2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League

Persian Gulf Pro League
Season	2020–21
Dates	6 November 2020 – 30 July 2021
Champions	Persepolis; 7th Pro League title; 14th Iranian title
Relegated	Machine Sazi; Saipa
Champions League	Sepahan; Foolad
Matches played	240
Goals scored	476 (1.98 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sajjad Shahbazzadeh; (20 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Hamed Lak ; (17 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Sepahan 5–1 Mes; (16 May 2021)
Biggest away win	Aluminium Arak 1–6 Sepahan; (6 March 2021)
Highest scoring	Aluminium Arak 1–6 Sepahan; (6 March 2021)
Longest winning run	Persepolis . Sepahan; (6 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Persepolis; (20 matches)
Longest winless run	Machine Sazi; (14 matches)
Longest losing run	Naft Masjed Soleyman . Aluminium Arak; (5 matches)
Total attendance	0
	← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League (formerly known as Iran Pro League) were the 38th season of Iran's Football League and 20th as Persian Gulf Pro League since its establishment in 2001. Persepolis were the defending champions. The season featured 14 teams from the 2019–20 Persian Gulf Pro League and two new teams promoted from the 2019–20 Azadegan League: Mes Rafsanjan and Aluminium Arak.^[1]^[2]

The 2020–21 season started on 6 November 2020 and was ended on 30 July 2021.^[3] Persepolis won their record-extending 5th consecutive title and 14th title overall (7th in the Pro League era)

Teams

Stadia and locations

Esteghlal
Paykan
Persepolis
Saipa

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Locations of clubs in 2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Aluminium Arak	Arak	Imam Khomeini	15,000
Esteghlal	Tehran	Azadi	78,116
Foolad	Ahvaz	Foolad Arena	30,655
Gol Gohar Sirjan	Sirjan	Imam Ali Qasem Soleimani	8,000 9,000^[4]
Machine Sazi	Tabriz	Qasem Soleimani	12,000
Mes Rafsanjan	Rafsanjan	Shohadaye Mes	2,000^[5]
Naft Masjed Soleyman	Masjed Soleyman	Behnam Mohammadi	8,000
Nassaji Mazandaran	Qaem Shahr	Vatani	15,000
Paykan	Shahr-e Qods	Shahr-e Qods	25,000
Persepolis	Tehran	Azadi	78,116
Saipa	Tehran	Dastgerdi	8,250
Sanat Naft	Abadan	Takhti Abadan	10,000^[6]
Sepahan	Isfahan	Naghsh-e-Jahan	75,000
Padideh	Mashhad	Imam Reza	27,700
Tractor	Tabriz	Yadegar-e Emam	66,833
Zob Ahan	Fooladshahr	Fooladshahr	15,000

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain
Aluminium Arak	Alireza Mansourian	Meysam Majidi
Esteghlal	Farhad Majidi	Voria Ghafouri
Foolad	Javad Nekounam	Ayoub Vali
Gol Gohar	Amir Ghalenoei	Mehran Golzari
Machine Sazi	Alireza Akbarpour	Habib Gordani
Mes Rafsanjan	Mohammad Rabiei	Hamed Noormohammadi
Naft MIS	Mahmoud Fekri	Abbas Asgari
Nassaji	Saket Elhami	Hamed Shiri
Paykan	Mehdi Tartar	Ali Hamoudi
Persepolis	Yahya Golmohammadi	Jalal Hosseini
Saipa	Faraz Kamalvand	Sadegh Barani
Sanat Naft	Sirous Pourmousavi	Hossein Baghlani
Sepahan	Moharram Navidkia	Ehsan Hajsafi
Shahr Khodro	Mehdi Rahmati	Reza Nasehi
Tractor	Firouz Karimi	Mohammad Reza Akhbari
Zob Ahan	Mojtaba Hosseini	Ghasem Haddadifar

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Sepahan	Miguel Teixeira	End of Caretaker Spell	10 August 2020	Pre-season	Moharram Navidkia	5 September 2020
Machine Sazi	Human Afazeli	Resigned	18 August 2020		Vahid Bayatloo	26 August 2020
Naft MIS	Mehdi Tartar	Resigned	13 August 2020		Mojtaba Hosseini	16 August 2020
Zob Ahan	Luka Bonačić	Sacked	15 August 2020		Rahman Rezaei	4 September 2020
Shahr Khodro	Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh		30 August 2020		Mehdi Rahmati	31 August 2020
Gol Gohar Sirjan	Majid Jalali		3 September 2020		Amir Ghalenoei	3 September 2020
Esteghlal	Farhad Majidi	Resigned	5 September 2020		Mahmoud Fekri	7 October 2020
Tractor	Saket Elhami	Resigned	5 September 2020		Alireza Mansourian	17 September 2020
Sanat Naft	Behnam Seraj	Sacked	22 September 2020		Sirous Pourmousavi	22 September 2020
Nassaji	Mahmoud Fekri	Signed with Esteghlal	6 October 2020		Vahid Fazeli	8 October 2020
Paykan	Abdollah Veisi	Resigned	30 October 2020		Mehdi Tartar	4 November 2020

