2014–15 UAE Pro League

The 2014–15 UAE Pro League, known as the Arabian Gulf League for sponsorship reasons,^[1] was the 40th top-level football season in the United Arab Emirates. Fourteen teams participated with Al Ahli as the defending champions after securing the championship last season for the first time since the 2008–09 campaign.

Arabian Gulf League

Season	2014–15
Champions	Al-Ain (12th title)
Relegated	Ajman Al-Ittihad Kalba
2016 AFC Champions League	Al-Ain Al-Jazira Al-Shabab Al-Arabi Al-Nasr
2015–16 GCC Champions League	Al-Wasl Baniyas
Matches played	182
Goals scored	562 (3.09 per match)
Average goals/game	3.09
Top goalscorer	Mirko Vučinić (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Al Ain 7–1 Ajman (13 February 2015)
Biggest away win	Fujairah 0–7 Baniyas (30 November 2014)
Highest scoring	Al Ain 7–1 Ajman (13 February 2015)
Longest winning run	Al Jazira (5 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Al Ain (12 matches)
Longest winless run	Ajman (14 matches)
Longest losing run	Kalba (9 matches)
Highest attendance	19,790 Al-Jazira vs. Al Wahda
Lowest attendance	182 Ajman vs. Emirates
Average attendance	2,529
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

The league was started on 15 September 2014 and was concluded on 15 May 2015.^[2]

Teams

Al Shaab and Dubai Club were relegated to the second tier being replaced by Ittihad Kalba and Fujairah who were both relegated in the 2012–13 campaign.^[3]

Stadia and locations

Al Ahli
Al Nasr
Al Shabab
Al Wasl

Ajman

Al Jazira
Baniyas
Al Wahda

Al Ain

Sharjah

Emirates

Dhafra

Kalba

Fujairah

Locations of teams in the 2014–15 UAE Pro-League

Team	Home city	Emirate	Manager	Stadium	Capacity
Ajman	Ajman	Ajman	Manuel Cajuda	Ajman Stadium	5,537
Al Ahli	Dubai	Dubai	Cosmin Olăroiu	Rashed Stadium	9,415
Al Ain	Al Ain	Abu Dhabi	Zlatko Dalić	Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium	25,000
Al Dhafra	Madinat Zayed	Abu Dhabi	Laurent Banide	Al Dhafra Stadium	5,020
Al Jazira	Abu Dhabi	Abu Dhabi	Eric Gerets	Al Jazira Stadium	42,056
Al Nasr	Dubai	Dubai	Ivan Jovanović	Al-Maktoum Stadium	10,954
Al Shabab	Dubai	Dubai	Caio Júnior	Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium	8,011
Al Wahda	Abu Dhabi	Abu Dhabi	Sami Al-Jaber	Al-Nahyan Stadium	11,538
Al Wasl	Dubai	Dubai	Gabriel Calderon	Zabeel Stadium	8,411
Baniyas	Abu Dhabi	Abu Dhabi	Luis García Plaza	Baniyas Stadium	9,047
Emirates	Ras al-Khaimah	Ras al-Khaimah	Paulo Comelli	Emirates Club Stadium	5,020
Fujairah	Fujairah	Fujairah	Ivan Hašek	Fujairah Club Stadium	5,020
Ittihad Kalba	Kalba	Sharjah	Walid Obaid Al-Balooshi	Ittihad Kalba Stadium	3,000
Sharjah	Sharjah	Sharjah	Paulo Bonamigo	Sharjah Stadium	10,082

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al Jazira	Walter Zenga	Sacked[4]	Pre-season	14 May 2014	Eric Gerets[5]	20 May 2014
Al Shabab	Marcos Paquetá	Mutual consent		23 May 2014	Caio Júnior[6]	23 May 2014
Baniyas	Adnan Hamad			1 July 2014	Luis García Plaza[7]	10 July 2014
Al Wasl	Jorginho		13th	1 October 2014	Gabriel Calderón	1 October 2014
Ajman	Fathi Al-Jabal	Sacked	13th	25 January 2015	Manuel Cajuda	27 January 2015
Al Wahda	José Peseiro[8]		4th	10 February 2015	Sami Al Jaber	16 February 2015

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Former players
Ajman	Rafael Crivellaro	Ahmed Ibrahim Khalaf	Boris Kabi	Driss Fettouhi	Karim Ziani Bakari Koné
Al Ahli	Éverton Ribeiro	Luis Jiménez	Oussama Assaidi	Kwon Kyung-won	Ciel Grafite Carlos Muñoz Hugo Viana Mirel Rădoi
Al Ain	Jirès Kembo Ekoko	Asamoah Gyan	Miroslav Stoch	Lee Myung-joo
Al Dhafra	Humam Tariq	Bilal El Najjarine	Youssef Kaddioui	Makhete Diop	Matías Defederico Diego Felipe Paulinho Guerreiro
Al Jazira	Manuel Lanzini	Jucilei	Jonathan Pitroipa	Mirko Vučinić
Al Nasr	Brett Holman	Renan Garcia	Ibrahima Touré	Pablo Hernández	Ivan Trichkovski
Al Shabab	Edgar	Carlos Villanueva	Henrique Luvannor	Azizbek Haydarov
Al Wahda	Damián Díaz	Sebastián Tagliabúe	Hussain Fadhel	Adil Hermach
Al Wasl	Caio Canedo	Éderson	Fábio Lima	Hugo Viana	Neto Berola
Baniyas	Denis Stracqualursi	Ángel Dealbert	Joan Verdú		Carlos Muñoz Kim Jung-woo
Emirates	Alexandro	Luiz Henrique	Issam Erraki	Sin Jin-ho	Germán Herrera Rodrigo Silva
Fujairah	Karim Ziani	Madjid Bougherra	Boubacar Sanogo	Hassan Maatouk	Hassan Yebda
Ittihad Kalba	Danilo Bueno	Paulo Martins	Said Fettah	Papa Waigo	Rafael Luís Leal Wael Ayan
Sharjah	Marion	Maurício Ramos	Rodriguinho	Wanderley	Léo Lima Luan

