2016–17 UAE Pro League

The 2016–17 UAE Pro League (also known as Arabian Gulf League for sponsorship reasons) was the 42nd season of top-level football in the United Arab Emirates. Al-Ahli are the defending champions of this season's UAE pro league after securing their seventh title last season. Al-Jazira won its second title on 29 April 2017 after defeating Hatta 5-0.

UAE Pro-League

Season	2016–17
Champions	Al-Jazira (2nd title)
Relegated	Baniyas Kalba
2018 AFC Champions League	Al-Jazira Al-Wahda Al-Wasl Al-Ain
2017 FIFA Club World Cup	Al-Jazira
Matches played	364
Goals scored	573 (1.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	(33 Goals) Ali Mabkhout
Biggest home win	Al-Wasl 8–0 Dibba (8 December 2016)
Biggest away win	Sharjah 1–7 Al-Wahda (2 November 2016)
Highest scoring	Al-Shabab 3–7 Al-Jazira (3 December 2016)
Longest winning run	8 Matches Al-Jazira
Longest unbeaten run	13 Matches Al-Ain
Longest winless run	11 Matches Emirates
Longest losing run	7 Matches Baniyas
Highest attendance	Al-Ain 1–1 Al-Ahli (22,546)
Lowest attendance	Hatta 0–1 Al-Dhafra (450)
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Stadia and locations

Ahli

Ain

Dhafra

Dibba

Hatta

Jazira

Nasr

Kalba

Shabab

Sharjah

Wahda

Wasl

Baniyas

Emirates

Locations of teams in the 2016–17 UAE Pro League

Club	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Ahli	Dubai	Al-Rashid Stadium	15,000
Al-Ain	Al-Ain	Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium	25,000
Al-Dhafra	Madinat Zayed	Al Dhafra Stadium	5,012
Al-Jazira	Abu Dhabi	Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium	42,056
Al-Nasr	Dubai	Al-Maktoum Stadium	10,750
Al-Shabab	Dubai	Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Sharjah	Sharjah	Sharjah Stadium	11,073
Al-Wahda	Abu Dhabi	Al Nahyan Stadium	11,456
Al-Wasl	Dubai	Zabeel Stadium	8,439
Baniyas	Abu Dhabi	Baniyas Stadium	8,954
Dibba	Fujairah	Fujairah Club Stadium	10,645
Emirates	Ras Al-Khaimah	Emirates Club Stadium	5,127
Hatta	Hatta	Hamdan Bin Rashid Stadium	5,000
Kalba	Kalba	Ittihad Kalba Stadium	8,500

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	Head Coach	Assistant Coach	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor
Al-Ahli	Cosmin Olăroiu	Catalin Necula[1]	Ahmed Khalil	Nike	Skydive Dubai
Al-Ain	Zoran Mamić	Borimir Perkovic[2]		Nike	First Gulf Bank
Al-Dhafra	Mohammad Kwid	Badreddine Al-Idrissi[3]		Adidas
Al-Jazira	Henk ten Cate	Jan Versleijen	Ali Khasif	Nike	IPIC
Al-Nasr	Dan Petrescu	Emil Caras Valeriu Bordeanu[4]		Adidas	Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority Emirates NBD DP World
Al-Shabab	Fred Rutten	Patrick Greveraars Saad Obaid[5]		Umbro	Al-Naboodah
Sharjah	José Peseiro			Adidas	SAIF Zone
Al-Wahda	Javier Aguirre	Juan Erabrin	Ismail Matar	Adidas	Al-Wahda Mall
Al-Wasl	Rodolfo Arruabarrena	Saleem Abdulrahman	Waheed Ismail	Macron	Saif Belhasa Holding
Baniyas	José Manuel Gomes	Salem Al-Arfi	Yousif Jaber	Adidas	Saaed Secure Engineering
Dibba	Paulo Sérgio	Tarek Al-Sayed		uhlsport
Emirates	Theo Bücker	Klaus Dieter Nourredine Al-Hadi[6]	Haidar Alo Ali	uhlsport
Hatta	Waleed Obaid	Mohammad Al-Ajmani[7]		Adidas
Kalba	Fabio Viviani	Salem Al-Qaddami[8]		Errea

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field during each game including at least one player from the AFC country.

• Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.
• Players in italics were out of squad or left club within the season, after pre-season transfer window, or in the mid-season transfer window, and at least had one appearance.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	Former players
Al-Ahli	Éverton Ribeiro	Asamoah Gyan	Makhete Diop		Lima Kwon Kyung-won
Al-Ain	Caio Lucas[9]	Danilo Asprilla	Nasser Al-Shamrani	Lee Myung-joo	Douglas
Al-Dhafra[10]	Adil Hermach	Issam El Adoua		Khalid Al-Hajri	Makhete Diop Omar Khribin
Al-Jazira	Aílton	Leonardo	Mbark Boussoufa[11]	Park Jong-woo	João Carlos Thiago Neves Jefferson Farfán
Al-Nasr	Wanderley	Jirès Kembo Ekoko	Abdelaziz Barrada[12]	Joan Oumari	Jonathan Pitroipa Mohannad Abdul-Raheem
Al-Shabab	Tomás De Vincenti	Nana Poku	Henrique Luvannor	Azizbek Haydarov	Ruud Boymans
Sharjah	Digão[13]	Adrian Mierzejewski	Gelmin Rivas[14]	Chikashi Masuda	Song Jin-hyung
Al-Wahda	Sebastián Tagliabué	Jorge Valdivia	Balázs Dzsudzsák	Rim Chang-woo
Al-Wasl	Fábio Lima	Ronaldo Mendes[15]	Serginho	Caio Canedo 1	Hélder Barbosa
Baniyas	Jean-Philippe Mendy	Harry Novillo	Ezekiel Henty	Mark Milligan	Joaquín Larrivey Fellipe Bastos Daniel Hernández
Dibba	Bruno Moraes	Derley	Driss Fettouhi	Yaseen Al-Bakhit	Danilo Cirino Hamed Koné Heo Jae-won Nicandro Breeveld
Emirates	Sebastián Sáez	Mourad Batna[16]	Osman Sow	Ahmed Ibrahim Khalaf	Zac Anderson Augusto César Hocine Ragued
Hatta	Rafael Silva	Samuel	Adrian Ropotan	Nikolai Topor-Stanley[17]	Rafael Bastos Issiaka Ouédraogo Yaseen Al-Bakhit Mihai Răduț
Kalba	Ciel	Bakare Kone	Modibo Maïga[18]	Salam Shaker[19]	Mihai Costea Carmelo González

^1 Caio Canedo has East Timorese citizenship and was counted as Asian player.

