History of The Persian Gulf Pro League

Founded in 1970 and fully established in 2001, the Persian Gulf League Pro is the primary competition for Iran's leading football clubs.

This was after one of its clubs, the Persepolis FC, won the country's debut title and cast the region's football prowess in the limelight. Since 2006, Persepolis and Stephan FC have been the most outstanding clubs in the league.

At the commencement of the tournament, about 14 football clubs were running for the league title. 50+ years later, the league boasts 18 clubs.

The matches for these teams are fixed such that each team plays against each other twice, with one fixture at home and another match away.

Major Milestones

Persepolis remains the league's defending champions for the 4th time, having won 13 titles so far. By 2018, two teams, Shahin Bushehr and Gol Gohar Sirjan, had been promoted from the Azadegan League, bringing the total number of the tournament's clubs to 14 that year.

Between August 2019 to August 2020, Pars Jonoubi and Shahin Bushehr had been relegated back to Azadegan League. The Persian Gulf Pro League has played a total of 240 matches since its inception and scored about 503 goals, estimated at 2.1 per match.

Performance

Checki Diabate remains the league's top goalscorer with a total of 15 goals to his name, while Payan Niazmand raises the league's flag as the best overall goalkeeper with 15 clean sheets.
Between November and December 2020, the league reached its best home win in a match between Esteghlal and Sanat Naft that came to a 5-0 for Esteghlal and Sephan 5-0 against Shahin Bushehr.

The league's biggest away win happened in October 2019 when Shahin played against Champions League titleholder Persepolis in a 5-0 win against Shahin.

The team recorded 17 longest goalless matches, 6 losing matches played by Shahin Bushehr FC. The Persian Gulf Pro League are very protective of their homegrown potential and only retain four foreign players per game.

Stringent Policies

Usually, the award for the first three teams with the best performance and the Hazfi Cup winner is a promotion to the lucrative Asian Championship League. The three least performers receive relegation to the Azadegan League for the next season.

The tournament has banned foreign goalkeepers from its fixtures. It was not until 2011 that clubs were permitted to sign sponsorship contracts.

However, the league has since shelved off some of its restrictions, allowing more foreign players and gaining considerable media coverage. The league has also attracted a large international fan base. Most UK based fans participate in online sports betting on popular sites like bingo sites on bestUK.

There are several state-of-the-art stadiums in Iran, but the Azade stadium located in Tehran, which hosts the local Esteghlal club, has a capacity of over 100,000 spectators, making it the largest sports facility in the region.

Effects of the Pandemic

The covid 19 pandemic brought major disruptions across different industries, and the sports sector was not spared either. As is the case with most tournaments, the Persian Gulf Pro League suspended its fixtures for March-June 2020 to adhere to the WHO guidelines for curbing the covid 19 pandemic.