2004–05 Iraqi Premier League

The 2004–05 Iraqi Premier League kicked off on October 20, 2004. The 36 teams were split into four groups. At the end of the group stage, the top three teams from each group (a total of 12 teams) advanced to the Elite Stage, while the bottom three in each group were demoted to the lower division.

Iraqi Premier League

Season	2004–05
Champions	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (5th title)
Relegated	Balad Peris Al-Estiqlal Al-Nasiriya Al-Ramadi Sulaymaniya Al-Shuala Al-Basra Al-Mosul Babil Salahaddin Al-Diwaniya
AFC Champions League	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Minaa
Arab Champions League	Al-Talaba Al-Zawraa
Top goalscorer	Mustafa Karim (16 goals)
Biggest home win	Al-Zawraa 6–0 Al-Estiqlal (30 December 2004) Al-Kahrabaa 6–0 Salahaddin (18 January 2005) Al-Zawraa 6–0 Babil (28 February 2005)
Biggest away win	Al-Shuala 0–7 Al-Zawraa (17 January 2005)
Highest scoring	Salahaddin 2–7 Al-Kahrabaa (15 April 2005)
← 2003–04 2005–06 →

In the Elite Stage, the 12 teams were split into four groups of three, with teams playing home and away against each team in their group respectively. The top team in each of the four groups moved on to the two-legged semi-finals which determined who played for the championship game; a single match held in Baghdad. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya won their fifth Premier League title with a 2–0 victory over Al-Minaa.^[1]

Group stage

North Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	16	8	7	1	18	7	+11	31	Qualified to Elite Stage
2	Duhok	16	8	5	3	20	9	+11	29
3	Erbil	16	6	6	4	24	18	+6	24
4	Zakho	16	6	6	4	14	15	−1	24
5	Kirkuk	16	5	5	6	19	19	0	20
6	Sirwan	16	4	7	5	13	16	−3	19
7	Peris	16	4	6	6	15	16	−1	18	Relegated to the Iraqi First Division League
8	Sulaymaniya	16	3	6	7	12	24	−12	15
9	Al-Mosul	16	2	4	10	13	24	−11	10

Source: Goalzz

Results

Home \ Away	PRS	MSL	QWJ	DUH	ERB	KIR	SRW	SUL	ZAK
Peris		3–0[a]	2–1	1–1	0–3	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–1
Al-Mosul	1–1		1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	3–1	1–1	0–1
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1–0	1–0		1–0	2–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	3–0
Duhok	3–1	2–1	0–1		3–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–0
Erbil	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–2		0–1	1–1	5–0	1–1
Kirkuk	1–0	2–1	2–2	0–3	1–2		0–0	5–2	3–1
Sirwan	2–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–4	1–1		0–0	3–0
Sulaymaniya	0–3	1–0	0–0	0–2	2–0	2–2	2–0		1–1
Zakho	0–0	5–2	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–1

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

1. The Peris–Al-Mosul match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Peris, as Al-Mosul did not turn up for the game.

Euphrates Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Zawraa	16	12	4	0	46	9	+37	40	Qualified to Elite Stage
2	Al-Najaf	16	11	4	1	33	7	+26	37
3	Karbala	16	8	4	4	24	18	+6	28
4	Al-Sinaa	16	7	3	6	23	20	+3	24
5	Al-Jaish	16	5	3	8	20	24	−4	18
6	Al-Kadhimiya	16	3	7	6	15	24	−9	16
7	Al-Estiqlal	16	4	4	8	13	25	−12	16	Relegated to the Iraqi First Division League
8	Al-Shuala	16	3	1	12	14	37	−23	10
9	Babil	16	2	4	10	13	37	−24	10