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Ain (C)	26	18	6	2	62	19	+43	60	Qualification to the 2016 AFC Champions League Group Stage
2	Al-Jazira	26	16	3	7	66	46	+20	51	Qualification to the 2016 AFC Champions League Qualifying play-off
3	Al-Shabab	26	14	7	5	49	35	+14	49	Qualification to the 2016 AFC Champions League Second Qualifying Round
4	Al-Wahda	26	13	8	5	44	32	+12	47
5	Al-Nasr	26	10	9	7	43	32	+11	39	Qualification to the 2016 AFC Champions League Group Stage[a]
6	Al-Wasl	26	10	9	7	53	45	+8	39	Qualification to the 2016 GCC Champions League
7	Al-Ahli	26	10	8	8	35	27	+8	38
8	Baniyas	26	9	8	9	42	37	+5	35	Qualification to the 2016 GCC Champions League
9	Fujairah	26	9	5	12	23	45	−22	32
10	Emirates	26	8	6	12	34	45	−11	30
11	Al-Dhafra	26	5	12	9	31	33	−2	27
12	Sharjah	26	7	5	14	36	43	−7	26
13	Ajman (R)	26	2	9	15	27	60	−33	15	Relegation to the 2015–16 UAE Division 1 Group A
14	Ittihad Kalba (R)	26	3	1	22	17	63	−46	10

Updated to match(es) played on 3 June 2015. Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Al-Nasr qualifies for 2016 AFC Champions League Group Stage as winners of 2014–15 UAE President's Cup.

Results

Home \ Away	AJM	AHL	AIN	JAZ	NAS	SHB	WAS	BAN	DHA	EMI	FUJ	KAL	SHR	WAH
Ajman		0–0	0–4	2–3	0–3	2–2	1–2	2–2	1–1	2–4	0–1	0–1	0–4	3–3
Al-Ahli	0–0		1–1	4–2	2–2	2–4	0–4	0–0	1–0	0–1	4–0	2–0	2–0	1–1
Al Ain	7–1	1–0		2–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	2–1	3–0	4–0	4–1	4–0
Al Jazira	3–1	2–0	4–3		3–2	2–4	4–2	1–4	1–2	3–0	2–2	3–0	1–2	1–1
Al Nasr	1–1	2–1	1–2	2–4		1–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	3–0	5–1	3–0	3–0	0–2
Al Shabab	2–1	1–0	1–1	3–4	2–1		2–2	1–0	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–1	4–2	1–2
Al Wasl	3–3	1–5	0–1	2–4	2–2	2–2		1–2	2–2	2–2	3–1	1–0	2–1	3–0
Baniyas	3–0	1–0	0–3	2–3	1–1	2–0	2–2		1–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	2–5	1–2
Dhafra	1–1	2–2	1–1	3–3	2–2	1–2	3–1	2–3		1–1	0–0	3–1	2–0	1–2
Emirates	0–2	0–1	1–5	0–2	0–3	2–3	2–3	3–0	0–0		1–2	1–0	1–1	1–2
Fujairah	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–3	0–1	0–3	1–4	0–7	0–0	0–1		2–1	2–1	1–0
Kalba	2–3	0–3	1–4	0–4	2–0	0–2	1–6	1–1	1–0	0–3	2–3		1–2	0–1
Sharjah	4–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	4–2		4–1
Wahda	3–0	1–2	0–0	1–0	5–1	1–1	2–2	3–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	5–0	1–1

Updated to match(es) played on 12 April 2015. Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Goalscorers

As of matches played 15 May 2015

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[9]
1	Mirko Vučinić	Al Jazira	25
2	Ibrahima Touré	Al Nasr	18
3	Wanderley	Sharjah	17
4	Ali Mabkhout	Al Jazira	16
4	Caio	Al Wasl	16
4	Fábio Lima	Al Wasl	16
5	Sebastián Tagliabué	Wahda	15
6	Éderson	Al Wasl	14
7	Asamoah Gyan	Al Ain	13
8	Makhete Diop	Dhafra	12
9	Henrique Luvannor	Al Shabab	11

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Mirko Vučinić	Al Jazira	Emirates	3–0[10]	25 September 2014
Ahmed Khalil	Al Ahli	Al Jazira	4–2	18 October 2014
Ali Mabkhout	Al Jazira	Ajman	3–1	4 February 2015
Asamoah Gyan	Al Ain	Fujairah	3–0	28 February 2015