2021–22 Qatar Stars League

The 2021–22 Qatari League, also known as Qatar Stars League or QNB Stars League, was the 48th edition of top-level football championship in Qatar. The league kicked off on 11 September 2021 and ended on 11 March 2022.^[1][2] Al-Sadd were defending champions and won the league for a second straight undefeated season.^[3]

Qatar Stars League

Season	2021–2022
Dates	11 September 2021 – 11 March 2022
Champions	Al-Sadd
Relegated	Al-Khor
Champions League	Al-Sadd
Champions League Play-off round	Al-Duhail Al-Wakrah
Matches played	125
Goals scored	407 (3.26 per match)
Top goalscorer	Michael Olunga (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Al-Sadd 7–2 Al-Shamal (26 September 2021) Al-Duhail 5–0 Al-Sailiya (26 September 2021) Al-Gharafa 5–0 Al-Khor (26 October 2021) Al-Duhail 6–1 Umm Salal (2 March 2022)
Biggest away win	Al-Ahli 0–6 Al-Duhail (29 December 2021) Al-Shamal 0–6 Umm Salal (23 January 2022) Al-Wakrah 0–6 Al-Sadd (31 January 2022) Al-Ahli 2–8 Al-Sadd (21 February 2022)
Highest scoring	Al-Sadd 6–4 Al-Gharafa (17 October 2021) Al-Ahli 2–8 Al-Sadd (21 February 2022)
Longest winning run	9 matches Al-Sadd
Longest unbeaten run	20 matches Al-Sadd
Longest winless run	16 matches Al-Sailiya
Longest losing run	6 matches Al-Sailiya
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

Teams

Team location

Al Ahli, Al Arabi, Al Duhail, Al Gharafa, Al Sadd, Al Sailiya, Qatar, Umm Salal

Al Khor

Al Rayyan

Al Wakrah

Al Shamal

Location football club of Qatar Stars League

Stadia and locations

Club	City/Town	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Ahli	Doha	Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium	18,000
Al-Arabi	Doha	Grand Hamad Stadium	13,000
Al-Duhail	Doha	Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium	9,000
Al-Gharafa	Doha	Thani bin Jassim Stadium	21,175
Al-Khor	Al Khor	Al-Khor SC Stadium	12,000
Al-Rayyan	Al-Rayyan	Ahmad bin Ali Stadium	50,000
Al-Sadd	Doha	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium	12,946
Al-Sailiya	Doha	Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium	18,000
Al-Shamal	Al Shamal	Al-Shamal SC Stadium	5,000
Al-Wakrah	Al Wakrah	Al Janoub Stadium	40,000
Qatar SC	Doha	Suheim bin Hamad Stadium	13,000
Umm Salal	Doha	Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium	13,000

Personnel and kits

Club	Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Al-Ahli	Nebojša Jovović	Ali Qadry	Puma	Regency Group Holding
Al-Arabi	Younes Ali	Ahmed Fatehi	Puma	Doha Bank Sharq Insurance Snoonu
Al-Duhail	Luís Castro	Almoez Ali	Puma	Al Rayan Bank
Al-Gharafa	Andrea Stramaccioni	Qasem Burhan	Puma	N/A
Al-Khor	Andre Lima (caretaker)	Helal Mohammed	Adidas	N/A
Al-Rayyan	Nicolás Córdova (interim)	Yacine Brahimi	Puma	Baladna Mall of Qatar
Al-Sadd	Javi Gracia	Hassan Al-Haydos	Puma	Qatar Airways
Al-Sailiya	Sami Trabelsi	Majdi Siddiq	Zat Outfit	N/A
Al-Shamal	Hicham Jadrane	Baha' Faisal	Erreà	N/A
Al-Wakrah	Tintín Márquez	Ahmed Fadhel	Puma	N/A
Qatar SC	Youssef Safri	Sebastián Soria	Macron	N/A
Umm Salal	Wesam Rizik	Aymen Abdennour	Jako	N/A

