2017–18 UAE Pro League

The 2017–18 UAE Pro League was the 43rd season of top-level football in the United Arab Emirates.^[1] Al-Jazira are the defending champions after winning their second title last season. Ajman and Dubai both got promoted on 22 April 2017 after beating Fujairah 3–2 and Ras Al Khaimah 2–0. On 3 May 2017, Baniyas were the first team to get relegated after drawing 4–4 against Emirates. Kalba were the last team to get relegated after losing to Al-Ain 2–1 and both Emirates and Dibba Al-Fujairah didn't lose in the same week. In July 2017 Al Ahli, Al Shabab and Dubai merged to make Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai. In 20 April 2018 Hatta lost to Al Wasl 2–0 and were the first team to get relegated. On 21 April Al Ain were crowned the champions of the league for the 13th time after destroying Al Nasr 4–0. On the final day Emirates were relegated after drawing against Al Nasr 2–2 and Al Nasr. In May 2018 it turns out that since the League needs 14 teams for next year it is decided that the bottom two teams of this year will have to face 3rd and 4th placed team of the 2nd division to see who will secure a spot next year.

UAE Pro-League

Season	2017–18
Champions	Al Ain (13th title)
Relegated	Hatta
2019 AFC Champions League	Al Ain Al Wahda Al Wasl Al Nasr
2018 FIFA Club World Cup	Al Ain
Matches played	228
Goals scored	391 (1.71 per match)
Average goals/game	1.71
Top goalscorer	Marcus Berg (25)
Biggest home win	Al Ain 7–0 Ajman (3 February 2018)
Biggest away win	Hatta 1–5 Al Nasr (17 November 2017) Al Nasr 0–4 Al Ain (21 April 2018)
Highest scoring	Al Ain 6–2 Hatta (21 January 2018) Al Ain 6–2 Al Wahda (1 March 2018)
Longest winning run	Al Nasr (6 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Al Ain (16 games)
Longest winless run	Al Dhafra (13 games)
Longest losing run	Emirates (6 games)
Highest attendance	Al Ain 6–2 Al Wahda (20,786)
Lowest attendance	Hatta 1–2 Dibba Al Fujairah (501)
Average attendance	418
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

Stadia and locations

 

 

Al Jazira

 

Al Wasl

 

Ajman

 

Al Ain

 

Hatta

 

Al Dhafra

 

Al Nasr

 

Al Wahda

 

Dibba Al Fujairah

 

Emirates

 

Shabab Al-Ahli

 

Sharjah

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Locations of teams in the 2017–18 UAE Pro League

Note: Table lists clubs in alphabetical order.

Club	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Ajman	Ajman	Ajman Stadium	5,537
Al-Ain	Al-Ain	Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium	22,717
Al-Dhafra	Madinat Zayed	Al Dhafra Stadium	5,020
Al-Jazira	Abu Dhabi	Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium	42,056
Al-Nasr	Dubai	Al-Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Al-Wahda	Abu Dhabi	Al Nahyan Stadium	12,000
Al-Wasl	Dubai	Zabeel Stadium	8,439
Dibba Al-Fujairah	Fujairah	Fujairah Club Stadium	10,645
Emirates	Ras Al-Khaimah	Emirates Club Stadium	5,200
Hatta	Hatta	Hamdan Bin Rashid Stadium	5,000
Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai	Dubai	Dubai Club Stadium	7,500
Sharjah	Sharjah	Sharjah Stadium	11,073

Number of teams by Emirates

Rank	Emirate	Number of teams	Teams
1	Dubai	4	Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, Al Nasr, Al Wasl, Hatta
1	Abu Dhabi	4	Al Ain, Al Dhafra, Al Jazira, Al Wahda
2	Sharjah	1	Sharjah
2	Ajman	1	Ajman
2	Ras al-Khaimah	1	Emirates
2	Fujairah	1	Dibba Al Fujairah

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	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor
Ajman	Ayman Elramady	Abdullah Malallah	uhlsport	Ajman Bank
Al-Ain	Zoran Mamić	Omar Abdulrahman	Nike	First Gulf Bank
Al-Dhafra	Gjoko Hadžievski	Issam El Adoua	Adidas	Adnoc
Al-Jazira	Henk ten Cate	Ali Khasif	Adidas	IPIC
Al-Nasr	Ivan Jovanović	Tareq Ahmed	Nike	Emirates NBD Dubai Silicon Oasis
Al-Wahda	Laurențiu Reghecampf	Ismail Matar	Adidas	Al-Wahda Mall
Al-Wasl	Rodolfo Arruabarrena	Waheed Ismail	Macron	Saif Belhasa Holding
Dibba Al-Fujairah	Paulo Comelli	Abdullah Nasser	uhlsport	uhlsport
Emirates	Nizar Mahrous	Sebastián Sáez	uhlsport	Al Naeem City Center
Hatta	Abdelmajeed Alzarooni	Mahmoud Hassan	Macron	Macron
Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai	Mahdi Ali	Majed Naser	Nike	Skydive Dubai
Sharjah	Abdulaziz Mohamed	Eisa Ahmed	Macron

