2008–09 Persian Gulf Cup

The 2008–09 Persian Gulf Cup (also known as Iran Pro League) was the 26th season of Iran's Football League and eighth season of Iran Pro League since its establishment in 2001. Persepolis were the defending champions. The season featured 15 teams from the 2007–08 Persian Gulf Cup and two new teams promoted from the 2007–08 Azadegan League: Payam Mashhad as champions and Foolad. Damash replaced Pegah. The league started on 4 August 2008 and ended on 26 April 2009. Esteghlal won the Pro League title for the second time in their history (total seventh Iranian title).

Persian Gulf Cup

Season	2008–09
Champions	Esteghlal 2nd Pro League title 7th Iranian title
Relegated	Payam Damash Bargh Shiraz
Champions League	Esteghlal Zob Ahan Mes Kerman Sepahan
Matches played	306
Goals scored	777 (2.54 per match)
Top goalscorer	Arash Borhani (21 goals)
Biggest home win	Esteghlal 6–0 Est. Ahvaz (18 September 2008)
Biggest away win	Rah Ahan 1–5 Esteghlal (4 February 2009)
Highest scoring	Zob Ahan 6–3 Saipa (3 October 2008)
Longest winning run	6 matches Mes Kerman
Longest unbeaten run	13 matches Mes Kerman
Longest winless run	27 matches Bargh Shiraz
Longest losing run	3 matches Bargh Shiraz
Highest attendance	90,000 Persepolis – Damash (25 September 2008) Persepolis – Esteghlal (3 October 2008) Esteghlal – Persepolis (13 February 2009)
Lowest attendance	0 (spectator ban) Persepolis – PAS Hamedan (9 August 2008)
Total attendance	2,731,000
Average attendance	8,954
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Teams

Team	City	Venue	Capacity	Head coach	Team captain	Past Season
Aboomoslem	Mashhad	Samen	35,000	Ali Hanteh	Saeed Khani	4th
Bargh Shiraz	Shiraz	Hafezieh	20,000	Rasoul Korbekandi	Sattar Zare	7th
Damash Gilan	Rasht	Sardar Jangal	15,000	Stanko Poklepović	Mohammad Reza Mahdavi	15th
Est. Ahvaz	Ahvaz	Takhti Ahvaz	30,000	Khodadad Azizi	Afshin Komaei	8th
Esteghlal	Tehran	Azadi	90,000	Amir Ghalenoei	Farhad Majidi	13th
Foolad	Ahvaz	Takhti Ahvaz	15,000	Majid Jalali	Ali Badavi	Qualifier
Malavan	Anzali	Takhti Anzali	8,000	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh	Masoud Gholamalizad	16th
Mes Kerman	Kerman	Shahid Bahonar	15,000	Parviz Mazloomi	Farzad Hosseinkhani	10th
Moghavemat	Shiraz	Hafezieh	20,000	Gholam Hossein Peyrovani	Mostafa Sabri	14th
Pas Hamedan	Hamedan	Ghods	5,000	Vinko Begovic	Omid Khouraj	5th
Paykan	Qazvin	Shahid Rajaei	5,000	Ali Asghar Modir Roosta	Mohammad Reza Tahmasebi	9th
Payam	Mashhad	Samen	35,000	Kazem Ghiyasiyan	Mehdi Hasheminasab	Qualifier
Persepolis	Tehran	Azadi	90,000	Nelo Vingada	Karim Bagheri	Champion
Rah Ahan	Rey, Iran	Rah Ahan	15,000	Mehdi Tartar	Ahmad Taghavi	12th
Saba Qom	Qom	Yadegar Emam	15,000	Firouz Karimi	Yahya Golmohammadi	3rd
Saipa	Karaj	Enghelab Karaj	15,000	Mohammad Mayeli Kohan	Ebrahim Sadeghi	11th
Sepahan	Esfahan	Foolad Shahr	25,000	Farhad Kazemi	Moharram Navidkia	2nd
Zob Ahan	Esfahan	Foolad Shahr	25,000	Mansour Ebrahimzadeh	Mohammad Salsali	6th

• In October 2008 Pegah Gilan terminated their sports activities due to financial problems. Damash Iranian (Damash Mineral Water Company) owned by Amir Abedini took over their license. New club named Damash Gilan.

