2019–20 Qatar Stars League

The 2019–20 Qatari League, also known as the Qatar Stars League or QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the 47th edition of top-level football championship in Qatar. Al-Sadd are the defending champions.

Qatar Stars League

Season	2019–20
Dates	21 August 2019 – 21 August 2020
Champions	Al-Duhail (7th title)
Relegated	Al-Shahania SC
Champions League	Al-Duhail Al Rayyan
FIFA Club World Cup	Al-Duhail
Matches played	126
Goals scored	344 (2.73 per match)
Top goalscorer	Akram Afif (15 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Fahad Younes
Biggest home win	Al Rayyan 5–0 Qatar SC (19 October 2019)
Biggest away win	Al-Shahania 1–7 Al Sadd (31 August 2019)
Highest scoring	Al-Shahania 1–7 Al Sadd (31 August 2019)
Longest winning run	Al Duhail (8 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Al Duhail (13 matches)
Longest winless run	Al-Shahania (11 matches)
Longest losing run	Umm Salal (6 matches)
← 2018–19 2020–21 → All statistics correct as of 21 August 2020.

The league was halted on 16 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar,^[1] then later resumed on 24 July 2020.^[2]

Teams

Stadia and locations

Club	City/Town	Stadium
Al-Ahli	Doha	Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium
Al-Arabi	Doha	Grand Hamad Stadium
Al-Duhail	Doha	Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium
Al-Gharafa	Doha	Thani bin Jassim Stadium
Al-Khor	Al Khor	Al-Khor SC Stadium
Al-Rayyan	Al-Rayyan	Ahmed bin Ali Stadium
Al-Sadd	Doha	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium
Al-Sailiya	Doha	Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium
Al-Shahania	Al-Shahaniya	Ahmed bin Ali Stadium
Al-Wakrah	Al Wakrah	Al-Wakrah Stadium
Qatar SC	Doha	Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani
Umm Salal	Doha	Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium

Personnel and kits

Club	Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Al-Ahli	Nebojsa Jovovic	Nabil El Zhar	Jako	Regency Group Holding
Al-Arabi	Heimir Hallgrímsson	Ahmed Fatehi	Puma	N/A
Al-Duhail	Walid Regragui	Karim Boudiaf	Puma	Mashraf Al Rayan
Al-Gharafa	Slaviša Jokanović	Qasem Burhan	Erreà	N/A
Al-Khor	Omar Najhi	Naif Mubarak	Macron	N/A
Al-Rayyan	Diego Aguirre	Rodrigo Tabata	Nike	QIC
Al-Sadd	Xavi	Gabi	Puma	Qatar Airways
Al-Sailiya	Sami Trabelsi	Majdi Siddiq	Adidas	UCC Qatar Islamic Bank
Al-Shahania	Nabil Anwar	Álvaro Mejía	Adidas	N/A
Al-Wakrah	Tintín Márquez	Bruno Uvini	Jako	N/A
Qatar SC	Wesam Rizik	Álex Gálvez	Puma	N/A
Umm Salal	Aziz Ben Askar	Mahmoud Al-Mawas	Jako	N/A

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Qatar SC	Carlos Alós	Sacked	23 September 2019	11th	Wesam Rizik
Umm Salal	Raúl Caneda	Sacked	24 October 2019	11th	Aziz Ben Askar
Al-Ahli	Rubén de la Barrera	Sacked	1 December 2019	7th	Nebojsa Jovovic
Al-Duhail	Rui Faria	Resigned	20 January 2020	1st	Walid Regragui
Al-Shahania	Pepe Murcia	Sacked	9 June 2020	12th	Nabil Anwar

