2007–08 Persian Gulf Cup

The 2007–08 Persian Gulf Cup (also known as Iran Pro League) was the 25th season of Iran's Football League and seventh season of Iran Pro League since its establishment in 2001. Saipa were the defending champions. The season featured 13 teams from the 2006–07 Persian Gulf Cup and three new teams promoted from the 2006–07 Azadegan League: Shirin Faraz as champions, Pegah and Sanat Naft. PAS Hamedan replaced PAS Tehran. The league started on 16 August 2007 and ended on 17 May 2008. Persepolis won the Pro League title for the first time in their history (total ninth Iranian title).

Persian Gulf Cup

Season	2007–08
Champions	Persepolis 2nd Pro League title 9th Iranian title
Relegated	Sanat Naft Shirin Faraz
Champions League	Persepolis Sepahan Saba Battery Esteghlal (Hazfi Cup champions)
Matches played	306
Goals scored	721 (2.36 per match)
Top goalscorer	Mohsen Khalili Hadi Asghari (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Rah Ahan 5–0 Paykan (11 March 2008) Persepolis 5–0 Shirin Faraz (30 April 2008)
Biggest away win	Esteghlal 1–4 Pegah (11 April 2008) Fajr Sepasi 1–4 Zob Ahan (1 May 2008) Saba Battery 1–4 Persepolis (14 May 2008)
Highest scoring	Paykan 4–2 Bargh Shiraz (16 August 2007) Persepolis 3–3 Fajr Sepasi (21 September 2007) Persepolis 3–3 Aboumoslem (10 February 2008) Esteghlal 4–2 Bargh Shiraz (29 February 2008) Saipa 4–2 Shirin Faraz (3 April 2008) Bargh Shiraz 3–3 Sepahan (3 May 2008) Zob Ahan 4–2 Est. Ahvaz (17 May 2008)
Longest winning run	4 matches Persepolis
Longest unbeaten run	13 matches PAS Hamedan
Longest winless run	27 matches Shirin Faraz
Longest losing run	6 matches Shirin Faraz
Highest attendance	110,000 Persepolis – Sepahan (17 May 2008)
Lowest attendance	0 (spectator ban) Malavan – Zob Ahan (19 September 2007) Pegah – Shirin Faraz (16 November 2007) Sanat Naft – Saba Battery (16 November 2007) Sepahan – Pegah (22 January 2008) Persepolis – Sanat Naft (22 January 2008) Sepahan – Paykan (10 February 2008) Sepahan – Fajr Sepasi (22 February 2008) Sepahan – Zob Ahan (5 March 2008) Est. Ahvaz – Saba Battery (17 March 2008) Sepahan – Est. Ahvaz (3 April 2008) Sepahan – Mes Kerman (18 April 2008) Shirin Faraz – Pegah (5 May 2008)
Total attendance	3,303,000
Average attendance	11,235
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

Teams

Team	City	Stadium	Manager	Nationality	Past season
Aboomoslem	Mashhad	Samen	Parviz Mazloomi		6th
Bargh	Shiraz	Hafezieh	Mahmoud Yavari		12th
Esteghlal	Tehran	Azadi	Firouz Karimi		4th
Esteghlal	Ahvaz	Takhti Ahvaz	Majid Jalali		2nd
Malavan	Anzali	Takhti Anzali	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh		14th
Mes	Kerman	Shahid Bahonar	Amir Ghalenoei		9th
Pas	Hamedan	Ghods	Vinko Begovic		N/A
Paykan	Tehran	Iran Khodro	Ali Asghar Modir Roosta		7th
Pegah	Rasht	Sardar Jangal	Nader Dastneshan		Qualifier
Persepolis	Tehran	Azadi	Afshin Ghotbi		3rd
Rah Ahan	Tehran	Rah Ahan	Davoud Mahabadi		16th
Saba Battery	Tehran	Shahid Derakhshan	Yahya Golmohammadi		13th
Saipa	Karaj	Enghelab Karaj	Ali Daei		Champion
Sanat Naft	Abadan	Takhti Abadan	Ahmad Tousi		Qualifier
Sepahan	Esfahan	Naghsh Jahan	Jorvan Vieira		5th
Sepasi	Shiraz	Hafezieh	Gholam Peyrovani		10th
Shirin Faraz	Kermanshah	Azadi Kermanshah	Shahram Mehrpeyma		Qualifier
Zob Ahan	Esfahan	Foolad Shahr	Bijan Zolfagharnasab		8th

Below is the list of coaches who left their teams after the start of the season.

