2012–13 Azadegan League

The 2012–13 Azadegan League was the 22nd season of the Azadegan League and 12th as the second highest division since its establishment in 1991. The season featured 19 teams from the 2011–12 Azadegan League, three new teams relegated from the 2011–12 Persian Gulf Cup (Shahin Bushehr, Shahrdari Tabriz and Mes Sarcheshmeh) and four new teams promoted from the 2011–12 2nd Division (Esteghlal Ahvaz as champions, Gostaresh Foulad and Hafari Ahvaz). Alvand Hamedan replaced PAS Novin Hamedan, Bargh Shiraz replaced Steel Azin and Sang Ahan replaced Tarbiat Yazd. The league started on 13 September 2012 and ended on 16 April 2013. Gostaresh Foulad and Esteghlal Khuzestan won the Azadegan League title for the first time in their history. Gostaresh Foulad and Esteghlal Khuzestan were promoted to the Persian Gulf Cup.

Azadegan League

Season	2012–13
Champions	Gostaresh Foulad 1st Azadegan League title Esteghlal Khuzestan 1st Azadegan League title
Promoted	Gostaresh Foulad Esteghlal Khuzestan
Relegated	Etka Gorgan Shahin Bushehr Shahrdari Arak Machine Sazi Shahrdari Tabriz Hafari Ahvaz Bargh Shiraz Yadavaran Shalamcheh
Matches played	364
Goals scored	770 (2.12 per match)
Top goalscorer	Mohammad Abbaszadeh (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Nassaji 5–0 Sh. Arak (16 February 2013)
Biggest away win	Yadavaran Shalamcheh 0–3 PAS Hamedan (15 November 2012) Parseh 2–5 Sang Ahan (28 December 2012)
Highest scoring	Hafari Ahvaz 4–4 Bargh Shiraz (9 December 2012) Aboumoslem 4–4 Mes Sarcheshmeh (31 January 2013)
← 2011–12 2013–14 →

Changes

Rahian

Sh.Yasuj

Etka

Sh. Bandar Abbas

Aboomoslem

Sh.Arak

Bargh

• Sang Ahan
• Foolad

• Iranjavan
• Shahin

• Pas
• Alvand

• Nassaji
• Saipa

• N. Zamini
• Parseh

• Gol Gohar
• Mes Rafsanjan
• Mes Sarcheshmeh

• MachineSazi
• Gostaresh

Shahrdari

• Es. Meli
• Hafari
• Yadavaran

Es. Ahvaz

Naft

Locations of clubs in 2012–13 Azadegan League

• At the end of 2011–12 Azadegan League season, Sanat Sari, Payam Mokhaberat, Kaveh, Bargh Shiraz were relegated to 2012–13 Iran Football's 2nd Division.
• The four relegated teams were replaced by four 2011–12 Iran Football's 2nd Division winners. Esteghlal Ahvaz made an immediate return to Azadegan League. Hafari Ahvaz also promoted to Azadegan League. The two other promoted teams, Pas Novin and Gostaresh Foolad Sahand, were reserve teams of PAS Hamedan, and Gostaresh Foolad.
• Kaveh Tehran bought Gostaresh Foolad Sahand and returned to the Azadegan League.^[1]
• Pas Novin have changed their name and sponsorship to Alvand Hamedan, so they can remain in Azadegan League.^[2]
• Steel Azin come back from Semnan to Tehran.^[3]
• Sang Ahan Company bought Tarbiat Yazd and changed the name to Sang Ahan Bafq.^[4]
• Bargh Shiraz bought Steel Azin and return to Azadegan League.^[5]
• Yadavaran Shalamcheh bought Kaveh Tehran and came to the Azadegan League.