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per Persian Gulf Pro League team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team can use four foreign players on the field in each game, including at least one player from the AFC country.
In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Former Player
Aluminium Arak
Esteghlal	Hrvoje Milić	Cheick Diabaté
Foolad	Chimba	Moussa Coulibaly	Ayanda Patosi
Gol Gohar	Godwin Mensha
Machine Sazi
Mes Rafsanjan
Naft MIS
Nassaji
Paykan
Persepolis	Božidar Radošević			Bashar Resan
Saipa
Sanat Naft
Sepahan	Kiros	Giorgi Gvelesiani
Shahr Khodro
Tractor				Okacha Hamzaoui
Zob Ahan	Darko Bjedov	Ivan Marković

League table

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Persepolis^[a] (C)	30	19	10	1	47	14	+33	67
2	Sepahan	30	19	8	3	53	24	+29	65	Qualification for 2022 AFC Champions League group stage
3	Esteghlal^[a]	30	16	8	6	36	19	+17	56
4	Tractor	30	12	9	9	35	29	+6	45
5	Gol Gohar	30	13	6	11	33	32	+1	45
6	Foolad	30	10	14	6	27	18	+9	44	Qualification for 2022 AFC Champions League group stage^[b]
7	Paykan	30	9	13	8	32	30	+2	40
8	Mes Rafsanjan	30	10	9	11	23	29	−6	39
9	Padideh	30	10	8	12	27	31	−4	38
10	Sanat Naft	30	9	10	11	24	29	−5	37
11	Aluminium Arak	30	8	13	9	25	33	−8	37
12	Nassaji Mazandaran	30	9	6	15	27	34	−7	33
13	Naft Masjed Soleyman	30	7	10	13	21	29	−8	31
14	Zob Ahan	30	5	11	14	28	39	−11	26
15	Saipa (R)	30	5	11	14	19	34	−15	26	Relegation to 2021–22 Azadegan League
16	Machine Sazi (R)	30	2	8	20	19	52	−33	14	Relegation to 2021–22 Azadegan League

Updated to match(es) played on 30 July 2021. Source: IPL Table, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.^[7]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Persepolis and Esteghlal did not obtain an AFC license. Therefore, even if they earn the right to play in Asian competitions based on league position, they will not be able to participate.
^ Foolad qualified to AFC Champions League by winning the Hazfi Cup

Results

Home \ Away	ALU	EST	FOL	GOL	MST	MES	MIS	NSJ	PAY	PRS	SAP	SNA	SEP	SHK	TRC	ZOB
Aluminium Arak	—	0–0	0–0	0–0	4–1	0–0	0–1	0–3	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–0	1–6	1–0	1–3	2–2
Esteghlal	2–0	—	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	1–2	2–0	2–1	0–2
Foolad	0–0	2–1	—	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	3–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–0
Gol Gohar	2–1	1–2	1–1	—	3–1	0–0	0–0	2–2	1–2	0–5	1–0	1–0	3–1	3–1	1–2	1–0
Machine Sazi	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	—	3–0	0–1	0–2	0–5	0–5	2–2	1–0	3–3	1–1	0–1	1–1
Mes Rafsanjan	0–1	1–1	2–1	0–2	1–0	—	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–2	2–1	0–1	3–1
Naft MIS	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	—	0–2	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–2	3–1	3–1	1–1	2–3
Nassaji	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	2–3
Paykan	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	2–2	2–3	1–1	2–1	—	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–0
Persepolis	2–0	1–0	2–1	3–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	—	1–0	1–0	0–0	3–0	3–1	1–1
Saipa	1–0	0–2	2–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–2	0–0	—	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–2	2–1
Sanat Naft	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	—	1–2	0–0	2–1	1–0
Sepahan	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	5–1	0–0	4–0	2–1	1–1	1–1	4–1	—	1–3	2–0	2–0
Shahr Khodro	2–2	0–2	0–0	1–0	3–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	—	2–1	1–1
Tractor	0–1	1–3	0–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	3–1	0–1	5–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	—	1–0
Zob Ahan	1–1	0–0	2–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–3	0–2	1–2	—

