2008–09 Iraqi Premier League

The 2008–09 Iraqi Premier League was the 35th edition of the competition. It started on 1 November 2008 and ended on 16 July 2009. 27 teams from all over the country competed for the title. Erbil won the title by defeating Al-Najaf in the final via penalty shootout after a goalless draw. It was Erbil's third league title in a row. The two teams would have qualified for the 2010 AFC Cup, but were disqualified due to FIFA's suspension of the Iraq Football Association.

Iraqi Premier League

Season	2008–09
Champions	Erbil (3rd title)
Top goalscorer	Ahmed Salah (15 goals)
Biggest home win	Al-Najaf 6–1 Maysan (22 May 2009)
Biggest away win	Al-Kahrabaa 0–6 Erbil (5 June 2009)
Highest scoring	Al-Najaf 6–1 Maysan (22 May 2009)
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 season is the only season in history where none of the four Baghdad Derby clubs (Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Shorta, Al-Talaba and Al-Zawraa) finished in the top four.^[1]

Name changes

• Al-Bareed renamed to Al-Etisalat wal-Bareed at the end of 2008.

Group stage

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Erbil	26	20	4	2	55	17	+38	64	Qualified to the Final
2	Duhok	26	18	7	1	47	11	+36	61	Qualified to Third place match
3	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	26	12	6	8	36	25	+11	42
4	Al-Naft	26	11	6	9	23	26	−3	39
5	Peris	26	9	10	7	27	26	+1	37
6	Al-Ramadi	26	10	7	9	29	30	−1	37
7	Samarra	26	9	7	10	27	23	+4	34
8	Al-Shorta	26	8	10	8	29	29	0	34
9	Salahaddin	26	8	9	9	24	27	−3	33
10	Al-Kahrabaa	26	7	9	10	22	34	−12	30
11	Kirkuk	26	6	9	11	18	25	−7	27
12	Sulaymaniya	26	6	9	11	26	34	−8	27
13	Al-Hudood	26	4	7	15	15	33	−18	19
14	Diyala	26	1	6	19	9	47	−38	9

Source: Goalzz
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	HUD	KAH	NFT	QWJ	RAM	SHR	ERB	DYL	DUH	KRK	PER	SAL	SMR	SUL
Al-Hudood		0–1	0–3	2–3	0–0	1–1	0–2	3–0	0–4	3–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–0
Al-Kahrabaa	1–0		0–1	0–0	1–3	0–0	0–6	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	2–1
Al-Naft	1–0	1–0		1–3	1–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–0
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	2–0	2–1	2–2		1–1	4–1	0–2	4–0	0–0	0–1	3–1	0–0	2–1	1–1
Al-Ramadi	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–0		2–0	2–2	2–1	1–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–1
Al-Shorta	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–2	2–0		1–2	3–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–3	1–0	2–1
Erbil	3–0	3–1	3–0	1–0	3–1	1–0		2–0	1–2	3–1	2–0	3–1	1–0	4–2
Diyala	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–2	1–3	0–3[a]	0–2		0–2	1–1	0–3	0–0	1–0	1–1
Duhok	2–1	3–2	3–0	2–1	4–0	4–0	3–0[b]	4–0		1–0	0–0	1–0	2–0	1–1
Kirkuk	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–2	2–2	2–2	1–0	0–1		2–0	2–3	0–1	1–0
Peris	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–3[c]	4–1	2–2	0–0		2–1	2–0	2–1
Salahaddin	1–0	2–2	2–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	3–0		0–0	1–3
Samarra	2–0	1–2	4–0	2–1	1–2	3–2	1–2	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–2		2–0
Sulaymaniya	2–1	3–1	1–2	1–2	2–1	0–0	0–2	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–4

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

1. The Diyala–Al-Shorta match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Shorta after Diyala's players left the field during the first half while losing 1–0.
2. The Duhok–Erbil match was ended early with the score at 3–0 to Duhok.
3. The Peris–Erbil match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Erbil after the game was abandoned with the score at 1–1.

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Al-Najaf	24	15	7	2	39	12	+27	52	Qualified to the Final
2	Al-Amana	24	13	11	0	37	15	+22	50	Qualified to Third place match
3	Al-Talaba	24	14	5	5	32	15	+17	47
4	Al-Zawraa	24	9	9	6	30	24	+6	36
5	Naft Al-Junoob	24	9	9	6	27	23	+4	36
6	Al-Minaa	24	10	6	8	20	24	−4	36
7	Al-Kufa	24	7	11	6	24	24	0	32
8	Al-Sinaa	24	4	15	5	17	18	−1	27
9	Al-Nasiriya	24	6	7	11	23	28	−5	25
10	Al-Samawa	24	5	9	10	15	25	−10	24
11	Karbala	24	5	5	14	18	30	−12	20
12	Al-Etisalat wal-Bareed	24	3	6	15	11	30	−19	15
13	Maysan	24	2	8	14	20	45	−25	14

Source: Goalzz
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Note: Al-Mosul withdrew from the league.