Team	Name	Nationality
Aboomoslem	Khodadad Azizi
Esteghlal Ahvaz	Firouz Karimi
Esteghlal	Nasser Hejazi
Mes	Farhad Kazemi
Paykan	Samvel Darbinyan
Pegah	Majid Jahanpour
Rah Ahan	Akbar Misaghian
Saba Battery	Mohammad Hossein Ziaei
Sanat Naft	Ebrahim Ghasempour
Sepahan	Luka Bonačić
Shirin Faraz	Marco Octavio
Zob Ahan	Zoran Đorđević

Participating in international competitions

2008 AFC Champions League

• Persepolis
• Sepahan

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Former Players
Aboomoslem	Rodrigo Teixeira	Daniel Olerum	Ivan Petrović	Franck Atsou	Ivan Savorjest
Bargh Shiraz	Mohammed Nasser	Freddy Freire	Martín Barlocco
Esteghlal Ahvaz	Carlos Soto	Fabrício Ceará
Esteghlal Tehran	Srđan Urošević
Malavan
Mes Kerman	Edinho	Paulo Zaltron	Sékou Fofana	Uche Iheruome	Gerardo Morales
PAS Hamedan	Emir Obuća	Faruk Ihtijarević	Sandro Tomić	Vladimir Mićović
Paykan	Guillaume N'Kendo	Ronny Kockel	Ibrahima Touré		Taribo West
Pegah	Joël Tchami	William Esenjo	Akvsenti Gilauri	Saša Ilić	Martin Abena
Persepolis	Jacques Elong Elong	Mate Dragičević	Jorge Gaona
Rah Ahan	Gevorg Kasparov	Hamlet Mkhitaryan	Thiago Junio	César Pellegrín
Saba Battery	Alen Avdić	Almir Tolja	Marinko Mačkić
Saipa	Adriano Alves	Evandro	Alou Traoré	Issa Traoré
Sanat Naft	Léo	Renato Medeiros	Marcelo de Souza
Sepahan	Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail	Emad Mohammed	Haitham Khadim Taher	Kabir Bello	Jaba Mujiri
Sepasi
Shirin Faraz	Alou Badra Djakité	Ivan Dragičević			Nenad Stojaković
Zob Ahan	Armen Tigranyan	Fábio Carvalho	Mohammed Martin	Issa Ndoye	Armen Ghazaryan

Final classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Persepolis (C)	34	18	11	5	55	34	+21	59[a]	Qualification for the 2009 AFC Champions League
2	Sepahan	34	17	10	7	53	38	+15	58[b]
3	Saba	34	13	13	8	41	37	+4	52
4	Aboumoslem	34	14	8	12	37	37	0	50
5	Pas Hamedan	34	11	16	7	36	28	+8	49
6	Zob Ahan	34	11	15	8	39	32	+7	48
7	Bargh	34	11	14	9	43	47	−4	47
8	Est. Ahvaz	34	11	13	10	61	51	+10	46
9	Paykan	34	12	10	12	41	42	−1	46
10	Mes	34	11	12	11	36	34	+2	45
11	Saipa	34	12	9	13	33	35	−2	45
12	Rah Ahan	34	11	11	12	45	40	+5	44
13	Esteghlal	34	11	10	13	44	44	0	43	Qualification for 2009 AFC Champions League[c]
14	Fajr	34	9	15	10	37	41	−4	42
15	Pegah	34	9	11	14	26	35	−9	38
16	Malavan	34	8	12	14	32	41	−9	36
17	Sanat Naft (R)	34	9	8	17	37	46	−9	35	Relegation to the 2008–09 Azadegan League
18	Shirin Faraz (R)	34	3	12	19	25	59	−34	21

Updated to match(es) played on 01 SEP 2018. Source: IPL Stats, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.^[1]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Persepolis was deducted 6 points in issued by FIFA.
2. Sepahan was deducted 3 points in issued by Iranian Football Federation.
3. Esteghlal qualified to AFC Champions League by winning the Hazfi Cup

Champions
Persepolis F.C.

