Football Club Abu Muslim (, Bashgah-e Futbal-e Abumislâm-e Xorasan), commonly known as Abu Muslim, was an Iranian football club based in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan. The club was founded in 1970 and is named after Abbasid-era Persian general Abu Muslim, who led the Abbasid Revolution that toppled the Umayyad dynasty.Encyclopedia.com "c.728–755, Persian leader of the Abbasid revolution."
The football team played its home games at the Samen Stadium which has a seating capacity of 27,000. The club is owned and supported by Mohammad Reza Abbasi.
Abu Muslim won four League 2 trophies, three Khorasan League titles, and one final participation in the Hazfi Cup. Abu Muslim holds a long-standing enmity with provincial rivals Payam Khorasan known as the Mashhad derby.
History
Establishment In 1970 a group of football players from Mashhad decided to create a new football team by the name of Abu Muslim. After defeat in the tournament, it was decided that for Khorasan to have a powerful football team, Abu Muslim and Aria must merge. Three brothers helped to merge the clubs, and Abu Muslim was able to make it to the 1975 Takht Jamshid Cup, which was the top football league in Iran before the Iranian revolution. The team originally only wore black, but red was added late on. Success was short lived and the team was relegated the next season, staying in the 2nd division until the revolution.
Post Revolution Like most sporting clubs in Iran, the revolution and the Iran–Iraq War severely limited the team's activities. From 1980 to 1984 the club participated in almost no meaningful competitions. This changed when in late 1984 local and provincial leagues were set up. In the late 1980s, Shahdiran Inc. sponsored the team. After the war the local and provincial leagues were scrapped in favor of nationwide leagues.
Abu Muslim made it to the newly established Azadegan League and participated during the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons, but was relegated after only two years. Once relegated the club struggled dramatically, being relegated all the way to the third division, which was a local league. Shahdiran stopped sponsoring the team and was replaced by soft drink company, Khoshgovar. After several seasons in the lower leagues, Abu Muslim finally made it back to the top level of Iranian football, gaining promotion to the Azadegan League during the 1997–98 season. Abu Muslim had been in a poor financial situation that season, as Khoshgovar had stopped being its sponsor. Abu Muslim's only revenue came from advertisements and support from club fans, but surprisingly won promotion. Abu Muslim again only stayed in the league for two seasons and was relegated during the 1999–2000 season. Around the same time the club went back to its roots, once again being sponsored by the Iranian police.
Iran Pro League They were promoted again in the next season and debuted in Iran's first fully professional league, the IPL, for the 2001–02 season. They have remained in the IPL since with two 5th-place finishes being their best results. After the 2004–05 season Abu Muslim's new sponsor became Iran Khodro.
Recent In 2006 Khodadad Azizi joined the club as an advisor, after retirement from playing. Akbar Misaghian the club's manager for the past two seasons resigned after the first week of the 2006–07 season due to financial disagreements with management. In January 2007, Khodadad Azizi was named manager of Abu Muslim. He was sacked less than a year later and replaced by Parviz Mazloomi in October 2007. The club had a very difficult season which they avoided the relegation in the last week and changed three head coaches and three chairmen but their instability continued for the 2009–10 season where they finished last and got relegated. In 2014 for the first time in the club's history the team was relegated to the 2nd Division.
Bankruptcy Because of the financial problems suffered by the club, On 7 September 2014 the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports declared the bankruptcy of F.C. Abu Muslim. The new chairman Mehdi Biglari re-established the club in 2014 as Toloe Nasl e Abu Muslim Football Club. Abu Muslim restarted operations in 2016 and started competing in the fourth tier.
Logo history
Mashhad Derby
The Mashhad derby also known as the Khorasan derby is a football local derby match between F.C. Abu Muslim and Payam Khorasan. Nowadays it has lost its status to more popular derbies such as Esfahan derby, Ahvaz derby and Shiraz derby.
Stadium The club currently plays in Samen Stadium after years of playing in Mashhad's Takhti Stadium. The club announced plans to construct their own stadium with the help of the provincial government. The land was awarded to the team during Karim Malahi's time as club chairman. Construction was planned to begin March 2007 in the Elahieh area of Mashhad.
Supporters
Fan base Abu Muslim is the most popular club from Khorasan.
Famous fans
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – Mayor of Tehran Reza Ghoochannejhad – Football player for Iran national football team and Heerenveen.
Season-by-season The table below chronicles the achievements of Abu Muslim in various competitions.
