2012–13 Qatar Stars League

The 2012–13 Qatari League, also known as Qatari Stars League was the 40th edition of top level football championship in Qatar. The season started on 15 September 2012 and took a monthlong break from 21 December to 21 January 2013 due to the 21st Arabian Gulf Cup. Lekhwiya were the defending champions. Al-Sadd won the league for the 13th time in their history, making them the most successful team in the Qatar Stars League.

Qatar Stars League

Season	2012–13
Champions	Al-Sadd 13th title
Relegated	Al-Sailiya
AFC Champions League	Al-Sadd Lekhwiya El Jaish
Top goalscorer	Sebastián Soria (19 goals)
← 2011–12 2013–14 →

Teams

Al-Ahli were relegated to the second level league after finishing bottom in the 2011–12 Qatar Stars League campaign.

Al-Sailiya were promoted as the 2nd level champions and are back after one season away from the top flight.

Stadia and locations

Doha

Umm Salal

Al Rayyan

Al Khor

Locations of teams in the 2012–13 Qatari League

Club	City/Town	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Arabi	Doha	Grand Hamad Stadium	13,000
Al-Gharafa	Al Gharrafa	Thani bin Jassim Stadium	22,000
Al-Kharaitiyat	Al Kharaitiyat	Al-Khor SC Stadium	12,000
Al-Khor	Al Khor	Al-Khor SC Stadium	12,000
Al-Rayyan	Al Rayyan	Ahmad bin Ali Stadium	22,000
Al-Sadd	Doha	Jassim bin Hamad Stadium	10,000
Al-Sailiya	Al Sailiya	Ahmad bin Ali Stadium 1	22,000
Al-Wakrah	Al Wakrah	Al Janoub Stadium	12,000
El Jaish	Duhail	Suheim bin Hamad Stadium	12,000
Lekhwiya	Doha	Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium	10,000
Qatar SC	Doha	Suheim bin Hamad Stadium	12,000
Umm Salal	Umm Salal	Grand Hamad Stadium	13,000

¹ Al-Sailiya do not have a stadium of their own so they share with Al-Rayyan.^[1]

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	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Al-Arabi	Abdelaziz Bennij	Masoud Zeraei	Adidas	QPM
Al-Gharafa	Habib Sadegh	Alex	Erreà	Vodafone
Al-Kharaitiyat	Bernard Simondi	Nabeel Anwar	BURRDA	Al-Khuratiyat Co.
Al-Khor	László Bölöni	Mustafa Jalal	Adidas	Qatar Airways
Al-Rayyan	Diego Aguirre	Fábio César	Adidas	Rayan Co.
Al-Sadd	Hussein Ammouta	Abdulla Koni	BURRDA	Vodafone
Al-Sailiya	Abdullah Mubarak	Abdulla Darwish	Nike	Qatar Islamic Bank
Al-Wakrah	Mehmed Baždarević	Ali Rehema	Nike	Opel
El Jaish	Răzvan Lucescu	Karim Ziani	Nike	Masrat Rayan Archived 2012-11-15 at the Wayback Machine
Lekhwiya	Eric Gerets	Dame Traoré	BURRDA	Masrat Rayan Archived 2012-11-15 at the Wayback Machine
Qatar SC	Sebastião Lazaroni	Hussain Al-Romaihi	Adidas	QatarEnergy
Umm Salal	Bertrand Marchand	Sasa Ognenovski	Nike	Global Sports

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
El Jaish	Péricles Chamusca	Contract expired [2]	9 May 2012	Răzvan Lucescu[3]	9 May 2012
Al-Sadd	Jorge Fossati	Contract expired	19 May 2012	Hussein Ammouta[4]	1 June 2012
Al-Khor	Alain Perrin	Signed by Qatar U-23[5]	21 May 2012	László Bölöni [6]	21 June 2012
Al-Wakrah	Adnan Dirjal	Resigned [7]	23 May 2012	Mehmed Baždarević	23 May 2012
Umm Salal	Gérard Gili	Contract expired	20 June 2012	Bertrand Marchand[8]	27 June 2012
Qatar SC	Saïd Chiba	Contract expired	8 July 2012	Sebastião Lazaroni[9]	9 July 2012
Al-Kharaitiyat	Laurent Banide	Contract expired	20 July 2012	Bernard Simondi[10]	23 July 2012
Al-Arabi	Pierre Lechantre	Sacked [11]	30 September 2012	Hassan Shehata[12]	11 October 2012
Lekhwiya	Djamel Belmadi	Resigned	8 October 2012	Eric Gerets[13]	8 October 2012
Al-Sailiya	Uli Stielike	Sacked	8 October 2012	Maher Kanzari[14]	8 October 2012
Al-Gharafa	Paulo Silas	Sacked	27 November 2012	Habib Sadegh[15]	27 November 2012
Al-Arabi	Hassan Shehata	Sacked [16]	6 December 2012	Abdelaziz Bennij	6 December 2012
Al-Gharafa	Habib Sadegh	Temp mandate over	20 December 2012	Alain Perrin[17]	20 December 2012
Al-Sailiya	Maher Kanzari	Resigned[18]	31 January 2013	Abdullah Mubarak	31 January 2013
Al-Gharafa	Alain Perrin	Resigned[19]	21 February 2013	Habib Sadegh	21 February 2013

