's surname after the stadium's spokesperson calling his first name three times. Even though officials tried to ban this, fans succeeded. Also they are famous for supporting their team no matter what happens on the scoreboard. When the team concedes a goal, fans began chants "Eybi Yox!" (no problem).

Official anthem

There are a lot of popular marches for Tractor F.C. but 'Tiraxtur iftixarımız' (Tractor is our proud) that create and implement in 2012 was chosen as official anthem by the club in the club's celebration. The table below shows the Tractor fans anthem that is sung at Tractor matches.

Songwriter: Ayyub Shahbazi

Composer: Gholam Reza Mirzazadeh

Arrangement: Mohammad Hossein Drablou

Singer: Esfandiar Garabaghi

Crest

From its foundation, the team used red crest. On the exterior circle the name of the club and the date of its foundation were written. The second crest was white until 2013, when the club change their second crest to black.

Kit

Tractor Sazi is currently sponsored by the Hamrah-e Aval (Mobile Telecommunication Company) and also Javanane Khayer Foundation. They were previously sponsored by the Bank Sepah. On July 2014, the club signed a contract with Kelme, starting from 2014–15 season.

Media

The official matches of the club in Iran Pro League, Hazfi Cup and AFC Champions League are broadcast from Sahand TV, the club's city owned TV station. Online viewing is also available in the official site of the club and Sahand TV. Important matches are also broadcast on the Varzesh and Shoma channels. The matches with Persepolis, Esteghlal and Sepahan are also broadcast from IRIB TV3, Jame Jam and SAHAR TV.

Ownership

The club is owned by Tractor Manufacturing Company since its establishment in 1970. Since 2011, it has been owned by Kowsar Foundation (51%), also 30% of the club belongs to East-Azerbaijan Province. In addition, the Iranian Mehr Institute is an affiliate of Kowsar Foundation and other stakeholders and custodians of the club. Kowsar Foundation is part of Sepah Pasdaran and the club is able to get the soldier players to complete their military service.

Rivals

Tractor Sazi is part of the Tabriz derby which they play against Machine Sazi. During 1970s both Tractor Sazi and Machine Sazi met regularly in the Takht Jamshid Cup and both teams had some memorable successes in the fixture.Following the creation of the Azadegan League, Machine Sazi and Tractor Sazi met twice in the 1996–97 Azadegan League.

Machine Sazi promotion to the Persian Gulf Pro League in 2016 saw fans eagerly anticipating the first league derbies in 7 years.

Players

As of Persian Gulf Pro League:

Stadium

Tractor Sazi played their home matches from 1979 until 1996 in the 20,000 capacity Bagh Shomal Stadium (Takhti Stadium), 1976 AFC Asian Cup stadium. Sahand Stadium (Yadegar-e Emam Stadium) was replaced with Bagh-e Shomal Stadium after it was completed in January 1996. The stadium is the second biggest stadium in Iran with 66,833 seats. The stadium is also part of Tabriz Olympic Complex.

During Sahand Stadium's renovation in 2005 until 2006 years, Bakeri Stadium was the club's home ground in the Azadegan League matches. The stadium has 10,000 capacity.

Seasons

The table below chronicles the achievements of Tractor Sazi in various competitions.

Official titles

Persian Gulf Pro League

Runners-up (3): 2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15

Hazfi Cup

Winner (1): 2013–14 Runners-up (2): 1975–76, 1994–95

Azadegan League

Winner (1): 2008–09

2nd Division

Winner (1): 1974–75 Runners-up (2): 1976–77, 1995–96

East Azerbaijan Super Cup

Winner : 1992

Unofficial titles

MILLS International Cup

Winner: 1995

Sardaran Shahid International Cup

Winner: 1995, 1996

Shohada Cup

Winner: 2014

Sports statistics

Updated to May 2014.

Individual records

Lists of the players with the most caps and top goalscorers for the club, as of 2 December 2014 (players in bold signifies current Tractor Sazi player). Mohammad Ebrahimi is the club's all-time most capped player and top scorer with 25 goals in 128 games. This list includes goals from all competitive matches.