Match fixing scandal

After Shahrdari Tabriz promoted to the Iran Pro League, the former chairman of Niroye Zamini was announced that he was offered 100,000,000 tomans to fixing the match between two teams, a bid that he rejected. Two days later, one of the players of the Shahrdari Bandar Abbas was charged that he was purchased to score an own goal in match with Shahrdari Tabriz. IRIFF opened a case for the match-fixing scandal and excluded coaching staff and management of Shahrdari Tabriz temporarily. The play-off and championship matches was also postponed to another time until the final judgment. The final was announced on 13 May 2013. Shahrdari Tabriz's promotion was canceled and they will not be playing at Azadegan League next season too, Faraz Kamalvand (head coach of Shahrdari Tabriz) and his assistants were banned for two years from football careers. The team manager of Shahrdari Tabriz and chairman of the club were also banned for one year and six months. Yadavaran Shalamcheh (which relegated to the 2nd Division) was relegated to the 3rd Division. Nader Dastneshan (head coach of Saipa Shomal), Majid Bagherinia (head coach of Esteghlal Khuzestan) and chairman of the club.

Teams

Team	City	Venue	Capacity	Head coach	Note
Aboomoslem	Mashhad	Samen Stadium	35,000	Hadi Bargizar
Alvand Hamedan	Hamedan	Qods Stadium	10,000	Reza Talaeimanesh
Bargh Shiraz	Shiraz	Dastgheib	5,000	Mohammad Abbassi
Esteghlal Ahvaz	Ahvaz	Takhti Ahvaz	30,000	Adel Hardani
Esteghlal Khuzestan	Ahvaz	Takhti Ahvaz	30,000	Majid Bagherinia
Etka	Gorgan	Karim Abad	15,000	Saket Elhami[6]
Foolad Yazd	Yazd	Nassiri	6,000	Ali Kalantari[7]
Gol Gohar	Sirjan	Imam Ali	2,000	Ghasem Shahba
Gostaresh Foolad	Tabriz	Bagh Shomal	20,000	Rasoul Khatibi
Hafari Ahvaz	Ahvaz	Takhti Ahvaz	30,000	Nasser Motlagh
Iranjavan	Bushehr	Shahid Beheshti	15,000	Ahmad Sanjari
Machine Sazi	Tabriz	Bagh Shomal	20,000	Asghar E'tebari
Mes Rafsanjan	Rafsanjan	Shohadaye Noushabad	10,000	Bahman Foroutan
Mes Sarcheshmeh	Sarcheshmeh	Shahid Bahonar	12,000	Davoud Mahabadi[8]
Naft Masjed Soleyman	Masjed Soleyman	Takhti Ahvaz	30,000	Zoran Smilevski
Nassaji	Qa'em Shahr	Vatani	15,000	Esmaeil Esmaeili
Niroye Zamini	Tehran	Takhti Tehran	30,000	Bahman Khoda Karam[9]
PAS Hamedan	Hamedan	Qods Stadium	80,000	Omid Tayyeri
Parseh Tehran	Tehran	Kargaran Stadium	5,000	Alireza Emamifar[10]
Saipa Shomal	Qa'em Shahr	Shahid Vatani	10,000	Nader Dastneshan
Sang Ahan Bafq	Bafq	Shohada	6,000	Afshin Peyrovani
Shahin Bushehr	Bushehr	Shahid Beheshti	14,000	Ali Hanteh
Shahrdari Arak	Arak	Imam Khomeini	15,000	Mohammad Navazi
Shahrdari Bandar Abbas	Bandar Abbas	Takhti	10,000	Abdolrahim Khorramzi
Shahrdari Tabriz	Tabriz	Yadegar Emam Tabriz	50,000	Faraz Kamalvand
Shahrdari Yasuj	Yasuj	Takhti	5,000	Abbas Chamanyan
Rahian Kermanshah	Kermanshah	Azadi	7,000	Javad Zarincheh
Yadavaran Shalamcheh	Khorramshahr	Jahan Ara	2,000	Human Afazeli

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Machine Sazi	Alireza Akbarpour		November 2012	Asghar Etebari	November 2012
Pas Hamedan	Vingo Begovic		January 2013	Omid Teyri	January 2013

