In August 2018, Tractor Sazi, an Iranian club from the city of Tabriz, went to Tehran to
play local giants Esteghal at the Azadi national stadium. In the stand
behind the goal, a few thousand Tractor fans with red shirts
sang: ‘Death to the dictator! Death to the dictator!’.
The chant echoes themes heard during the protests & demonstrations against the regime that took
part in Iran in 2018, which were instructed by a worsening
economic crisis in the country. The song is heard frequently
during Tractor’s games with Esteghal in the Persian Gulf Pro League and is directed
at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader & current
ruler, since 1989. During the game, the police responded with
force, beating and arresting fans until the signing stopped. Tractor
lost 3-0, but the chants continued regardless and the Iranian broadcaster televising the
game felt compelled to lower the volume of their pitch-side microphones.
It’s part of turbulent atmosphere which surrounds Tractor Sazi, one of the most fascinating
clubs in the Middle East, during their most hectic season ever.
In 1970, the Iranian governmental tractor company in Tabriz decided to establish a football
team for the factory workers and the city's residents. The venture
was aimed at strengthening the connection between the
company, the state and the area’s inhabitants. Tabriz is in northwestern Iran, close to the
border with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Around 1.7 million people
live in the city, which is a melting pot of Azerbaijani-Turks, Shiite Muslims, as well
as Armenian-Christian Kurds and Bahai's minorities.
The spoken language in the province, unlike the rest of the country, is Azerbaijani. The
language has fallen from relevance in the rest of Iran and is
practically banned in written form and in schools, but in the Yadegare
Emam’ stands, Azerbaijani is almost the sole language spoken.
So, while the local masses feel underrepresented on a national & cultural level, Tractor has
become a symbol of Azeri identity. According to the last census,
there are over 16 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran, while
only 8 million are living in Azerbaijan itself. Tractor are also highly popular in Azerbaijan
and parts of Turkey as well and, as a result of its unique cultural
identity, also performs a strong representative role. The Tabrizians, in a way, are a sort
of ‘outsiders in Persian’ society, especially for those who live in
capital Tehran, and this isn’t confined to football.What started
as a leisure pursuit for the residents and the factories’ workers in Tabriz, has become
a powerful brand over the years.
The club’s official fan club has over 500,000 members and alongside the popular football
team, the club competes in futsal, basketball, volleyball,
taekwondo, baseball and is planning to enter the E-Sports market
soon. Still, the Kırmızı Kurtlar - or Red Wolves
- have never been part of Persian football’s elite. In the club’s early
years, Tractor mainly struggled in the Iranian second division. Back then, Iran was autocratic,
monarchy-led & a pro-western country, and under the reign
of the Shah - Mohamed Reza Pahlavi. It was the pre-revolution times, and it was
a different country to the one it is today. Then, in 1979, the famous
revolution took over the country, and Iran changed dramatically. By the end of the 1970s
and after a gradual decline in power of the Shah regime
and the Iranian public’s growing frustration with economic crisis
and the repeated interference of foreign countries in Iran, the structure of the country was
on the verge of collapse.
A coalition of religious and business leaders, liberals and left-wing activists, all guided
by the ideology of Ayatollah Khomeini, at the time in exile in
France, began to inspire high profile protests and demonstrations,
targeting the Shah regime as corrupt, avaricious and being under the control of western powers.
The protest movement grew extensively and eventually resulted in the overthrow of Pahlavi.
A new religious rule grew in its place, with Khomeini becoming
the Supreme Leader of a new Islamic Republic. The national football league was suspended
for many years after, returning only in 1987, and in its place the
provincial game remained in the years between. Tractor would spend those years bouncing between
divisions, but since 2001, when the Persian Pro League
was launched, they have been a constant member of the
top-flight. Still, winning the Persian Hafzi Cup remains their only major honour in 48
years of existence and, although they have been a regular participant
in the Asian Champions League in recent years, they’ve struggled
to achieve any significant results. And yet Tractor are a still a vast club in
Iran. and almost all of their home game played at Yadegar-e Emam
Stadium are in front of 66,000 capacity crowd. The club’s main rivals are from Tehran:
Esteghal and Persepolis, the reigning champions. Every time Tractor
arrive in Tehran to play, they’re supported by tens of thousands of fans drawn not just
from the Azeri community in the city but from all over Iran. In addition
to being a meeting between Azerbaijanis and Persians,
the fixture pits a sizeable minority seeking recognition in a country against those who
control it. It is the Tabrizis versus the Tehranis.
