Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com
There is something special happening in the football mad city of Tabriz. The city's first top league team years has become the rallying cry for the football fans who for years had been left out of the national spotlight.
Tabriz is in the Azeri speaking region of Azerbaijan. The Azeri population is by far the largest ethnic minority in the country and a very influential at that. However, like most ethnic minorities they feel overlooked by the central government that ironically has many Azeris within its ranks.
Tractor Sazi FC of Tabriz was founded in 1970 and along with city rivals Mashin Sazi FC that had been founded only one year earlier the two clubs became the pride of the city's football fans.
Tractor Makers were promoted to the Iranian top league this year and have not disappointed their adoring fans since. The fans in return have been coming out of the woodwork to support their club. They travel en masse in support of their team. Their numbers have even exceeded home fans on many occasions. Earlier this month when they visited Tehran's Azadi stadium to play Perspolis FC, their numbers were so large that at some point they were in good humor welcoming Perspolis fans as they were coming to the stadium.
The Tractor Makers are sitting in the middle of the table at the end of week 15, and every sign there is suggests that they will remain in top flight at the end of the season.
English
فارسی
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 am
Hi Afshin, it is interesting how much support this Traktorsazi team has in Tabriz. These supporters give a positive look to this season’s of IPL, and represent a serious challenge to the supporters of the rest of the teams in the league includig Esteghlal and Perspolis.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 am
Is the first word on that red banner “daam daari”? hen heh heh!
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
It is “dAgh lAri” I think “dAgh lAr” means “The mountains”.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
OK, I now have it! The banner means “Tractor removes mountains”
November 6th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
yeah of course Tracor have over millions fan in Iran, but yet some peoples couldn’t accept this fact, for many times most of this club fans wants to have their live play from TV but not accepted yet, because of tractor is represent of Azerbaijan In Iran a place that Persian speaking peoples could not see that.
do an body have information about Tractor fans in outside of Iran?
November 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Hi Mahan jAn,
Thank you for your comment.
I think Azerbaijan deserves to have at least one or two representatives in the Iranian top league, because of the great football base that Azerbaijani football enjoys. I am very happy to see Tractor in the top league now and I think they will stay at the top. Tabriz has a great stadium. One that meets FIFA standards, the fans are great, and the football talent pool is very deep.
I hope that Tractor’s presence will inspire other clubs from other cities in Azerbaijan and we will have one or two more teams get promoted.
Regarding the live broadcasting, do not start me! For the life of me I do not understand why they can not show the local teams’ games on local TV channels. It is simply stupid. The fans of each region deserve to see their teams play on TV. It is good for the fans, it is good for football, and it is even good for TV. I just do NOT understand why they do not do it.