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

Team	Name	Nationality
Aboomoslem	Hadi Bargizar
Damash Gilan	Bijan Zolfagharnasab
Rah Ahan	Davoud Mahabadi
Saipa	Pierre Littbarski
Sepahan	Engin Firat
Persepolis	Afshin Ghotbi
Payam	Khodadad Azizi
Aboomoslem	Amir Hossein Peyrovani
Sepahan	Hossein Charkhabi
Damash Gilan	Hossein Abdi
Bargh Shiraz	Mohammad Abbasi
Payam	Abbas Chamanyan
Persepolis	Afshin Peyrovani
Est. Ahvaz	Akbar Misaghian
Bargh Shiraz	Farshad Pious
Payam	Majid Hosseinipour
Rah Ahan	Mahmoud Yavari
Paykan	Ali Asghar Modir Roosta
Aboomoslem	Ali Hanteh

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Former Players
Aboomoslem	Jean Black Ngody	Daniel Olerum	Abdou Moumouni	Franck Atsou	Jassim Ghulam Fuad Salihović
Bargh Shiraz	Alen Avdić	William Teixera			Martín Barlocco
Damash Gilan	Adriano Alves	Ivan Dragičević
Esteghlal Ahvaz	Ahmed Kadhim	Mohammed Nasser	Marjan Belčev		Haitham Khadim Taher
Esteghlal	Januário	Rinaldo Cruzado			Fabrício Ceará
Foolad
Malavan	Alen Bašić	Felipe Alves
Mes Kerman	Edinho	Paulo Zaltron	Sékou Fofana
Moghavemat
PAS Hamedan	Shakhboz Erkinov				Mario Garba
Paykan	Christian Carvalho
Payam	Diego	Shpejtim Arifi
Persepolis	Wésley Brasilia	Ibrahima Touré	Ivan Petrović		Paulão
Rah Ahan	Álvaro Pintos				Hamlet Mkhitaryan César Pellegrín
Saba Qom	Almir Tolja
Saipa	Alou Traoré	Issa Traoré
Sepahan	Jacques Elong Elong	Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail	Emad Mohammed	Armando Sá
Zob Ahan	Igor Castro	Iman Shirazi	Bajram Nebihi	Issa Ndoye	Haider Obeid

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Esteghlal (C)	34	19	9	6	70	34	+36	66	Qualification for the 2010 AFC Champions League
2	Zob Ahan	34	19	9	6	58	42	+16	66
3	Mes	34	17	10	7	54	36	+18	61
4	Sepahan	34	14	14	6	46	34	+12	56
5	Persepolis	34	15	10	9	50	41	+9	55
6	Saba	34	12	17	5	49	36	+13	53
7	Foolad	34	13	11	10	50	41	+9	50
8	Paykan	34	13	8	13	43	42	+1	47
9	Fajr	34	11	11	12	33	37	−4	44
10	Saipa	34	10	12	12	43	50	−7	42
11	Rah Ahan	34	11	8	15	35	41	−6	41
12	Pas Hamedan	34	10	10	14	40	47	−7	40
13	Malavan	34	9	13	12	31	43	−12	40
14	Est. Ahvaz	34	11	6	17	37	54	−17	39
15	Aboumoslem	34	8	11	15	34	41	−7	35
16	Payam (R)	34	9	8	17	33	52	−19	35	Relegation to the 2009–10 Azadegan League
17	Damash (R)	34	6	13	15	40	56	−16	31
18	Bargh (R)	34	5	9	20	35	54	−19	24

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

Champions
Esteghlal F.C.