Updated to match(es) played on 30 July 2021. Source: IPL Stats, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Team ╲ Round
Persepolis	9	4	6	2	2	4	4	6	2	2	2	3	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sepahan	13	9	3	6	10	6	5	2	3	4	4	2	4	3	2	2	2	1	1	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Esteghlal	4	6	2	5	4	1	2	4	1	1	1	1	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Tractor	11	11	13	10	12	8	3	7	7	5	5	5	6	7	7	6	5	5	5	6	7	7	7	7	5	8	5	4	6	4
Gol Gohar	3	1	1	1	1	5	1	1	5	8	9	10	8	8	9	9	8	8	8	4	4	4	4	6	7	4	6	5	4	5
Foolad	6	3	4	7	7	3	7	5	6	7	7	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	6	6	5	6	7	4	6	5	6
Paykan	12	7	9	9	5	7	10	10	8	6	6	8	11	11	11	10	11	11	11	11	9	11	11	11	10	9	9	7	7	7
Mes Rafsanjan	14	16	16	16	15	14	13	14	14	14	12	12	12	9	8	8	7	7	7	8	8	9	9	12	12	11	11	11	10	8
Shahr Khodro	2	5	8	11	8	10	14	13	12	9	13	13	9	12	12	12	10	10	10	10	11	8	8	8	8	5	7	8	8	9
Sanat Naft	5	8	10	4	6	2	6	3	4	3	3	4	3	4	5	7	6	6	6	7	10	12	12	9	9	10	10	10	11	10
Aluminium Arak	15	15	15	14	13	12	8	9	10	11	11	11	7	6	6	5	9	9	9	9	6	5	5	4	4	6	8	9	9	11
Nassaji	1	2	7	3	3	9	11	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	14	14	13	13	12	12	12
Naft MIS	10	13	12	13	11	13	9	8	9	10	8	7	10	10	10	11	12	12	12	12	12	10	10	10	11	12	12	13	13	13
Zob Ahan	7	10	11	12	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	14	14
Saipa	8	12	5	8	9	11	12	11	11	12	10	9	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	15	13	13	13	13	15	15	15	15	15
Machine Sazi	16	14	14	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

	Leader : 2022 AFC Champions League Group stage
	2022 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off round
	Relegation to 2021-22 Azadegan League

Updated to match(es) played on 30 July 2021. Source: IPL Table

Season statistics

As of 31 July 2021

Top scorers

Sajjad Shahbazzadeh 20 goals in the Persian Gulf Pro League.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sajjad Shahbazzadeh	Sepahan	20
2	Godwin Mensha	Gol Gohar	14
3	Mohammad Abbaszadeh	Tractor	12
4	Amin Ghaseminejad	Padideh	11
5	Hamed Pakdel	Aluminium Arak	10
5	Ahmad Nourollahi	Persepolis	10
7	Mehdi Abdi	Persepolis	9
7	Taleb Reykani	Sanat Naft	9
9	Younes Shakeri	Gol Gohar	8
10	Sasan Hosseini	Naft MIS	7
10	Amir Arsalan Motahari	Esteghlal	7

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Godwin Mensha	Gol Gohar	Shahr Khodro	3–1 (H)	18 December 2020
Peyman Babaei	Machine Sazi	Sepahan	3–3 (H)	29 December 2020
Younes Shakeri	Gol Gohar	Machine Sazi	3–1 (H)	5 April 2021

Clean sheets

Hamed Lak won the Persian Gulf Pro League Golden Glove after keeping 17 clean sheets for Persepolis.

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Hamed Lak	Persepolis	17
2	Payam Niazmand	Sepahan	14
3	Hossein Pour Hamidi	Aluminium Arak	11
4	Rashid Mazaheri	Esteghlal	10
5	Mohsen Forouzan	Foolad	9
6	Mohammad Reza Akhbari	Tractor	8
7	Hossein Akbar Monadi	Saipa	6
	Milad Farahani	Padideh
	Alireza Haghighi	Gol Gohar
	Farhad Kermanshahi	Naft Masjed Soleyman
	Davoud Noushi Soufiani	Mes Rafsanjan

References

^ "Aluminium Arak secure promotion to IPL". 2020-08-17. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
^ "Mes Rafsanjan promoted to Iran Professional League". 2020-08-02. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
^ "2020/21 IPL to kick off as scheduled: official". 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
^ "بلیت بازی گل‌گهر پرسپولیس تمام شد!".
^ "جزئیات فروش بلیط بازی مس رفسنجان-استقلال تهران". 21 May 2022.
^ "10 درصد ورزشگاه آبادان در اختیار استقلالی‌ها".
^ "Persian Gulf Pro League/2020-21". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 7 November 2020.

[table_note_PRS0.048077066917008-7] Persepolis and Esteghlal did not obtain an AFC license. Therefore, even if they earn the right to play in Asian competitions based on league position, they will not be able to participate.

[table_note_res_RUEL0.048077066917008-8] Foolad qualified to AFC Champions League by winning the Hazfi Cup

[1] "Aluminium Arak secure promotion to IPL". 2020-08-17. Retrieved 2020-09-01.

[2] "Mes Rafsanjan promoted to Iran Professional League". 2020-08-02. Retrieved 2020-09-01.

[3] "2020/21 IPL to kick off as scheduled: official". 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2020-11-06.

[4] "بلیت بازی گل‌گهر پرسپولیس تمام شد!".

[5] "جزئیات فروش بلیط بازی مس رفسنجان-استقلال تهران". 21 May 2022.

[6] "10 درصد ورزشگاه آبادان در اختیار استقلالی‌ها".

[9] "Persian Gulf Pro League/2020-21". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 7 November 2020.

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