Source: Goalzz

Results

Home \ Away	EST	JSH	KDH	NJF	SHL	SIN	ZWR	BBL	KRB
Al-Estiqlal		1–2	1–0	1–4	1–0	2–0	0–0	2–2	0–0
Al-Jaish	0–3		1–1	2–1	5–2	0–0	1–2	4–1	0–2
Al-Kadhimiya	2–1	1–0		1–1	0–0	1–1	2–4	1–1	1–3
Al-Najaf	2–0	1–1	4–0		1–0	1–0	1–1	4–0	4–0
Al-Shuala	3–0[a]	1–2	1–4	0–3		0–4	0–7	3–0	1–3
Al-Sinaa	1–0	3–1	1–1	0–1	3–0		0–2	2–1	1–4
Al-Zawraa	6–0	2–1	4–0	0–0	2–0	4–1		6–0	3–1
Babil	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–3	1–4	1–2		1–1
Karbala	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–4	1–0	1–2	1–1	3–0

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

1. The Al-Shuala–Al-Estiqlal match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Shuala due to Al-Estiqlal's players leaving the field on 83 minutes while losing 2–1.

Central Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Talaba	16	8	4	4	26	13	+13	28	Qualified to Elite Stage
2	Al-Naft	16	7	6	3	23	14	+9	27
3	Al-Karkh	16	8	3	5	20	11	+9	27
4	Al-Kahrabaa	16	8	2	6	35	17	+18	26
5	Diyala	16	6	7	3	18	16	+2	25
6	Samarra	16	6	5	5	8	12	−4	23
7	Balad	16	6	3	7	14	18	−4	21	Relegated to the Iraqi First Division League
8	Al-Ramadi	16	4	4	8	15	23	−8	16
9	Salahaddin	16	0	4	12	6	41	−35	4

Source: Goalzz

Results

Home \ Away	KAH	KKH	NFT	RAM	TLB	BLD	DIY	SAL	SMR
Al-Kahrabaa		2–3	0–1	4–0	1–0	1–0	3–3	6–0	4–0
Al-Karkh	1–2		1–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–2	3–0	3–0
Al-Naft	1–0	0–2		3–1	1–1	5–1	2–0	2–1	0–0
Al-Ramadi	2–1	1–1	0–2		1–0	1–0	2–3	5–2	0–1
Al-Talaba	2–0	1–0	3–3	2–0		4–2	2–2	4–0	1–1
Balad	0–3[a]	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–2		2–1	5–0	1–0
Diyala	1–1	1–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	0–0		1–0	0–1
Salahaddin	2–7	0–2	0–0	1–1	0–3	0–1	0–0		0–0
Samarra	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–0

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

1. The Balad–Al-Kahrabaa match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Kahrabaa due to security guards calling off the match on 88 minutes while Al-Kahrabaa were winning 2–0.

South Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Minaa	14	9	2	3	22	5	+17	29	Qualified to Elite Stage
2	Al-Kut	14	8	2	4	18	17	+1	26
3	Al-Shorta	14	7	3	4	25	11	+14	24
4	Al-Samawa	14	6	3	5	19	12	+7	21
5	Maysan	14	4	8	2	14	12	+2	20
6	Naft Al-Junoob	14	4	4	6	14	24	−10	16
7	Al-Nasiriya	14	2	3	9	15	27	−12	9	Relegated to the Iraqi First Division League
8	Al-Basra	14	1	5	8	11	30	−19	8
9	Al-Diwaniya[a]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source: Goalzz
Notes:

1. Al-Diwaniya withdrew from the league after eight matches, with their results being annulled.

Results

Home \ Away	BSR	DIW	KUT	MIN	NAS	SMA	SHR	MSN	NFJ
Al-Basra			1–3	1–2	2–4	1–1	0–0	1–1	1–1
Al-Diwaniya[a]	–[b]						–[b]		–[b]
Al-Kut	2–0	–[b]		1–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–2	2–0
Al-Minaa	4–0	–[b]	4–0		3–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	4–1
Al-Nasiriya	1–1	–[b]	1–2	0–2		0–1	3–0[c]	1–1	2–3
Al-Samawa	5–0	–[b]	3–1	0–1	2–2		3–0[d]	1–0	1–2
Al-Shorta	4–0		4–0	1–0	3–0[e]	2–0		5–1	1–1
Maysan	2–0	–[b]	0–0	0–0	4–1	1–0	0–0		2–2
Naft Al-Junoob	0–3		1–2	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–5	0–0