Results table

Last updated April 26, 2009

Home \ Away	ABU	BGH	EST	ESA	MLV	MES	PAS	PAY	PYM	DMG	PRS	RAH	SAB	SAP	SEP	FOL	MVT	ZOB
Aboumoslem		1–1	0–2	0–1	2–2	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	3–2	4–3	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	1–2	1–2	4–0
Bargh Shiraz	2–2		1–4	0–3	3–0	4–1	2–0	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–2
Esteghlal	2–0	1–1		6–0	3–0	2–1	1–0	3–2	5–0	4–2	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	5–2	2–0
Est. Ahvaz	1–3	1–0	0–3		3–0	1–0	0–0	2–3	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	3–1	1–3	0–1	1–1	0–2
Malavan	0–0	1–0	2–2	1–0		1–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–2	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–1
Mes Kerman	3–1	2–1	1–0	4–0	1–0		2–0	4–0	3–3	1–0	1–1	2–1	3–1	1–1	2–1	3–2	2–0	2–2
PAS Hamedan	2–1	1–0	2–4	5–1	0–0	1–1		2–0	1–0	3–3	0–3	1–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–2
Paykan	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	3–1	1–1	1–0		2–0	2–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	2–2	1–2
Payam Mashhad	1–0	1–2	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–2	1–4	1–1		3–2	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–3	2–2	1–2	0–1	1–3
Damash	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–4	1–2	2–2	1–0	1–0	1–1		1–2	2–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	2–1
Persepolis	1–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	3–1	2–1	1–0	2–0		2–0	2–2	1–1	3–2	1–0	1–2	2–2
Rah Ahan	3–0	3–0	1–5	2–2	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–4	0–0	1–0	1–2		1–1	1–2	0–1	2–1	0–0	0–1
Saba Qom	1–0	2–2	3–1	2–0	3–0	1–3	3–1	1–1	0–0	2–2	2–0	1–1		2–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–0
Saipa	0–0	2–2	0–2	3–2	2–1	1–1	1–3	0–1	1–2	4–1	0–1	1–0	2–4		1–1	3–2	0–2	1–0
Sepahan	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	2–2	2–4	3–2	1–1	0–0	2–0	2–0	2–0		2–0	0–0	1–2
Foolad	0–0	3–1	0–0	0–2	0–1	2–2	5–1	2–2	3–0	3–0	3–2	2–3	2–2	1–1	2–2		0–1	4–1
Moghavemat	0–0	0–1	4–1	1–0	2–2	2–0	0–1	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–3	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–1		0–2
Zob Ahan	0–3	2–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	2–1	3–1	1–0	2–2	6–3	2–1	2–2	3–1

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

Player statistics

Top scorers

Arash Borhani

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Arash Borhani[2][3][4][5][6][7]	Esteghlal	20
2	Shpejtim Arifi	Payam	18
3	Igor Castro	Zob Ahan	16
4	Afshin Chavoshi	Damash Gilan	15
5	Fereydoon Fazli	Saba Qom	14
	Emad Mohammed	Sepahan
6	Siavash Akbarpour	Esteghlal	12
	Adriano Alvez	Damash Gilan
	Davoud Haghi	Rah Ahan
8	Maysam Baou	Aboomoslem	11
	Faraz Fatemi	Mes Kerman
	Iman Haydari	Paykan
	Jalal Rafkhaei	Malavan
	Ibrahima Touré	Persepolis
11	Farid Abedi	Bargh Shiraz	10
	Edinho	Mes Kerman
	Mohammad Reza Khalatbari	Zob Ahan
	Amin Motevaselzadeh	Moghavemat Sepasi
	Issa Traoré	Saipa
20	5 players		9
25	6 players		8
31	2 players		7
33	8 players		6
41	18 players		5
58	23 players		4
81	18 players		3
99	26 players		2
125	95 players		1
Own goals			0
Total goals			777

Last updated: 11 April 2009
Source: Iplstats.com

Cards

Player				Team
Mohammad Matouri	10	0	1	Payam Mashhad
Mohammad Reza Khalatbari	10	1	0	Zob Ahan
Mohsen Arzani	8	1	0	Payam Mashhad
Alireza Jalili	9	0	0	Payam Mashhad
Morteza Bargizar	9	0	0	Payam Mashhad
Mohammad AghaMohammadi	9	0	0	Est. Ahvaz
Meysam Khosravi	9	0	0	Paykan
Adriano Alvez	9	0	0	Damash Gilan
Mohsen Bengar	7	1	0	Sepahan
Omid Khouraj	5	1	2	PAS Hamedan
Hanif Omranzadeh	7	1	0	PAS Hamedan
Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht	7	0	1	Persepolis
Maziar Zare	8	0	0	Persepolis