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	UAFA Player[3]	Former Players
Al-Ahli	Mohamed Diamé	Hernán Pérez	Ahmed Akaïchi	Shane Lowry	Nabil El Zhar	Abel Hernández
Al-Arabi	Aron Gunnarsson	Pierre-Michel Lasogga	Marc Muniesa	Morteza Pouraliganji	Hamdi Harbaoui	Birkir Bjarnason
Al-Duhail	Edmilson Junior	Youssef Msakni		Han Kwang-song	Medhi Benatia	Mohanad Ali Mario Mandžukić
Al-Gharafa	Sofiane Hanni	Héctor Moreno	Jonathan Kodjia	Koo Ja-cheol	Adlène Guedioura	Vladimír Weiss
Al-Khor	Lucca	Tiago Bezerra	Ibrahim Amada	Alexander Michel Melki	Ahmed Hammoudan	Wágner
Al-Rayyan	Gabriel Mercado	Franck Kom	Yohan Boli	Lee Jae-ik	Yacine Brahimi
Al-Sadd	Nam Tae-hee			Jung Woo-young	Baghdad Bounedjah	Gabi Marco Fabián
Al-Sailiya	Kara Mbodji	Nadir Belhadj		Karim Ansarifard	Mohammad Abu Zrayq	Bilel Saidani Mbark Boussoufa
Al-Shahania	Álvaro Mejía	Nigel de Jong	Jean-Paul Késsé Mangoua	Ramin Rezaeian	Jameel Al-Yahmadi	Abdelaziz Barrada Ahmed Akaïchi
Al-Wakrah	Lucas Mendes	Ousmane Coulibaly	Cristian Ceballos	Isaías	Mohamed Benyettou	Bruno Uvini Iliass Bel Hassani
Qatar SC	Álex Gálvez	Kayke	Abdenasser El Khayati	Sardor Rashidov	Mehdi Berrahma	Junior Kabananga
Umm Salal	Raúl Becerra	Walid Mesloub	Enes Sipović	Mahmoud Al-Mawas	Ayoub Azzi	Magno Cruz João Victor Yannick Sagbo Adil Rhaili Víctor Vázquez

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Duhail (C)	22	16	4	2	38	16	+22	52	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage and FIFA Club World Cup first round
2	Al-Rayyan	22	15	6	1	40	15	+25	51	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage
3	Al-Sadd[a]	22	14	3	5	51	29	+22	45
4	Al-Gharafa	22	10	6	6	34	29	+5	36	Qualification for AFC Champions League play-off round
5	Al-Sailiya	22	8	5	9	22	25	−3	29
6	Al-Wakrah	22	7	6	9	28	31	−3	27
7	Al-Arabi	22	6	8	8	28	28	0	26
8	Qatar SC	22	4	8	10	18	26	−8	20
9	Al-Ahli	22	5	5	12	23	35	−12	20
10	Umm Salal	22	3	9	10	18	37	−19	18
11	Al-Khor (O)	22	3	8	11	23	33	−10	17	Qualification for relegation play-off
12	Al-Shahania (R)	22	2	10	10	22	41	−19	16	Relegation to Qatargas League

Source: QSL
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored;
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Al-Sadd qualified for the AFC Champions League group stage as Emir of Qatar Cup winners.

Results

Home \ Away	AHL	ARA	DUH	GHA	WAK	KHO	RAY	SAD	SAI	SHA	QAT	UMM
Al-Ahli	—	0–3	0–3	1–1	0–1	2–2	1–3	0–1	3–0	2–2	2–2	1–0
Al-Arabi	3–1	—	1–3	0–1	2–2	1–0	1–2	1–6	1–2	2–1	0–0	1–1
Al-Duhail	1–0	1–1	—	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	4–1	2–1	3–1	0–0	1–1
Al-Gharafa	3–1	1–0	0–2	—	2–1	2–2	4–2	1–5	1–3	3–0	0–0	2–0
Al-Wakrah	2–1	2–1	2–4	3–3	—	0–0	0–2	2–1	0–0	4–1	2–0	1–2
Al-Khor	2–3	1–3	2–3	1–3	1–1	—	1–1	1–2	2–1	2–2	2–0	1–0
Al-Rayyan	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–0	—	1–0	1–0	2–2	5–0	2–2
Al-Sadd	2–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	4–1	2–1	2–4	—	3–0	4–2	0–3	2–1
Al-Sailiya	0–1	1–0	1–2	2–0	3–1	1–1	0–2	1–3	—	2–2	1–0	0–0
Al-Shahania	3–1	0–0	0–1	2–1	0–2	2–2	0–1	1–7	0–0	—	0–0	1–1
Qatar SC	0–2	1–1	1–2	1–3	0–0	2–1	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–0	—	1–1
Umm Salal	1–1	1–5	0–1	0–1	2–1	1–0	0–4	2–2	0–2	2–2	0–5	—