Standings

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Gostaresh (P)	26	14	8	4	44	25	+19	50	Promotion to 2013–14 Iran Pro League
2	Mes Sarcheshmeh (Q)	26	12	11	3	29	15	+14	47	Azadegan League 2012–13 play-off
3	Naft Masjed Soleyman	26	13	6	7	41	31	+10	45
4	Alvand Hamedan	26	12	7	7	33	23	+10	43
5	Gol Gohar	26	11	8	7	29	25	+4	41
6	Aboumoslem	26	10	8	8	39	34	+5	38
7	Sang Ahan Bafgh	26	9	7	10	37	32	+5	34
8	Nassaji Mazandaran	26	9	9	8	33	27	+6	33[a]
9	Parseh Tehran	26	6	13	7	30	30	0	31
10	Est. Ahvaz	26	7	9	10	25	34	−9	30
11	Etka Gorgan (R)	26	7	9	10	15	24	−9	30	Relegation to 2013–14 Iran Football's 2nd Division
12	Shahin Bushehr (R)	26	6	8	12	18	30	−12	26
13	Sh. Arak (R)	26	6	7	13	16	30	−14	25
14	Machine Sazi (R)	26	3	4	19	18	47	−29	13

Updated to match(es) played on 15 April 2013. Source: Varzesh3.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Nassaji Mazandaran was docked 3 points.

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Sh. Tabriz (R)	26	13	8	5	33	20	+13	47	Relegation to 2nd Division[a]
2	Est. Khuzestan (P)	26	13	7	6	24	18	+6	46	Promotion to 2013–14 Iran Pro League
3	PAS Hamedan (Q)	26	14	3	9	25	18	+7	45	Azadegan League 2012–13 play-off
4	Sh. Yasouj	26	12	6	8	31	20	+11	42
5	Rahian Kermanshah	26	10	11	5	27	19	+8	41
6	Niroye Zamini	26	12	4	10	29	27	+2	40
7	Iranjavan	26	8	13	5	27	20	+7	37
8	Sh. Bandar Abbas	26	9	10	7	29	25	+4	37
9	Saipa Shomal	26	11	4	11	22	28	−6	37
10	Foolad Yazd	26	8	7	11	28	26	+2	31
11	Mes Rafsanjan	26	7	9	10	14	21	−7	30
12	Hafari Ahvaz (R)	26	6	8	12	40	42	−2	26	Relegation to 2nd Division
13	Bargh Shiraz (R)	26	4	7	15	22	44	−22	19
14	Yadavaran Shalamcheh (R)	26	3	7	16	12	35	−23	16	Relegation to 3rd Division[b]

Updated to match(es) played on 16 April 2013. Source: Varzesh3.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Shahrdari Tabriz was relegated to the 2nd Division due to match-fixing scandal.^[11]
2. Yadavaran Shalamcheh was relegated to the 3rd Division due to match-fixing scandal.

Play-off

First leg was played on 28 May 2013; return leg on 30 May 2013

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Pas Hamedan	3–2	Mes Sarcheshmeh	2–1	1–1

Pas Hamedan advanced to the Iran Pro League play-off against Zob Ahan.

Final

The match was played on 31 May 2013

Team 1	Score	Team 2	Notes
Gostaresh	Cancelled	Esteghlal Khuzestan

Iran Pro League Playoff

The promotion/relegation playoff for 2013–14 Iran Pro League was held between Zob Ahan and Pas Hamedan.

The matches were played on 21 June 2013 and 26 June 2013

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zob Ahan	5–3	Pas Hamedan	4–2	1–1

Zob Ahan remained in Iran Pro League.

Top scorers

Group A Rank Scorer Club Goals 1 Mohammad Abbaszadeh Nassaji 18 2 Younes Shakeri Aboomoslem 11 3 Hossein Maleki Naft Masjed Soleyman 8 Farzad Mohammadi Naft Masjed Soleyman 8 4 Fakhrodin Shahroei Mes Rafsanjan, Esteghlal Ahvaz 7 Mokhtar Jomehzadeh Gol Gohar 7 Mostafa Chatrabgoon Mashin Sazi 7

Group B Rank Player Club Goals 1 Meghdad Ghobakhlou Pas Hamedan 9 Hassan Faraji-Moghadam Bargh Shiraz 9 3 Mehdi Chahkotahzadeh Iranjavan 8 Ahmad Davoodi Hafari Ahvaz 8 5 Ambuno Achille Rahian Kermanshah 7 6 Ali Yoonesi Shahrdari Tabriz 6