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

1. Al-Diwaniya withdrew from the league after eight matches, with their results being annulled.
2. Al-Diwaniya's results against Al-Minaa (2–0 loss), Maysan (1–0 loss), Al-Basra (0–0 draw), Al-Samawa (2–1 loss), Naft Al-Junoob (3–0 loss), Al-Kut (2–2 draw), Al-Shorta (2–1 loss) and Al-Nasiriya (3–2 loss) were annulled after their withdrawal from the league.
3. The Al-Nasiriya–Al-Shorta match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Nasiriya, as Al-Shorta did not turn up for the game.
4. The Al-Samawa–Al-Shorta match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Samawa, as Al-Shorta did not turn up for the game.
5. The Al-Shorta–Al-Nasiriya match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Shorta, as Al-Nasiriya did not turn up for the game.

Elite stage

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MIN	KRB	DUH
1	Al-Minaa	4	3	0	1	8	4	+4	9	Qualified to Semi-finals			4–1	1–0
2	Karbala	4	1	1	2	6	8	−2	4			0–2		1–1
3	Duhok	4	1	1	2	5	7	−2	4			3–1	1–4

Source: Goalzz

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		TLB	NFT	KKH
1	Al-Talaba	4	2	2	0	3	0	+3	8	Qualified to Semi-finals			0–0	2–0
2	Al-Naft	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7			0–1		3–2
3	Al-Karkh	4	0	1	3	2	6	−4	1			0–0	0–1

Source: Goalzz

Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ZWR	NJF	SHR
1	Al-Zawraa	4	2	2	0	6	2	+4	8	Qualified to Semi-finals			1–1	2–0
2	Al-Najaf	4	2	2	0	4	1	+3	8			0–0		2–0
3	Al-Shorta	4	0	0	4	1	8	−7	0			1–3	0–1

Source: Goalzz

Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		QWJ	ERB	KUT
1	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	4	3	0	1	8	2	+6	9	Qualified to Semi-finals			4–0	3–1
2	Erbil	4	3	0	1	8	5	+3	9			1–0		4–0
3	Al-Kut	4	0	0	4	2	11	−9	0			0–1	1–3

Source: Goalzz

Golden stage

	Semi-finals							Final
	Al-Zawraa		0	0	0
	Al-Minaa		1	0	1
								Al-Minaa		0
								Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya		2
	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya		1	2	3
	Al-Talaba		0	2	2			Third place match
								Al-Zawraa		1 (1)
								Al-Talaba (p)		1 (4)

Semi-finals

6 July 2005

14:00 GMT

Al-Zawraa	0–1	Al-Minaa
		Abdul-Kadhim 28' (pen.)

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

11 July 2005

13:05 GMT

Al-Minaa	0–0	Al-Zawraa

Al-Minaa Stadium, Basra

Al-Minaa won 1–0 on aggregate

---

7 July 2005

14:00 GMT

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1–0	Al-Talaba
Saddam 24'

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

11 July 2005

14:00 GMT

Al-Talaba	2–2	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
Turki  46' Nasser 67' Abbas 69'		Mohammed 7' Khudhair 63'

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya won 3–2 on aggregate

Third place match

14 July 2005

14:00 GMT

Al-Zawraa	1–1	Al-Talaba
Abdul-Jabar 65'		Karim 57'
Penalties
Abdul-Jabar Abdul-Sattar Nassir	1–4	Abdul-Hassan Nasser Nayrouz Salah

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Sabah Qasim

Al-Zawraa

Al-Talaba

GK 1 Ahmad Ali DF 2 Haidar Mahmoud (c) DF 5 Haidar Abdul-Qadir  82' DF 25 Hussein Abdul-Wahed DF 4 Haidar Abdul-Amir MF 23 Mohammed Ali MF 9 Ahmad Abdul-Jabar  25' MF 24 Wissam Zaki  90' MF 16 Mohannad Nassir FW 7 Muslim Mubarak FW 19 Abbas Hassan  73' Substitutions: FW 11 Alaa Abdul-Sattar  73' MF 18 Haitham Kadhim  82' MF 10 Haidar Sabah  90' Manager: Mohammed Hussein Nasrallah