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al-Gharafa	Slaviša Jokanović	Signed by Sheffield United	27 May 2021		Andrea Stramaccioni	2 July 2021
Umm Salal	Aziz Ben Askar	End of contract	30 June 2021		Sérgio Farias	July 2021
Qatar SC	Younes Ali	End of contract	30 June 2021		Zé Ricardo	July 2021
Al-Arabi	Heimir Hallgrímsson	End of contract	30 June 2021		Younes Ali	July 2021
Al-Duhail	Sabri Lamouchi	Resigned	July 2021		Luís Castro	July 2021
Al Sadd	Xavi	Signed by Barcelona	5 November 2021	1st	Javi Gracia	7 December 2021
Al-Khor	Winfried Schäfer	Sacked	11 November 2021	12th	Andre Lima (caretaker)	12 November 2021
Al-Rayyan	Laurent Blanc	Sacked	13 February 2022	10th	Nicolás Córdova (interim)	13 February 2022

Foreign players

• 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	UAFA Player[4]	Former Players
Al-Ahli	Sandro Manoel	Yazan Al-Naimat	José Ángel Pozo	Hossein Kanaanizadegan	Soufiane Bouftini	Hernán Pérez Marko Jevtović Patrick Friday Eze
Al-Arabi	Aron Gunnarsson	Adama Diomande	Aaron Boupendza	Farshid Esmaeili	Youssef Msakni	Mehrdad Mohammadi Marc Muniesa
Al-Duhail	Edmilson Junior	Toby Alderweireld	Michael Olunga	Nam Tae-hee	Ferjani Sassi
Al-Gharafa	Sofiane Hanni	Gabriel Pires	Cheick Diabaté	Saeid Ezatolahi	Mehdi Tahrat	Jonathan Kodjia Mohammed Al-Musalami
Al-Khor	Giannis Fetfatzidis	Pierre-Michel Lasogga	Juma Al-Habsi	Harib Al-Saadi	Ismail El Haddad	Kayke Koo Ja-cheol Rafael Vaz
Al-Rayyan	Steven Nzonzi	Yohan Boli	James Rodríguez	Shojae Khalilzadeh	Yacine Brahimi	Franck Kom
Al-Sadd	Guilherme	André Ayew	Santi Cazorla	Jung Woo-young	Baghdad Bounedjah
Al-Sailiya	Carlos Strandberg	Kara Mbodji	Walter Bwalya	Dostonbek Khamdamov	Driss Fettouhi	Adama Diomande Ramin Rezaeian Nassim Hnid
Al-Shamal	Matías Nani	Jeison Medina	Jeremy de Nooijer	Ali Olwan	Amjad Attwan	Baha' Faisal
Al-Wakrah	Boualem Mesmoudi	Gelson Dala	Lucas Mendes	Omid Ebrahimi	Mohamed Benyettou	Ousmane Coulibaly
Qatar SC	Anthony Okpotu	Javi Martínez	Salaah Al-Yahyaei	Bashar Resan	Djamel Benlamri	Youcef Belaïli Isaac Mbenza
Umm Salal	Isael	Moses Orkuma	Aymen Abdennour	Aymen Hussein	Yaseen al-Bakhit

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Sadd (C)	22	20	2	0	80	24	+56	62	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al-Duhail	22	14	5	3	59	24	+35	47	Qualification for AFC Champions League play-off round[a]
3	Al-Wakrah	22	11	4	7	34	30	+4	37
4	Al-Arabi	22	11	3	8	34	31	+3	36
5	Al-Gharafa	22	9	3	10	39	40	−1	30
6	Umm Salal	22	6	7	9	32	36	−4	25
7	Al-Ahli	22	5	10	7	24	39	−15	25
8	Al-Rayyan	22	6	6	10	31	40	−9	24
9	Qatar SC	22	6	5	11	21	31	−10	23
10	Al-Shamal	22	6	4	12	32	47	−15	22
11	Al-Sailiya (O)	22	3	7	12	17	36	−19	16	Qualification for Relegation play-off
12	Al-Khor (R)	22	2	10	10	21	46	−25	16	Relegation to Qatargas League

