2011–12 UAE Pro League

The 2011–12 UAE Pro League season (known as Etisalat Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 37th top-level football season in the UAE, and the fourth Professional season.

UAE Pro League

Season	2011–12
Champions	Al Ain 10th title
Relegated	Emirates Sharjah
Champions League	Al Ain Al Jazira Al Nasr Al Shabab
Matches played	132
Goals scored	449 (3.4 per match)
Top goalscorer	Asamoah Gyan (22)
Biggest home win	Al Jazira 5–0 Sharjah
Biggest away win	Emirates 1–5 Al Shabab Al Wasl 2–6 Al Ahli Al Jazira 1–5 Al Nasr
Highest scoring	Sharjah 4–5 Al Nasr (9 goals)
Highest attendance	21,455 Al Jazira 1–3 Al Ain
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

Al Jazira were the defending champions, having won their 1st Pro League title in the 2010–11 campaign after being runner-up for three times in a row. Al Dhafra and Ittihad Kalba were relegated from the previous season. Ajman Club and Emirates Club were promoted from the UAE Division 1 Group A.^[1] The campaign began on 15 October 2011^[2] and ended on 27 May 2012.

Teams

Ittihad Kalba and Al Dhafra were relegated to the 2011–12 UAE Division 1 Group A after finishing in the bottom two spots of the table at the end of the 2010–11 season. The two relegated teams were replaced by 2nd level champions Ajman Club and runners up Emirates Club.^[1]

Stadia and locations

Dubai

Ajman

Abu Dhabi

Al Ain

Sharjah

Ras al-Khaimah

Locations of teams in the 2011–12 UAE Pro-League

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Ajman	Ajman	Ajman Stadium	10,000
Al Ahli	Dubai	Rashid Stadium	18,000
Al Ain	Al Ain	Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium	15,000
Al Jazira	Abu Dhabi	Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium	42,056
Al Nasr	Dubai	Al Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Al Shabab	Dubai	Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Al Wahda	Abu Dhabi	Al Nahyan Stadium	12,000
Al Wasl	Dubai	Zabeel Stadium	12,000
Baniyas	Abu Dhabi	Baniyas Stadium	9,570
Dubai	Dubai	Police Officers' Club Stadium	6,500
Emirates	Ras al-Khaimah	Emirates Club Stadium	5,000
Sharjah	Sharjah	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	18,000

Personnel

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

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Captain
Ajman	Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi III	Abdul Wahab Abdul Qader	Mohamed Zahran
Al Ahli	Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum	Quique Sánchez Flores	Mohammed Qassim
Al Ain	Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Cosmin Olăroiu	Rami Yaslam
Al Jazira	Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Caio Júnior	Lucas Neill
Al Nasr	Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid	Walter Zenga	Abdallah Mousa
Al Shabab	Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum	Paulo Bonamigo	Hassan Al Sharif
Al Wahda	Saeed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Josef Hickersberger	Fahed Masoud
Al Wasl	Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum	Diego Maradona	Khalid Darwish
Baniyas	Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Gabriel Calderón	Fawzi Bashir
Dubai	Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Maktoum	Ayman El Ramady	Jamal Abdullah
Emirates	Ahmed bin Saqr al-Qassimi	Ghazi Ghrairi	Karim Kerkar
Sharjah	Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani	Abdulmajeed Al Nimr	Nawaf Mubarak

Managerial changes

Managerial changes during the 2011–12 campaign.

Pre-season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Replaced by
Al Wasl	Khalifa Mubarak	Caretaker role ended[3]	Diego Maradona
Al Jazira	Abel Braga	Contract finished	Franky Vercauteren[4]
Al Ain	Alexandre Gallo	Contract finished[5]	Cosmin Olăroiu
Baniyas	Mahdi Ali[6]	Caretaker role ended	Jorvan Vieira
Al Ahli	Abdulhameed Al Mishtiki	Caretaker role ended[7]	Ivan Hašek[8]
Sharjah	Carlos Azenha	Resigned before season started[9]	Valeriu Tiţa[10]

During the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Replaced by
Dubai	Néstor Clausen	Resigned	Umberto Barberis
Dubai	Umberto Barberis	Caretaker role ended	Ion Marin[11]
Baniyas	Jorvan Vieira	Sacked	Salem Al-Orfi
Al Ahli	Ivan Hašek	Sacked	Quique Sánchez Flores
Baniyas	Salem Al-Orfi	Sacked	Gabriel Calderón[12]
Dubai	Ion Marin	Sacked [13]	Pierre-André Schürmann
Dubai	Pierre-André Schürmann	Caretaker role ended	Ayman El Ramady
Sharjah	Valeriu Tiţa	Sacked[14]	Jorvan Vieira
Sharjah	Jorvan Vieira	Sacked[15]	Valeriu Tiţa
Al Jazira	Franky Vercauteren	Sacked[16]	Caio Júnior
Sharjah	Valeriu Tiţa	Sacked[17]	Abdulmajeed Al Nimr