GK 20 Noor Sabri DF 12 Haidar Abdul-Razzaq (c) DF 24 Azhar Tahir DF 17 Ali Noaman  60' MF 14 Alaa Nayrouz MF 7 Ali Abbas MF 29 Abbas Jafar  72' MF 18 Mahdi Karim  74' FW 11 Yassir Abdul-Razzaq FW 9 Mohammed Nasser Shakroun FW 32 Ahmed Salah Substitutions: MF 29 Bassim Abdul-Hassan  72' FW 18 Alaa Kadhim  74' Manager: Thair Ahmed

Match officials Assistant referees: Aziz Jassim Amjad Shaker

Match rules 90 minutes. Penalty shootout if scores still level.

Final

15 July 2005

14:00 GMT

Al-Minaa	0–2	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
		Salah 58' Essa 67' (o.g.)

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

Attendance: 15,000

Referee: Alaa Abdul-Qadir

Al-Minaa

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya

GK 1 Saddam Salman DF 4 Emad Aoda (c) DF 15 Sattar Jabbar  27' DF 13 Alaa Abdul-Hussein  74' DF 21 Sajjad Abdul-Kadhim MF 17 Qais Essa MF 7 Ghazi Fahad  37'  73' MF 14 Nawaf Salal MF 25 Nawaf Falah  77' FW 30 Osama Shayyal  70' FW 9 Nasser Tallaa Substitutions: FW 8 Mukhlas Abdul-Sattar  70' MF 12 Ahmed Hassan  73' FW 10 Ammar Hussein  82'  77' Manager: Abdul-Karim Jassim

GK 1 Wissam Gassid DF 3 Mukhlad Ali DF 5 Ali Rehema DF 6 Haidar Rahim DF 4 Fareed Majeed  17' MF 11 Ali Khudhair MF 8 Hussein Saddam  88' MF 20 Ghanim Khudhair  60' MF 10 Hawar Mulla Mohammed  80' FW 7 Luay Salah FW 9 Waleed Dhahid (c) Substitutions: MF 17 Alaa Abdul-Wahid  60' MF 13 Humam Saleh  80' MF 34 Mohanad Mohammed Ali  88' Manager: Sabah Abdul-Jalil

Match officials Assistant referees: Mohammed Arab Luay Subhi

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shootout if scores still level.

Season statistics

Top four positions

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts	Eff	Qualification
1	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	23	47	68.1%	2006 AFC Champions League
2	Al-Minaa	21	42	66.7%	2006 AFC Champions League
3	Al-Talaba	23	38	55.1%	2005–06 Arab Champions League
4	Al-Zawraa	23	50	72.5%	2005–06 Arab Champions League

Top scorers

Pos	Scorer	Goals	Team
1	Mustafa Karim	16	Al-Kahrabaa
2	Ali Mohammed	12	Al-Najaf
3	Mohammed Kalaf	10	Al-Naft
	Abbas Hassan	10	Al-Zawraa
5	Khalid Harbi	9	Al-Nasiriya

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Iraq Stars League hat-tricks

Player[2]	For	Against	Result	Date
Sahib Abbas	Karbala	Al-Shuala	3–1	21 October 2004
Alaa Kadhim	Al-Talaba	Balad	4–2	29 October 2004
Samer Saeed	Erbil	Sulaymaniya	5–0	27 December 2004
Ayad Shaalan	Al-Sinaa	Al-Shuala	3–0	13 January 2005
Mustafa Karim4	Al-Kahrabaa	Salahaddin	6–0	18 January 2005
Ali Mohammed	Al-Najaf	Babil	4–0	21 January 2005
Khalid Harbi	Al-Nasiriya	Al-Basra	4–2	17 February 2005
Mushtaq Kadhim	Al-Naft	Balad	5–1	18 February 2005
Mustafa Karim5	Al-Kahrabaa	Salahaddin	7–2	15 April 2005
Ihssan Hadi	Duhok	Erbil	3–0	18 April 2005
Waleed Jawad	Balad	Salahaddin	5–0	1 May 2005
Hussein Ridha	Karbala	Duhok	4–1	2 July 2005

Notes

⁴ Player scored 4 goals
⁵ Player scored 5 goals