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In Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz, a football club with industrial roots has grown into one of the most passionately supported teams in Asia — and the most widely followed by Turkish-speaking fans worldwide.
Tractor Sazi Football Club, commonly known as Tractor SC, was founded in 1970 as the team of a local tractor manufacturing plant. Today, it boasts an estimated 35 million supporters, most of them Azerbaijani Turks from Iran and the global Turkish-speaking diaspora.
The club competes in Iran’s Persian Gulf Pro League, and in 2025, it made headlines by winning its first-ever national championship — a landmark moment for a team long associated with cultural pride and regional identity.
Tractor’s popularity is not just regional. In 2021, the club was voted Asia’s Most Popular Football Club by fans in a week-long poll conducted by the Asian Football Confederation’s official website. Out of nearly 1.5 million votes cast, Tractor SC received 51.14 percent, finishing first after a series of domestic polls and four regional finals. This recognition highlighted the club’s broad appeal across the continent.
Tractor’s core fanbase is concentrated in Iran’s East and West Azerbaijan provinces, where ethnic Turks form a significant portion of the population.
The club’s supporters view it not only as a football team but also as a rare public platform for Turkish language, heritage, and visibility in a country where Persian is the official language and ethnic minority rights are a subject of ongoing debate.
The club’s matches at the Yadegar-e-Imam Stadium in Tabriz regularly draw tens of thousands. Though its official capacity is around 68,000, local sources say actual attendance often exceeds this number, with thousands gathering outside when tickets sell out.
Tractor fans often chant in Turkish, display banners featuring slogans like “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk,” and wave flags associated with Turkic identity. While these expressions are cultural, not political in form, they have sometimes sparked tensions with authorities or rival fans.
Observers often compare Tractor’s role in Iran to that of FC Barcelona in Spain — a club whose sporting success and strong regional following also intersect with a distinct linguistic and cultural identity. In Tractor’s case, that identity belongs to Iran’s Azerbaijani Turks, who are estimated to number between 15 and 25 million within the country.
The club’s cultural symbolism has attracted international attention. Tractor matches are closely followed not just in Iran, but also in Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and across Europe by members of the Turkish-speaking diaspora.
Over the years, Tractor has worked with a number of notable coaches, including Türkiye’s Mustafa Denizli and Ertugrul Saglam. Its current squad features a mix of Iranian and foreign players, including international names like Alireza Beiranvand, Shoja Khalilzadeh, and Ricardo Alves.
Despite political sensitivities around cultural expression in Iran, Tractor has managed to maintain its role as both a competitive football club and a cultural symbol. The team’s success in the 2024–25 season — culminating in their first league title — has only strengthened that status.
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