Results

Home \ Away	AMN	BRD	KUF	MIN	NJF	NAS	SMA	SIN	TLB	ZWR	KRB	MAY	NFJ
Al-Amana		1–1	4–1	3–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	3–0	3–2	2–2
Al-Etisalat wal-Bareed	0–1		0–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	1–4	0–2	1–1	1–0
Al-Kufa	2–2	1–0		1–1	0–1	3–1	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–1	3–1	1–1
Al-Minaa	1–1	1–0	2–2		0–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–0
Al-Najaf	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–0		1–1	3–0	3–1	1–0	1–2	2–0	6–1	2–1
Al-Nasiriya	0–1	3–0[a]	0–0	0–1	1–2		1–2	1–1	1–2	1–2	1–0	2–1	2–0
Al-Samawa	0–1	1–0	0–2	3–0	0–0	1–1		0–0	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	0–0
Al-Sinaa	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0		0–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–0
Al-Talaba	0–1	1–0	3–0	2–1	2–0	3–0	1–1	1–1		0–2	2–0	4–1	3–2
Al-Zawraa	0–2	3–1	2–2	4–1	0–2	2–1	1–0	1–1	0–1		0–0	1–1	1–3
Karbala	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	0–3	1–1	4–0	2–1	1–2	0–1		2–1	1–0
Maysan	0–2	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–3	1–2	1–0	2–4	0–2	1–1	1–0		0–0
Naft Al-Junoob	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–1	3–1	2–2

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

1. The Al-Nasiriya–Al-Etisalat wal-Bareed match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Al-Nasiriya after Al-Etisalat wal-Bareed's players left the field while losing 2–0.

Championship play-off

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Third place match
Al-Amana	0–1	Duhok
Final
Al-Najaf	0–0 (a.e.t.) (2–3 p.)	Erbil

Third place match

15 July 2009

15:30 GMT

Al-Amana	0–1	Duhok
Abdul-Nabi 15'		Mushir 48'

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Kadhim Awda

Final

16 July 2009

15:30 GMT

Al-Najaf	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Erbil
Penalties
Mohsen Sahib Naeem Faleh Sadir Sultan	2–3	Mubarak Abdul-Wahed Mohammed Mansoor Al-Deen Raad

Al-Shaab Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Alaa Abdul-Qadir

Al-Najaf

Erbil

GK 20 Alaa Gatea DF 7 Chasib Sultan (c) DF 3 Uday Omran  56' DF 5 Nabeel Abbas DF 24 Faisal Jassim MF 22 Saeed Mohsen MF 18 Dhia Faleh MF 15 Dhia Abbas  61' MF 9 Sahel Naeem FW 10 Hussein Karim  97' FW 12 Alaa Aasi  98' Substitutions: DF 6 Ayad Sadir  119'  56' MF Faris Saadoun  62'  61' MF 25 Hatim Sahib  97' Manager: Hatif Shamran

GK 1 Ahmad Ali DF 2 Samal Saeed  109' DF 3 Yassir Raad DF 16 Saad Attiya DF 14 Khaldoun Ibrahim  77'  96' MF 19 Deyar Rahman MF 12 Herdi Noor Al-Deen  67' MF 25 Ahmed Abid Ali FW 17 Ahmed Salah (c)  61' FW 11 Luay Salah  32'  83' FW 10 Muslim Mubarak Substitutions: FW 9 Ali Mansoor  99'  61' MF 23 Shirzad Mohammed  67' MF 20 Hussein Abdul-Wahed  83' DF 4 Rafid Badr Al-Deen  96' Manager: Thair Ahmed

Match officials Assistant referees: Ali Zaidan 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	Erbil	27	65	80.2%	2010 AFC Cup (disqualified)
2	Al-Najaf	25	53	70.7%	2010 AFC Cup (disqualified)
3	Duhok	27	64	79.0%
4	Al-Amana	25	50	66.7%

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ahmed Salah	Erbil	15
2	Luay Salah	Erbil	11
3	Nasser Tallaa	Naft Al-Junoob	9
	Sahib Abbas	Karbala
	Hussein Karim	Al-Najaf

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Iraq Stars League hat-tricks

Player[2]	For	Against	Result	Date
Ahmed Jadiea	Al-Amana	Karbala	3–0	14 November 2008
Sahib Abbas	Karbala	Al-Samawa	4–0	12 December 2008
Ahmed Hanoon	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Al-Naft	3–1	20 March 2009
Zaid Abdul-Hamza	Al-Kufa	Al-Nasiriya	3–1	9 May 2009
Ahmed Salah	Erbil	Al-Kahrabaa	6–0	5 June 2009