In 2018, the club was bought by Mohammed Reza Zonouzi, a local billionaire who owns ATA
Airlines, Bank of Saman, Bank of Gardeshgari and the Bonyan
Diesel factory, among others. According to a 2011 report,
his fortune was estimated at $4 billion and, given the scarcity of billionaires in Iranian
football, his takeover of Tractor had a dramatic effect.
The began to make statements almost immediately. John Toshack was appointed as head-coach.
While better known in European for his time at Sporting
Lisbon, Real Sociedad and Real Madrid, Toshack has spent
much of the last decade off the beaten track, coaching in Macedonia and Morocco. Most recently,
he spent two seasons with Wydad Casablanca, prior to
which he won the Azeri Super Cup in 2013 with Khazar
Lankaran in Azerbaijan. It initially made him a good fit for Zonouzi’s
Tractor project, particularly given his ability to attract players
from Europe to Tabriz. Harry Forrester, a former Aston Villa academy graduate, has already
made a brief stop in Iran, while Anthony Stokes, who had
great success with Glasgow Celtic in the Scottish Premiership,
is still at the club, scoring an average of over a goal every two games.
Zonouzi is investing wisely, seeking to grow his club’s global appeal. Yukiya Sugita,
a diminutive, tricky Japanese attacking-midfield who had previously
played in Spain and Sweden, signed for an undisclosed fee
on a three-year contract. Sugita is not a member of the Japanese national team, but
his transfer still made Tractor Sazi one of the hottest trends on
Japanese Television in the days after. At the beginning of August 2018, Tractor then
sent further tremors through Iranian football. Masoud Shojaei
and Ashkan Dejagah, both stars of the national side, signed from AEK Athens and Nottingham
Forest respectively. The photo of Zonouzi posing with his two new
signings immediately went viral on Iranian social media.
Lee Erwin, a Scottish striker from Kilmarnock, also joined, and another famous Iranian, Ehsan
Haj Safi, who has over 100 caps for the country, moved home
from Greek Super League side Olympiakos. Like ‘galacticos’ projects of the past,
Tractor initially struggled with the quick influx of so many new players.
Their current season did not start well, beginning with a modest two wins from six games and,
disappointingly, in a penalty shoot-out elimination from the
Hafzi Cup. Zonouzi responded by sacking Toshack. Forrester,
who arrived in poor condition shape, played just two games before being shipped out on
loan to their city rivals, Machine Sazi. It did not have
the desired effect and, upon the expiration of the loan, Forrester was
released from his contract and allowed to move to a minor club in the United States.
In January 2019, to replace Toshack, Zonouzi hooked the big name coach he wanted: the Belgian,
Georges Leekens. Leekens has a rich past with Middle
Eastern clubs & North African national teams has now landed
in Iran. But that wasn’t the extent of the January incomings. In one of the biggest transfers
Persian football had ever known, former AC Milan defender Kevin
Constant also became a Tractor player, signing from
Swiss Super Club FC Sion. In total, Tractor signed 21 new players ahead
of the 2018/19 season and for a cumulative cost of nearly $8
million. On the one hand, of course, Zonouzi’s impact and the sanctioned spending has delighted
the Tractor fans. On the other, however, with the effect
of the US sanctions, inflation escalating in Iran and the currency
plummeting, the club’s ambition has not been received well. Particularly as the contracts
of the foreign players, and those of Shojaei and Dejagah, are paid
in dollars, meaning that - in effect - the currency leaves the
footballing economy rather than helping to sustain it.
It’s investment which is paying off, though. Despite their bad start, Tractor were fourth
by the middle of March, having scored the second-most goals
in the Persian Pro League. At the beginning of February, they
hosted Esteghlal at the Yadegar-e Emam, winning courtesy of a Dejagah goal in front of 85,000
fans. The images of the day were striking, with journalists
and drones capturing the kind of passion for football which
isn’t readily associated with Iranian football. The future looks bright for Tractor and a
title this season isn’t beyond the realm of possibility.Whatever this
year’s outcome, though, Tractor Sazi is no longer just an Iranian team with a funny
name and an unusual logo. Instead, with their financial ambition
and recognisable players, they are now one of the most inspiring
clubs in the Middle East.