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per AGL team.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC player	Former players
Ajman	Karim Kerkar	Boris Kabi	Olivier Tia	Hassan Maatouk	Ibrahima Touré
Al-Ahli	Grafite	Achille Emaná	Luis Jiménez	Youssef Mohamad	Jajá
Al-Ain	Ignacio Scocco	Asamoah Gyan	Mirel Rădoi	Yasser Al-Qahtani
Al-Jazira	Matías Delgado	Baré	Ricardo Oliveira	Lucas Neill
Al-Nasr	Léo Lima	Luca Toni	Amara Diané	Mark Bresciano	Careca Ismaël Bangoura
Al-Shabab	Ciel	Kieza	Carlos Villanueva	Azizbek Haydarov	Júlio César
Sharjah	Edinho	Marcelinho	Lee Sang-ho	Timur Kapadze	Vandinho Iman Mobali Igor Đurić
Al-Wahda	Fernando Baiano	Hugo	Magrão	Mohammed Al-Balushi
Al-Wasl	Mariano Donda	Juan Mercier	Juan Manuel Olivera	Mohammad Reza Khalatbari	Edson Puch Richard Porta 1
Baniyas	Ismaël Bouzid	André Senghor	Francisco Yeste	Fawzi Bashir	David Trezeguet Antonin Koutouan
Dubai	Nicolas Marin	Aboubacar Camara	Simon Feindouno	Abbas Ahmad Atwi	Faouzi Aaish Ulugbek Bakayev
Emirates	Modibo Kane Diarra	Mohsine Moutouali	Alexander Geynrikh	Jasur Hasanov	Alhassane Keita Pejman Nouri Orok Akarandut

• ^1 Richard Porta has Australian citizenship and was counted as an Asian player.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al Ain (C)	22	17	4	1	52	16	+36	55	2013 AFC Champions League Group stage
2	Al Nasr	22	11	8	3	49	33	+16	41	2013 AFC Champions League Qualifying play-off
3	Al Shabab	22	10	8	4	39	27	+12	38
4	Al Jazira	22	11	2	9	47	38	+9	35	2013 AFC Champions League Group stage[a]
5	Al Ahli	22	10	4	8	45	42	+3	34
6	Al Wahda	22	8	9	5	32	30	+2	33
7	Ajman	22	9	4	9	36	35	+1	31
8	Al Wasl	22	7	5	10	32	40	−8	26
9	Baniyas	22	6	6	10	34	39	−5	24	2012–13 GCC Champions League
10	Dubai	22	5	5	12	29	40	−11	20
11	Emirates (R)	22	5	2	15	28	56	−28	17	Promotion/relegation Stage
12	Sharjah (R)	22	2	5	15	26	53	−27	11

Updated to match(es) played on 27 May 2012. Source: Standings
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Al Jazira secured qualification for the 2013 AFC Champions League through winning the 2011–12 UAE President's Cup

Results

Home \ Away	AJM	ALI	AIN	JAZ	NAS	SHA	WAH	WAS	YAS	DUB	EMI	SHR
Ajman		0–1	1–4	3–4	1–2	0–1	3–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–1
Al Ahli	2–0		0–2	2–1	3–3	2–3	2–2	1–2	6–4	5–2	2–0	2–2
Al Ain	4–0	1–0		2–0	2–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	2–1	4–0	2–1
Al Jazira	1–0	4–0	1–3		1–5	2–0	4–2	1–0	3–1	0–2	4–1	5–0
Al Nasr	1–1	4–0	2–0	2–2		2–1	0–1	1–1	2–1	0–1	5–3	3–2
Al Shabab	4–4	2–0	1–1	3–2	2–2		2–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	5–1
Al Wahda	1–0	3–3	2–2	3–2	1–1	0–0		2–1	2–1	1–1	2–2	1–0
Al Wasl	2–4	2–6	2–2	0–1	2–2	2–2	0–2		1–0	1–2	4–1	3–0
Baniyas	1–2	1–3	2–2	2–1	2–2	0–1	2–2	1–2		2–0	4–1	2–2
Dubai	1–3	1–2	0–2	2–4	1–2	1–1	0–0	5–2	1–2		2–4	3–0
Emirates	1–3	2–1	1–4	3–2	1–3	1–5	2–1	1–2	0–2	2–1		1–2
Sharjah	1–3	1–2	1–4	2–2	4–5	1–0	1–2	1–2	1–2	1–1	1–1

Updated to match(es) played on 11 May 2012. Source: UFL
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Goalscorers

22 goals

• Asamoah Gyan (Al Ain)

16 goals

• Grafite (Al Ahli)
• André Senghor (Baniyas)

14 goals

• Ricardo Oliveira (Al Jazira)

13 goals

• Luis Jiménez (Al Ahli)
• Juan Manuel Olivera (Al Wasl)

11 goals

• Ciel (Al Shabab)

10 goals

• Mark Bresciano (Al Nasr)
• Baré (Al Jazira)
• Edinho (Sharjah)
• Marcelinho (Sharjah)
• Modibo Kane Diarra (Emirates)

Source: official site:^[18]

See also

• List of United Arab Emirates football transfers summer 2011
• 2011–12 UAE President's Cup
• 2011–12 Etisalat Emirates Cup