Ittihad Tanger

IR Tanger was set up by a fusion of a several clubs. Among these were Renaissance de Tanger ('Reborn of Tangier') and other clubs who were playing at the second Moroccan league divisions at the time. The fusion resulted in the a prominent club which stands out in Tangier, especially in the football field, without significant rivalries (Widad Juventud is another sports club operating in Tangier but with less public attention, alongside Maghreb Aqsa Club the oldest existing club participating in the third Division and the amateur section).

The IR team back in the late 1980s and 1990s

In the early 90s, IR Tangier was one of the most dominating clubs in the Botola delivering some quality football,However, the team could not capitalise, they failed to win any trophies although they came close in the 1989/90 season when they finished as runners up. The notorious 89' season in considered by many to be their best ever as the team piled up victory after another crushing most of the Botola's heavyweights at that time, infamously beating Casablanca's Raja 3 to 1 and Maghreb de Fes 3 to nil. Moving on to the later 90s, the Ittihad failed to achieve anything besides maintaining itself in the Botola pro ( known as Botola 1 at the time ). They ended up getting relegated twice before the dawn of the new millennium, finishing rock bottom on respectively both 95/96 and 97/98 seasons.

The 00/01 season would witness a new Ittihad Tangier, under new management and technical supervision, Coach "Omar Raiss" joined the club on July 2000 and managed to transform the club, The Ittihad's attack became more efficient scoring more than 50 goals that season while its defense was the strongest in the GNF2. These efforts were crowned with a well-deserved promotion , the overall results looked comforting and the Ittihad's future seemed bright.

The post-promotion era, however, didn't turn out as glorious as it seemed would. a load of technical and staff changes influenced the team's results, and throughout the early 2000s, the only notable achievement was a Throne cup semi-final in the 05/06 season, under governance of Abdelhadi Sektioui, the following season would the Ittihad's last in the Botola, starting what the fans refer to as the "dark ages" of the Ittihad in the 2nd division, an era that lasted 8 long years during which the Ittihad constantly faced risks of dissolution due to administrative mistakes and financial crises, and every time would be rescued by fans and the faithful ultras group. In parallel, the results were as poor as ever, the team would almost always finish middle or bottom table, never able to go past the cup's the round of 32, and even a prevented historical relegation to the 3rd division (Houate) in the 12/13 season. It seemed obvious that Tangerian football was suffering and the ultras group mobilized fans throughout the now-metropolis, requesting new management and a complete renovation of the club via protests and marches. These efforts would later on yield many achievements, after setting up a new directive committee, the club nearly made it back to the Botola on the 13/14 season, and with a series of transfers and the arrival of Coach Mohamed Amine Benhachem, the team cruised through the 14/15 season, losing only twice and finishing first by a 5 point lead. The performances made that season were phenomenal and attracted the attention of the entire Moroccan football scene as everyone welcomed the mighty blues back where they belonged.

In 2015–16 the team made a comeback to the Botola Pro after 8 years in the 2nd division, the club contracted with many local and foreign players where they made a great show under the spotlight of the Botola with promising results, finishing 3rd on their first season back from promotion and therefore qualifying to an African competition for the first time in the history of the club.

IR Tangiers team in 2015–16 Season

League and cup

Season	League									Top goalscorer		Moroccan Cup
	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Name	League
2013–14	2nd	3rd	30	12	12	6	33	21	48	Ahmed Hammoudan	12	Round of 32
2014–15	2nd	1st	30	13	15	2	22	11	54	Badr Zaki Nacer	4	Round of 32
2015–16	1st	3rd	30	14	8	8	36	23	50	Hervé Guy	7	Quarter-finals
2016–17	1st	5th	30	12	9	9	33	25	45	Ahmed Hammoudan	6	Semi-finals
2017–18	1st	1st	30	14	10	6	34	23	52	Mehdi Naghmi	13	Round of 16
2018–19	1st	5th	30	9	13	8	27	30	40	Mehdi Naghmi	9	Round of 16

African competitions

Year	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate	Q
2017	CAF Confederation Cup	PR	AS Douanes	1–0	2–1	3–1
		1R	AS Kaloum	3–0	0–1	3–1
		PO	Horoya AC	3–2	0–2	3–4
2018–19	CAF Champions League	PR	Elect-Sport FC	1–0	0–0	1–0
		1R	JS Saoura	1–0	0–2	1–2
2018–19	CAF Confederation Cup	PO	Zamalek SC	0–0	1–3	1–3

Notes

• PR: Preliminary round
• 1R: First round
• PO: Play-off round

Arab competitions

Year	Competition	Round	Opponent	Score	Position	Q
2019–20	Arab Club Champions Cup	PR	Riffa SC	0–2	2nd
			Al-Zawraa SC	3–0
			Horseed FC	6–1

Notes

• PR: Preliminary round

The official crest was planned by the founders and decided in a democratic process. It shows the full name of the Club and the year of foundation, but different sport departments of the club replace the year with the icon of the sport. The Blue lining is in honour of the north region. The icon on the right is the symbol of Tangier.

The official home shirts are similar to the crest, colored blue and white. IRT's traditional away colors change every season but are usually based on light blue with a sponsor's logo on the top. The shirts are made by King Sports and Joma. However, the club signed a sponsorship deal with local sportswear manufacturer Bang sport once it got promoted to the first division.

The football Club hosted the home matches in the government built Stadium of Marchan of 15,000 seats. In 2011 the club moved to a new international stadium with a capacity of 45,000 (and a potential for a maximum of 75,000 seats) called Ibn Batouta Stadium. This stadium is planned to host the 2012 African Cup U21, the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and some matches of the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup. The old grounds of Marchan Stadium hosted several historical moments like the match between IR Tangier VS Wydad Casablanca in the 1989–90 season for the first place of Botola and an amical match in Ibn Batouta Stadium with Atlético Madrid.

In 2015 and 2016 the grand stadium of Batouta had his record attendance estimated over than 50,000. the stadium is notorious throughout Morocco and all over the Arab world for the masses of supporters that show up each game ( an average of 35,000 per game). which makes the club's finances rely mainly on ticket income.

• Botola

Winners: 2017–18

• Botola 2

Winners (2): 2000–01, 2014–15

The club has an ultras group Ultras Hercules, who were founded in 2007, there was actually an older ultra called Ultras Tanger founded in 2003, but there is no remaining of this group since it was extended to form Ultras Hercules, even though there are still a few existing groups on Facebook, Skyblog and Blogger mainly.

The rivalry's moreover relative to their neighbour club of Tetouan which its characterises with an extensive match, we distinguish other big rivalries as Wydad, Raja and KAC supporters.

• Gloria
• Renault
• Moroccan Airports Authority
• APM Terminals
• Tanger-Med
• STG telecom

• Jorvan Vieira (1984–86)
• Aziz El Amri (1996–97; 2001–02)
• Rachid Taoussi (2004)
• Raoul Savoy (2006)
• Abdelhak Benchikha (2015–2017)
• Ezzaki Badou (2017)
• Driss El Mrabet (2017–2018)
• Ahmad Al-Ajlani (2018)
• Nabil Neghiz (2019)

• Media related to IR Tanger at Wikimedia Commons