Results table

Last updated March 17, 2008

Home \ Away	PRS	SEP	SAB	ABU	PAS	ZOB	PAY	BGH	ESA	MES	SAP	RAH	EST	FJR	PEG	MLV	SNA	SFZ
Persepolis		2–1	2–2	3–3	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	3–2	1–0	1–0	1–2	1–1	3–3	2–0	2–0	1–0	5–0
Sepahan	2–1		2–2	2–1	0–0	2–2	1–1	4–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	2–2	2–1	0–0	3–1	3–2	1–0	1–0
Saba Battery	1–4	0–1		0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–2	2–2	0–1	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	3–0	3–1	2–2
Aboumoslem	0–3	2–1	0–1		0–0	3–2	0–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	3–1	3–1	2–1	2–1	1–0
PAS Hamedan	1–2	3–1	0–1	3–0		1–1	3–2	3–0	1–1	1–0	1–3	3–2	1–1	0–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	0–0
Zob Ahan	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	0–0		1–0	2–1	4–2	0–0	0–0	2–0	0–1	0–0	2–2	0–0	2–1	0–1
Paykan	1–2	1–2	0–1	0–0	2–1	2–0		4–2	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–2	3–2	0–3	1–1	0–1	0–0	2–0
Bargh Shiraz	0–1	3–3	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–1		1–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–2	3–2	1–0
Est. Ahvaz	4–1	3–2	4–1	1–0	2–2	1–1	1–2	2–1		2–2	1–2	2–3	1–2	4–1	3–2	0–0	0–0	3–1
Mes Kerman	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–3	1–3	2–1		2–1	2–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–2
Saipa	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–0		2–2	0–0	1–2	1–2	2–1	0–2	4–2
Rah Ahan	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–0	0–0	2–1	5–0	2–2	2–2	3–1	2–0		0–3	1–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	3–0
Esteghlal	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–2	4–2	3–2	1–1	1–2	2–1		1–1	1–4	2–0	2–3	2–1
Fajr Sepasi	0–2	0–2	3–1	2–1	1–1	1–4	1–1	0–1	2–2	1–3	1–1	0–1	1–2		2–0	2–1	2–0	2–2
Pegah	1–0	0–2	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–1	2–2	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–1		0–0	0–1	0–0
Malavan	1–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	2–1	1–2	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–1		0–0	2–2
Sanat Naft	2–3	2–2	2–3	2–0	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–3	2–3	1–2	2–0	0–2	2–1	1–2	0–1	1–2		2–1
Shirin Faraz	0–0	2–3	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–3	2–2	0–3	0–3	1–1	1–1	1–3	0–1	0–2	2–1	0–0

Source: http://www.iplstats.com/
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Player statistics

Top goalscorers

Mohsen Khalili

18

• Hadi Asghari (Rah Ahan)
• Mohsen Khalili (Persepolis)

13

• Ibrahima Touré (Paykan)

12

• Ruhollah Bigdeli (Est. Ahvaz)
• Fereydoon Fazli (Saba Battery)
• Leo (Sanat Naft)

10

• Davoud Haghi (Est. Ahvaz)
• Milad Meydavoodi (Est. Ahvaz)

9

• Esmail Farhadi (Zob Ahan)
• Seyed Mohammad Hosseini (Aboomoslem)
• Mahmoud Karimi (Sepahan)
• Saber Mirghorbani (Sanat Naft)
• Mohammad Nasser (Bargh Shiraz)
• Bahman Tahmasebi (Fajr Sepasi)
• Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht (Pesepolis)
• Zaltron (Mes Kerman)

8

• Arash Borhani (Esteghlal)
• Mohammad Gholamin (Pas Hamedan)
• Mehdi Karimian (Bargh Shiraz)
• Emir Obuća (Pas Hamedan)
• Jalal Rafkhaei (Malavan)
• Emad Reza (Foolad)

Top goalassistants

Mojtaba Jabbari

8

• Davoud Haghi (Est. Ahvaz)
• Mojtaba Jabari (Esteghlal)

7

• Khosro Heidari (Pas Hamedan)
• Mehdi Shiri (Bargh Shiraz)
• Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht (Persepolis)