Transfers

See also: List of Emirati football transfers summer 2016

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Manner of departure	Pos.	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al-Shabab	Caio Júnior	8 May 2016	End of contract	Pre-season	Fred Rutten	11 May 2016 [20]
Sharjah	Abdulaziz Al-Anbari	13 May 2016			Georgios Donis	27 July 2016[21]
Al-Wasl	Gabriel Calderón	25 May 2016[22]	Sacked		Rodolfo Arruabarrena	6 June 2016[23]
Baniyas	Abdullah Mesfer	5 June 2016 [24]	Mutual consent		Pablo Repetto
Dibba	Theo Bücker	22 June 2016[25]	Signed by Emirates		Paulo Sérgio	29 June 2016[26]
Emirates	Paulo Comelli	31 May 2016 [27]	Mutual consent		Theo Bücker	22 June 2016
Kalba	Mourad Okbi	28 Aug 2016			Fabio Viviani	28 Aug 2016
Baniyas	Pablo Repetto	22 October 2016	Sacked	12th	José Manuel Gomes	23 October 2016
Al-Nasr	Ivan Jovanović	31 October 2016		8th	Dan Petrescu	31 October 2016
Sharjah	Georgios Donis	1 January 2017 [28]	Mutual consent	10th	José Peseiro	2 January 2017 [29]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al Jazira (C)	26	22	2	2	72	15	+57	68	Qualification to the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup and 2018 AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al Wasl	26	17	6	3	55	26	+29	57	Qualification to the 2018 AFC Champions League group stage
3	Al Ahli	26	16	8	2	50	18	+32	56
4	Al Ain	26	17	4	5	58	37	+21	55	Qualification to the 2018 AFC Champions League play-off round[30]
5	Al Wahda	26	10	9	7	54	40	+14	39	Qualification to the 2018 AFC Champions League group stage
6	Al Nasr	26	11	3	12	42	32	+10	36
7	Al Dhafra	26	10	5	11	40	46	−6	35
8	Al Shabab	26	7	9	10	24	44	−20	30
9	Sharjah	26	6	8	12	31	47	−16	26
10	Hatta	26	6	7	13	24	47	−23	25
11	Emirates	26	5	5	16	33	51	−18	20
12	Dibba	26	3	11	12	25	54	−29	20
13	Kalba (R)	26	4	7	15	30	44	−14	19	Relegation to the UAE Division One
14	Baniyas (R)	26	3	6	17	33	70	−37	15

Source: uae.agleague.ae
Rules for classification: ^[31] 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) head-to-head away goals scored; 6) goal difference; 7) number of goals scored; 8) number of away goals scored; 9) fair play ranking^[32] 10) draw
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	ALI	AIN	DHA	JAZ	NAS	SHA	WAH	WAS	YAS	EMI	DAF	HAT	KAL	SHR
Al-Ahli		1–2	3–3	2–1	2–1	4–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	4–0	4–1	6–0	0–0	2–2
Al Ain	1–1		5–2	1–3	3–0	2–1	3–2	2–1	1–0	5–2	1–2	2–0	2–1	3–0
Al Dhafra	0–2	1–2		0–4	2–4	3–0	0–3	1–1	0–1	2–1	5–0	4–3	2–1	0–0
Al Jazira	2–0	2–0	4–0		1–0	3–0	5–1	3–1	5–0	5–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	3–0
Al Nasr	0–1	1–2	2–2	2–0		0–1	3–0	1–2	2–2	1–0	4–0	1–2	2–1	1–0
Al Shabab	0–0	1–3	1–0	3–7	0–4		1–1	0–0	2–0	0–4	0–0	1–1	0–4	2–1
Al Wahda	1–2	1–1	0–0	1–1	5–1	1–1		1–2	6–2	0–0	2–2	3–2	1–1	5–1
Al Wasl	0–0	4–3	4–1	2–3	2–1	2–1	2–1		4–0	1–1	8–0	4–1	1–1	2–0
Baniyas	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–3	0–3	2–4	2–3	3–4		4–4	1–1	2–3	3–1	2–2
Emirates	0–3	3–2	0–3	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–2	6–0		0–2	0–2	3–2	2–3
Dibba Al-Fujairah	0–2	2–2	2–3	0–3	0–0	1–1	1–2	0–2	4–3	0–0		0–0	0–1	2–2
Hatta	0–3	2–3	0–1	0–5	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	2–2		2–1	0–0
Kalba	1–1	1–2	1–2	0–3	1–5	1–2	3–4	0–1	1–1	2–1	3–2	1–1		0–0
Sharjah	0–1	2–4	2–1	0–1	1–3	0–0	1–7	1–2	4–1	2–1	1–1	4–0	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 21 March 2017. Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played 13 May 2017

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ali Mabkhout	Al-Jazira	33
2	Fábio Lima	Al-Wasl	25
3	Makhete Diop	Al-Ahli	21
4	Sebastián Tagliabué	Al-Wahda	19
5	Caio Canedo	Al-Wasl	14
6	Sebastián Sáez	Emirates	13
7	Ahmed Khalil	Al-Ahli	12

Source: agleague.ae