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

1. as 2022 Emir of Qatar Cup winner

Results

Home \ Away	AHL	ARA	DUH	GHA	KHO	RAY	SAD	SAI	SHA	WAK	QAT	UMM
Al-Ahli	—	1–1	0–6	0–1	6–3	0–1	2–8	1–0	0–0	1–3	1–0	2–1
Al-Arabi	2–3	—	1–2	3–2	1–1	2–1	0–4	1–0	4–2	1–2	1–2	0–2
Al-Duhail	0–0	2–0	—	3–1	1–1	3–0	3–3	5–0	4–1	0–4	2–1	6–1
Al-Gharafa	0–0	0–0	2–4	—	5–0	3–2	1–5	3–0	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–0
Al-Khor	2–2	0–2	1–4	1–1	—	0–0	2–4	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–1	1–1
Al-Rayyan	1–1	2–4	0–4	0–2	2–2	—	2–4	4–2	3–2	3–0	2–1	2–3
Al-Sadd	4–1	4–2	1–1	6–4	3–0	1–0	—	2–0	7–2	2–1	1–0	2–0
Al-Sailiya	2–2	0–1	1–1	3–2	0–0	1–1	0–2	—	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–0
Al-Shamal	3–0	1–3	0–1	2–3	4–0	1–2	1–5	2–3	—	3–0	2–1	0–6
Al-Wakrah	0–0	0–1	4–1	3–2	4–1	1–1	0–6	2–1	1–1	—	0–1	1–4
Qatar SC	0–0	0–2	0–5	2–3	0–0	1–0	1–3	2–1	1–1	0–0	—	2–2
Umm Salal	1–1	0–2	2–1	3–1	1–1	2–2	1–3	0–1	1–1	0–4	1–2	—

Source: Flashscore
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Positions by round

	Leader : 2023 AFC Champions League Group stage
	2023 AFC Champions League group stage
	2023 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off
	Qualification to Relegation play-off
	Relegation to 2022–23 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-Sadd	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Al-Duhail	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Al-Arabi	4	4	4	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3
Al-Gharafa	3	3	3	4	3	5	5	5	4	4	4
Al-Wakrah	9	8	5	5	5	4	4	4	5	5	5*
Umm Salal	6	7	6	6	7	7	9	8	6	6	6	6
Qatar SC	7	10	11	12	8	8	7	9	7	7	7	7
Al-Rayyan	5	6	10	8	6	6	6	6	8	9	8	8
Al-Ahli	8	9	9	7	11	9	8	10	10	8	10	9
Al-Shamal	10	12	7	9	9	12	11	7	9	10	9	10
Al-Khor	12	11	12	11	12	10	10	12	12	12	11	11
Al-Sailiya	11	5	8	10	10	11	12	11	11	11	12	12

Updated to match(es) played on 5 January 2022. Source: QSL Soccerway

Relegation play-off

19 March 2022 (2022-03-19)

18:30 UTC+3

Al-Sailiya	3–2	Al Kharaitiyat

Thani bin Jassim Stadium

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 2 March 2022^[5]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Michael Olunga	Al-Duhail	25
2	André Ayew	Al Sadd	15
3	Akram Afif	Al Sadd	14
4	Baghdad Bounedjah	Al Sadd	13
5	Aymen Hussein	Umm Salal	11
	Gelson Dala	Al-Wakrah
7	Cheick Diabaté	Al-Gharafa	10
8	Mohamed Benyettou	Al-Wakrah	9
9	Jeison Medina	Al-Shamal	8
	Sebastián Soria	Qatar SC