Updated to match(es) played on 21 August 2020. Source: Qatar Soccer League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Positions by round

	Leader : 2021 AFC Champions League Group stage
	2021 AFC Champions League group stage
	2021 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off
	Qualification to Relegation play-off
	Relegation to 2020–21 Qatargas League

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Al-Duhail	4	4	6	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Al-Rayyan	5	8	8	5	5	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Al-Sadd	1	1	3	1	1	3	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Al-Gharafa	2	2	2	3	4	5	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Al-Sailiya	7	10	9	9	6	8	7	6	7	6	6	6	6	7	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	5
Al-Wakrah	11	7	5	7	8	7	8	8	8	8	9	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	6
Al-Arabi	3	3	1	4	3	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	5	5	5	7	7
Qatar SC	9	11	11	11	11	11	11	9	9	9	7	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8
Al-Ahli	10	6	4	6	7	6	6	7	6	7	8	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9
Umm Salal	6	9	10	10	10	9	10	11	11	11	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	10	10
Al-Khor	8	5	7	8	9	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	11	11	11
Al-Shahania	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Updated to match(es) played on 21 August 2020. Source: QSL

Relegation play-off

28 August 2020

18:30

Al-Khor	2–0	Al-Markhiya
A. Hammoudan 99' A. Murisi 112'

Al Janoub Stadium

Referee: Khamis Mohamed Al Kuwari

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Akram Afif	Al Sadd	15
	Yacine Brahimi	Al Rayyan
3	Baghdad Bounedjah	Al Sadd	13
	Ramin Rezaeian	Al-Shahania
5	Sofiane Hanni	Al-Gharafa	11
	Mohamed Benyettou	Al-Wakrah
7	Hamdi Harbaoui	Al-Arabi	10
8	Ahmed Alaaeldin	Al-Gharafa	9
	Tiago Bezerra	Al-Khor
10	Hassan Al-Haidos	Al Sadd	8
	Mohammed Muntari	Al-Duhail

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Baghdad Bounedjah	Al-Sadd	Al-Shahania	7–1	31 August 2019	[4]
Akram Afif	Al-Sadd	Al-Gharafa	5–1	23 December 2019
Yacine Brahimi	Al Rayyan	Umm Salal	4–0	3 January 2020	[5]
Jonathan Kodjia	Al-Gharafa	Al Rayyan	4–2	23 January 2020
Akram Afif	Al-Sadd	Al-Sailiya	3–0	1 February 2020

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Fahad Younes	Al-Rayyan	13
2	Jassem Adel	Qatar SC	7
	Amine Lecomte	Al-Duhail (4) Al-Sailiya 3)
4	Qasem Burhan	Al-Gharafa	6
5	Saoud Al Khater	Al-Wakrah	5
	Mohammed Al-Bakri	Al-Shahania (1) Al-Duhail (4)
	Khalifa Ababacar	Al-Sailiya
8	Mahmud Abunada	Al-Arabi	4
	Ivanildo Rodrigues	Al-Ahli
10	Saad Al-Sheeb	Al Sadd	3
11	Papa Djibril	Al-Khor	2
	Ebrahim Daryoush	Al-Shahania
	Baba Malick	Umm Salal
14	Rajab Hamza	Al-Khor	1
	Meshaal Barsham	Al Sadd
	Grégory Gomis	Al-Arabi
	Hassan Idriss Dicko	Al-Wakrah
	Moatasem Bostami	Qatar SC
	Salah Zakaria	Al-Gharafa

Team of the Year

No	Position	Nat.	Player	Club	Ref.
1	Goalkeeper		Fahad Younes	Al-Rayyan SC	[6]
2	Defender		Ró-Ró	Al-Sadd
3	Defender		Boualem Khoukhi	Al-Sadd
4	Defender		Ahmed Yasser	Al-Duhail
5	Defender		Abdelkarim Hassan	Al-Sadd
6	Midfielder		Karim Boudiaf	Al-Duhail
7	Midfielder		Franck Kom	Al-Rayyan SC
8	Midfielder		Abdulaziz Hatem	Al-Rayyan SC
9	Midfielder		Yacine Brahimi	Al-Rayyan SC
10	Forward		Akram Afif	Al-Sadd
11	Forward		Baghdad Bounedjah	Al-Sadd