SeasonDivision League PositionHazfi CupNotes 1973–197422nd Division7thNot held1974–197522nd Division1stNot heldPromoted1975–19761Takht Jamshid Cup5th1/16 Final1976–19771Takht Jamshid Cup16th1/8 FinalRelegated1977–197822nd Division1stNot heldPromoted1978–19791Takht Jamshid CupDid not finishNot held1979–1984Not heldNot held1984–19851Mashhad Football League1stNot held1985–19861Mashhad Football League1stNot held1987–19881Khorasan Football League1st1/16 Final1988–19891Khorasan Football League2nd1/8 Final1989–19901Khorasan Football League1stDid not qualifyPromoted1990–199122nd Division1st1/8 FinalPromoted1991–19921Azadegan League12thNot held1992–19931Azadegan League8thNot heldRelegated1993–19943Khorasan Football League1stDid not qualifyPromoted1994–199522nd Division4thDid not qualify1995–199622nd Division3rdSecond round1996–199722nd Division5thSecond round1997–199822nd Division4thNot heldPromoted1998–19991Azadegan League8th1/8 Final1999–20001Azadegan League11th1/16 FinalRelegated2000–200122nd Division1st1/16 FinalPromoted2001–20021Iran Pro League5th1/8 Final2002–20031Iran Pro League12th2003–20041Iran Pro League10th1/8 Final2004–20051Iran Pro League8thFinal2005–20061Iran Pro League5th1/8 Final2006–20071Iran Pro League6th2007–20081Iran Pro League4th1/16 Final2008–20091Iran Pro League15th1/16 Final2009–20101Iran Pro League17th1/8 FinalRelegated2010–20112Azadegan League5th2nd round2011–20122Azadegan League6th1/8 Final2012–20132Azadegan League6th1/4 Final2013–20142Azadegan League12thThird roundRelegated2014–201532nd Division6thFourth round2015–201632nd Division10thFirst roundRelegated2016–201743rd Division8thRelegated2017–201843rd Division5thRelegated
Club chairmen
Heshmat Mohajerani Hadi Khayami Amir Sharifian Bagher Sayammi Jahangir Sadehdel Hamid Tayebbi Mahmoud Haj Rezapour Rahman Naderi Gholam Hossein Takaffoli Gholam Reza Basiripour Nasser Shafagh Mahdi Najami Karim Malahi (1996–06) Nasser Shafagh (2006–08) Mostafa Bani-Asad (2008–09) Hossein Ghasemi (2009–10) Esmaeil Vafaei (2010–2014) Mehdii Biglari (2014–present)
Club managers
Seyed Mehdi Qiyassi (1974) Abbas Razavi (1974) Ştefan Stănculescu (1974) Seyed Mehdi Qiyassi (1974–1986) Seyed Kazem Ghiyassian (c.early 1990s) ALI BONYADI (1995–96) Mehdi Dinvarzadeh (1996–97) Akbar Misaghian (1997–99) Farhad Kazemi (2000–01) Firouz Karimi (2001–02) Mahmoud Yavari (2002–03) Akbar Misaghian (2003–06) Mehdi Ghiasi (2006) Khodadad Azizi (2006–07) Parviz Mazloomi (2007–08) Akbar Misaghian (2008) Hadi Bargizar (2008) Amir Hossein Peyrovani (2008) Ali Hanteh (2008–09) Naser Pourmehdi (2009) Farhad Kazemi (2009–10) Nader Dastneshan (2010) Majid Namjoo-Motlagh (2010) Asghar Sadri (2010) Seyed Kazem Ghiyassian (2010–11) Ali Hanteh (2011) Seyed Kazem Ghiyassian (2011) Khodadad Azizi (2011–12) Gholam Hossein Peyrovani (2012) Hadi Bargizar (2012–13) Ali Hanteh (2013–2014) Saeed Josheshi (2014–)
Honours
Club honours League 2nd Division Champions (4): 1974–75, 1977–78, 1990–91, 2000–01 Khorasan Football League Champions (5): 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1993–94 Runners-up (1): 1988–89 Mashhad Football League Champions (2): 1984–85, 1985–86
Cup Hazfi Cup: Runners-up (1): 2004–05 AK Pipe International Cup: Champions (1): 2001
Individual honours top scorers in Iranian League
Season Player Goals1998–99 Abduljalil Golcheshmeh142001–02 Reza Enayati172006–07 Daniel Olerum17
Players As of 10 September 2013:
First-team squad
(U23) (U23) (U23) (U23) (U23) (U23) (U23)
For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers winter 2013–14.
Former players For details on former players, see :Category:Aboomoslem players.
Aboomoslem Players at major tournaments The following players were selected for their national teams for major tournaments while playing for Aboomoslem:
CupPlayers 1976 AFC Asian Cup Mehdi Asgarkhani 2000 WAFF Championship Hamid Reza Ebrahimi 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship Ershad Yousefi 2002 WAFF Championship Reza Enayati 2005 Islamic Solidarity Games Fereydoon Fazli Mojtaba Jabbari Andranik Teymourian 2006 FIFA World Cup Andranik Teymourian
References
External links
Official fan site Official Popular comments site. .