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	AFC player	Former players
Al-Arabi	Boualem Khoukhi	Wanderley	Houssine Kharja	Youssouf Hadji	Đorđe Rakić	Matthew Spiranovic	Baré
Al-Gharafa	Afonso Alves	Alex	Nenê	Djibril Cissé		Harry Kewell	Mark Bresciano Diego Tardelli Đorđe Rakić
Al-Kharaitiyat	Domingos	Yahia Kébé	Dioko Kaluyituka	Vivien Assie	Fábio Paím	Andranik Teymourian	Jaycee John
Al-Khor	Bruno Mineiro	Júlio César	Madson	Ali Hasan Kamal		Salam Shaker	Hassan Abdel-Fattah Pa-Modou Kah
Al-Rayyan	Nathan	Nilmar	Rodrigo Tabata	Álvaro Fernández		Cho Yong-hyung
Al-Sadd	Nadir Belhadj	Younis Mahmoud	Raúl			Lee Jung-soo	Mamadou Niang
Al-Sailiya	Keninha Goiano	Marcelo Tavares	Moumouni Dagano	Grégory Gomis	Babou Sidiki	Kim Kee-hee	Aruna Dindane Khaled Korbi
Al-Wakrah	Pierre-Alain Frau	Pejman Khoubiari	Anouar Diba	Nabil Daoudi	Khaled Korbi	Ali Rehema	Younis Mahmoud Reimond Manco
El Jaish	Karim Ziani	Adriano	Anderson Martins	Ivanildo	Mohammad Mothnani	Go Seul-ki	Ahmed Hadid Al-Mukhaini
Lekhwiya	Madjid Bougherra	Luiz Júnior	Dame Traoré	Issiar Dia	Youssef Msakni	Nam Tae-hee	Mourad Meghni Marcelo Tavares Simon Dia Idrissa Coulibaly
Qatar SC	Marcinho	Bakari Koné	Youssef Safri			Hadi Aghily	Qusay Munir
Umm Salal	Caboré	Ismaël Bangoura	Otmane El Assas	Saïd Boutahar		Sasa Ognenovski	Mamadou Traoré

League expansion

At the end of the season it was announced that the 2013–14 season would feature 14 teams. The decision to increase the numbers of teams means Al Sailiya – who finished bottom of the league – will avoid relegation. Meanwhile, Muaither – who lost to Al Arabi in the play-offs – will join as the 14th team.

The Second Division and the reserve league will also merge to create a stronger second tier.^[20]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al Sadd (C)	22	16	3	3	47	23	+24	51	2014 AFC Champions League Group stage
2	Lekhwiya	22	14	4	4	42	22	+20	46	2014 AFC Champions League Qualifying play-off
3	El Jaish	22	13	1	8	25	23	+2	40
4	Al Rayyan	22	11	4	7	49	37	+12	37	2014 AFC Champions League Group stage
5	Umm Salal	22	9	4	9	30	37	−7	31
6	Al Gharafa	22	8	6	8	26	28	−2	30
7	Al Khor	22	7	8	7	26	24	+2	29
8	Qatar SC	22	7	5	10	31	34	−3	26
9	Al Wakra	22	7	5	10	27	31	−4	26
10	Al Kharitiyath	22	4	8	10	21	27	−6	20
11	Al-Arabi	22	3	8	11	25	40	−15	17	Promotion/relegation playoff
12	Al Sailiya (R)	22	3	4	15	29	52	−23	13	Relegation

Updated to match(es) played on 18 April 2013. Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Relegation playoff

18 April 2013

18:45 (UTC+03:00)

Al-Arabi	2–1	Al-Mu'aidar
Spiranovic 23' Al Oraimi 82'	Report Summary	Laitoula 44' (pen.)

Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha

Fixtures and results

Home \ Away	ARA	GHA	KHA	KHO	RAY	SAD	SAI	WAK	JAI	LEK	QSC	UMM
Al-Arabi		1–1	1–1	1–1		4–2	3–0	2–1	0–1	1–3	0–2	0–1
Al Gharafa	1–1		3–1	2–1	2–1	0–1	3–0	3–1	2–0	1–1		1–1
Al Kharitiyath	4–0	0–0		0–0	1–2	0–0		1–1	1–2	0–1	0–2	1–1
Al Khor	1–0	2–0	1–0		0–0	1–1	1–1		2–0	1–2	2–2
Al Rayyan	0–0	5–1	2–2	1–3		1–4	1–4	0–2		3–1	2–1	3–1
Al Sadd	2–1	1–0		2–1	1–4		3–0	2–1	3–1		2–1	2–0
Al Sailiya	2–2		2–3	1–1	3–7	1–4		0–3	1–2	1–2	1–3	2–3
Al Wakra		2–0	1–0	0–1	1–3	1–3	3–2		0–1	0–4	0–0	2–0
El Jaish	3–0	2–0	0–2	3–2	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–1		1–2		0–2
Lekhwiya	4–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	3–0	0–3	2–0	2–2	0–1		2–0
Qatar SC	1–1	0–1	2–1	4–2	1–3	2–5	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–2		3–2
Umm Salal	3–1	2–2	1–1	2–1	0–5	0–1	2–1	3–2	0–1	1–3	3–1

Updated to match(es) played on 26 January 2013. Source: Qatar Football Association
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

As of 18 April 2013^[21]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sebastián Soria	Lekhwiya	19
2	Nilmar	Al-Rayyan	14
3	Moumouni Dagano	Al-Sailiya	13
4	Younis Mahmoud	Al-Sadd	10
	Júlio César	Al-Khor	10
	Khalfan Ibrahim	Al-Sadd	10
	Rodrigo Tabata	Al-Rayyan	10
5	Diego Tardelli	Al-Gharafa	9
	Mohammed Razak	Qatar SC	9
	Raúl	Al-Sadd	9