6

• Abbas Aghaei (Persepolis)
• Ehsan Hajsafi (Sepahan)
• Reza Nasehi (Aboomoslem)
• Mohammad Navazi (Esteghlal)
• Ahmad Taghavi (Rah Ahan)

Cards

Player				Team
Hossein Pashaei	13	0	0	Rah Ahan
Ali Haghdoost	10	2	0	Aboomoslem
Alou Badra Djakité	11	1	0	Shirin Faraz
Mohsen Bengar	11	0	0	Sepahan
Morteza Kashi	10	1	0	Saba Battery
Saber Mirghorbani	11	0	0	Sanat Naft
Abouzar Rahimi	10	1	0	Rah Ahan
Hossein Memar	9	0	1	Paykan
Hanif Omranzadeh	9	0	0	Pas Hamedan
Ivan Petrović	8	0	1	Aboomoslem
Mehrdad Pooladi	8	1	0	Esteghlal

Matches played

34

• Mojtaba Shiri (Est. Ahvaz)

Attendances

Average home attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Persepolis	960,000	110,000	0	60,000	+78.0%†
2	Esteghlal	590,000	90,000	5,000	34,706	−0.8%†
3	Sanat Naft	200,000	15,000	0	12,500	n/a†
4	Malavan	169,000	15,000	0	10,563	−2.1%†
5	Pegah	145,000	15,000	0	9,063	n/a†
6	Saipa	143,000	60,000	1,000	8,412	−21.1%†
7	Mes Kerman	139,000	15,000	2,000	8,176	+18.1%†
8	Est. Ahvaz	127,000	20,000	0	7,938	+26.7%†
9	Saba Battery	126,000	90,000	1,000	7,412	+37.3%†
10	Aboumoslem	118,000	35,000	1,000	6,941	−27.2%†
11	PAS Hamedan	116,000	10,000	3,000	6,824	−14.0%†
12	Sepahan	69,000	15,000	0	6,273	+3.4%†
13	Bargh Shiraz	89,000	20,000	1,000	5,235	−6.0%†
14	Shirin Faraz	76,000	7,000	0	4,750	n/a†
15	Fajr Sepasi	73,000	20,000	1,000	4,294	−24.2%†
16	Paykan	64,000	30,000	1,000	3,765	−40.5%†
17	Zob Ahan	54,000	15,000	1,000	3,176	−22.5%†
18	Rah Ahan	45,000	20,000	1,000	2,647	−35.0%†
	League total	3,303,000	110,000	0	11,235	+11.0%†

Updated to games played on 17 May 2008
Source: iplstats.com
Notes:
Matches with spectator bans are not included in average attendances
Pegah, Sanat Naft and Shirin Faraz played last season in Azadegan League
PAS Hamedan replaced PAS Tehran

Highest attendances

Rank	Home team	Score	Away team	Attendance	Date	Week	Stadium
1	Persepolis	2–1	Sepahan	110,000	17 May 2008 (2008-05-17)	34	Azadi
2	Esteghlal	1–1	Persepolis	90,000	14 October 2007 (2007-10-14)	9	Azadi
	Saba Battery	1–4	Persepolis	90,000	14 May 2008 (2008-05-14)	33	Azadi
4	Persepolis	0–0	Rah Ahan	85,000	16 September 2007 (2007-09-16)	5	Azadi
5	Persepolis	1–1	Esteghlal	80,000	4 April 2008 (2008-04-04)	26	Azadi
6	Persepolis	3–2	Esteghlal Ahvaz	70,000	19 October 2007 (2007-10-19)	10	Azadi
	Persepolis	1–0	Mes Kerman	70,000	4 November 2007 (2007-11-04)	12	Azadi
	Persepolis	1–0	Saipa	70,000	18 November 2007 (2007-11-18)	14	Azadi
	Persepolis	1–1	Bargh Shiraz	70,000	11 May 2008 (2008-05-11)	32	Azadi
10	Persepolis	2–1	Paykan	65,000	7 September 2007 (2007-09-07)	4	Azadi

Notes:
Updated to games played on 17 May 2008. Source: iplstats.com

See also

• 2007–08 Azadegan League
• 2007–08 Iran Football's 2nd Division
• 2007–08 Iran Football's 3rd Division
• 2007–08 Hazfi Cup
• Iranian Super Cup
• 2007–08 Iranian Futsal Super League