Matches played

33

• Morteza Ebrahimi (Mes)
• Vahid Taleblou (Esteghlal)

Sponsorship

• Referee's Sponsor: GERAD
• Referee's Supplier: Merooj

Team Shirt manufacturers

Team	Kit Manufacturer
Esteghlal	Uhlsport
Persepolis
Rah Ahan
Sepahan
Aboomoslem	Merooj
Esteghlal Ahvaz
Foolad
Mes Kerman
Moghavemat
Paykan
Payam
Damash Gilan
Saba
Zob Ahan
Bargh	Daei SWE
Malavan
PAS Hamedan	Nahangi
Saipa

Attendances

Average home attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Persepolis	651,000	90,000	0	40,688	−32.2%†
2	Esteghlal	615,000	90,000	10,000	36,176	+4.2%†
3	Mes Kerman	123,000	15,000	1,000	7,235	−11.5%†
4	Malavan	116,000	15,000	3,000	6,824	−35.4%†
5	Bargh Shiraz	115,000	20,000	1,000	6,765	+29.2%†
6	Foolad	109,000	20,000	2,000	6,412	n/a†
7	Payam	103,000	40,000	1,000	6,059	n/a†
8	Sepahan	98,000	15,000	2,000	5,765	−8.1%†
9	Aboumoslem	90,000	35,000	1,000	5,294	−23.7%†
10	Saipa	89,000	50,000	1,000	5,235	−37.8%†
11	Moghavemat	86,000	20,000	1,000	5,059	+17.8%†
12	Est. Ahvaz	85,000	20,000	1,000	5,000	−37.0%†
12	Saba Qom	85,000	15,000	1,000	5,000	−32.5%†
14	Zob Ahan	84,000	15,000	2,000	4,941	+55.6%†
14	Rah Ahan	84,000	40,000	1,000	4,941	+86.7%†
16	Paykan	68,000	12,000	1,000	4,000	+6.2%†
17	Damash	67,000	15,000	1,000	3,941	n/a†
18	PAS Hamedan	63,000	12,000	1,000	3,706	−45.7%†
	League total	2,731,000	90,000	0	8,954	−20.3%†

Updated to games played on 26 April 2009
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
Paykan moved from Tehran to Qazvin
Saba Battery moved from Tehran to Qom
Damash replaced Pegah

Highest attendances

Rank	Home team	Score	Away team	Attendance	Date	Week	Stadium
1	Persepolis	2–0	Damash	90,000	25 September 2008 (2008-09-25)	8	Azadi
	Persepolis	1–1	Esteghlal	90,000	3 October 2008 (2008-10-03)	9	Azadi
	Esteghlal	1–1	Persepolis	90,000	13 February 2009 (2009-02-13)	26	Azadi
4	Persepolis	0–1	Mes Kerman	60,000	11 September 2008 (2008-09-11)	6	Azadi
	Persepolis	3–2	Sepahan	60,000	26 October 2008 (2008-10-26)	12	Azadi
	Persepolis	1–1	Saipa	60,000	9 December 2008 (2008-12-09)	18	Azadi
	Esteghlal	2–1	Saba Qom	60,000	23 January 2009 (2009-01-23)	23	Azadi
8	Persepolis	3–1	Bargh Shiraz	55,000	22 October 2008 (2008-10-22)	11	Azadi
9	Saipa	1–1	Persepolis	50,000	4 August 2008 (2008-08-04)	1	Azadi
	Esteghlal	2–1	Rah Ahan	50,000	27 September 2008 (2008-09-27)	8	Azadi

Notes:
Updated to games played on 26 April 2009. Source: iplstats.com

See also

• 2008–09 Azadegan League
• 2008–09 Iran Football's 2nd Division
• 2008–09 Iran Football's 3rd Division
• 2008–09 Hazfi Cup
• Iranian Super Cup
• 2008–09 Iranian Futsal Super League