Persepolis Football Club () is an Iranian professional football club based in Tehran that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League. Persepolis F.C. is the football club of the multisport Persepolis Athletic and Cultural Club. The club is owned by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. There have been many attempts to privatise the club, which have been without success due to the large debt the club has accumulated.
Persepolis was founded in 1963 by Ali Abdo and has been in the first division of Iranian football since 1968. The club has played at its home ground, Azadi Stadium, since 1973. They contest the Tehran Derby against rival team Esteghlal, a match that is closely followed by Iranian football fans and considered to be one of the in Asia,. According to the Asian Football Confederation, Persepolis is the most popular football club in Asia. At the AFC Champions League, 11 of the top 20 matches by attendance were played by Persepolis. Persepolis has also broken the record of 100,000 attendees in four matches at the AFC Champions League. Persepolis has won a record fifteen Iranian league titles, as well as seven Hazfi Cups, five Super Cups and the 1990–91 Asian Cup Winners' Cup. Many notable players have played for the club, including former Bundesliga players Ali Karimi, Ali Daei, Vahid Hashemian and Mehdi Mahdavikia. Ali Parvin, who spent 18 years with the club from 1970 to 1988, is widely regarded as the club's greatest player.
History
Shahin F.C. (1942–1967)
Shahin was established in 1942 by Dr. Abbas Ekrami, a teacher. Ekrami founded the club with the help of his young students and adopted the motto: "" ().
Shahin produced many talented players, including Parviz Dehdari, Masoud Boroumand, Homayoun Behzadi, Jafar Kashani, Hossein Kalani and Hamid Shirzadegan, as well as players who played for the Iran national football team. Shahin was popular in the 1960s, but the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) and Keihan Varzeshi (Iran's most important sports publication at the time) viewed that popularity as a threat. The conflict between FFIRI and the team grew to a head on 9 July 1967—two days after Shahin's 3–0 win against Tehranjavan F.C.—when the FFIRI dissolved the clubm. League attendance dropped and other clubs, including Pas, Rah Ahan and Oghab, attempted to sign Shahin players.
Establishment early years (1963–1969)
Persepolis Athletic and Cultural Club was established in 1963 by Ali Abdo. Abdo had returned to Iran from the United States and was a championship boxer.
Persepolis F.C. started the 1968 season with Dehdari as manager. Under Dehdari, the club signed many of Shahin's former players, thereby retaining its popularity. The team was initially quite weak, and participated in Iran's second division. The best player on the team then was Mahmoud Khordbin.
The club, using four Shahin players, had a friendly match with Jam Abadan, a respected team at the time. After the match, the remainder of the Shahin players joined Persepolis. That year, no league competition was held, as many teams had been dissolved, so a 44-team tournament was held. Persepolis, along with Pas, Taj and Oghab, finished top of the group.
The next year Persepolis was the first Iranian club to compete at the Asian Champion Club Tournament held in Thailand, where they were eliminated in the group stage.
Takht Jamshid Cup (1969–1979)
In 1969, Mahmoud Khayami, one of the founders of automobile company Iran National, negotiated with Persepolis and signed all former Shahin players, except for Aziz Asli and Mahmoud Khordbin, to his new team, Paykan Tehran F.C. Paykan won the championship that year, but the new players moved back to Persepolis at the end of the season.
In 1971, Persepolis won its first ever championship in the Iranian League; Persepolis had ended the season with 13 wins and 1 draw in 14 weeks. In 1972, Abdo announced Persepolis as the first professional football club in Iran. The club did not enter the domestic league and only played against foreign clubs; a few months later, it became amateur again. In 1973, the Takht Jamshid Cup was established. Persepolis won the inaugural Cup and again in 1975. That year, Persepolis lost just two matches of thirty matches. Persepolis is the most successful club in the Takht Jamshid Cup league, clinching two championship titles and finishing three times as runner-up.
Success under tough conditions (1979–1990)