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Manner of departure	Pos.	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al-Nasr	Dan Petrescu	26 May 2017	End of Contract	Pre-season	Cesare Prandelli	26 May 2017^[2]
Al-Wahda	Javier Aguirre	31 May 2017			Laurențiu Reghecampf	2 June 2017
Hatta	Gjoko Hadžievski	6 October 2017	Sacked	11th	Nizar Mahrous	6 October 2017
Sharjah	José Peseiro	15 October 2017	Sacked	11th	Abdulaziz Mohamed	15 October 2017^[3]
Emirates	Ivan Hašek	31 October 2017	Sacked	10th	Noureddine Abidi (caretaker)	1 November 2017
Shabab Al-Ahli	Cosmin Olăroiu	2 December 2017	End of Contract	4th	Mahdi Ali	2 December 2017
Emirates	Noureddine Abidi (caretaker)	5 January 2018	End of Caretaker Spell	11th	Nour Al Obaidi	5 January 2018
Al-Dhafra	Mohammad Kwid	13 January 2018	Sacked	12th	Gjoko Hadžievski	13 January 2018
Al-Nasr	Cesare Prandelli	19 January 2018	Sacked	4th	Ivan Jovanović	19 January 2018
Hatta	Nizar Mahrous	20 April 2018	Signed by Emirates	12th	Abdelmajeed Alzarooni	20 April 2018
Emirates	Nour Al Obaidi	20 April 2018	Sacked	11th	Nizar Mahrous	20 April 2018

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly 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.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Former Players
Al-Ain	Caio	Hussein El Shahat	Marcus Berg	Tsukasa Shiotani	Douglas
Al-Dhafra	Aílton	Fernando Viana	Issam El Adoua	Igor Sergeev	Mohannad Abdul-Raheem   Adil Hermach
Al-Jazira	Romarinho	Mbark Boussoufa	Harib Al-Saadi	Mohammed Al-Musalami	Lassana Diarra   Sardor Rashidov
Al-Nasr	Marcelo Cirino	Wanderley	Abdelaziz Barrada	Joan Oumari	Mauro Zárate
Al-Wahda	Sebastian Tagliabue	Balázs Dzsudzsák	Mourad Batna	Rim Chang-woo
Al-Wasl	Caio	Fábio Lima	Ronaldo Mendes	Anthony Cáceres
Ajman	Adeílson	Bakare Kone	Modibo Maïga	Azizbek Haydarov
Dibba Al-Fujairah	Diogo	Rodolfo	Driss Fettouhi	Yaseen Al-Bakhit	Ciel   Alassane Diallo
Emirates	Sebastián Sáez	Abdelghani Mouaoui	Youssef Kalfa	Park Jong-woo	Sebastián Leto
Hatta	Fernando Gabriel	Samuel	Adrian Ropotan	Omar Midani
Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai	Ante Erceg	Henrique Luvannor	Makhete Diop	Moon Chang-jin	Tomás De Vincenti   Moussa Sow
Sharjah	Lulinha	Vander Vieira	Welliton	Otabek Shukurov	Ryan McGowan   César Pinares

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Al Ain (C)	22	16	5	1	65	23	+42	53	Qualification to the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup first round and the 2019 AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al Wahda	22	14	4	4	50	29	+21	46	Qualification to the 2019 AFC Champions League group stage
3	Al Wasl	22	12	5	5	42	27	+15	41
4	Al Nasr	22	11	4	7	30	24	+6	37	Qualification to the 2019 AFC Champions League play-off round
5	Shabab Al Ahli Dubai	22	7	10	5	25	18	+7	31
6	Sharjah	22	8	5	9	26	30	−4	29
7	Al Jazira	22	7	7	8	34	36	−2	28
8	Ajman	22	7	5	10	25	36	−11	26
9	Dibba Al-Fujairah	22	5	6	11	21	36	−15	21
10	Al Dhafra	22	4	6	12	24	42	−18	18
11	Emirates (Q)	22	4	5	13	20	39	−19	17	Qualified for the UAE Pro-League Play Off
12	Hatta (Q)	22	4	4	14	30	52	−22	16

Updated to match(es) played on 2 March 2018. Source: AGLeague
Rules for classification: ^[4] 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^[5] 10) draw
(C) Champion; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Results

Home \ Away	AIN	DHA	JAZ	NAS	WAH	WAS	AJM	DAF	EMI	HAT	SAD	SHR
Al Ain		5–0	2–2	2–1	6–2	2–2	7–0	4–0	3–0	6–2	2–1	3–3
Al Dhafra	1–2		2–2	1–2	1–1	2–1	0–0	2–0	0–1	2–5	1–2	2–0
Al Jazira	2–3	3–1		2–4	2–4	0–0	2–1	2–2	3–1	2–1	0–0	3–1
Al Nasr	0–4	1–0	1–0		1–2	0–2	0–1	3–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	1–2
Al Wahda	0–1	1–1	4–1	1–0		4–3	2–3	5–0	2–1	3–1	0–0	3–0
Al Wasl	1–3	3–0	1–1	1–2	2–1		2–2	3–2	3–1	2–0	3–0	2–1
Ajman	2–3	3–1	1–1	0–1	2–2	0–2		2–1	3–2	1–0	1–3	0–1
Dibba Al–Fujairah	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–2	1–3	2–0	2–0		1–0	2–2	0–1	1–1
Emirates	0–2	3–3	1–0	2–2	1–4	1–4	1–1	1–0		4–0	0–2	0–0
Hatta	0–3	1–2	2–3	1–5	0–1	2–2	1–0	1–2	2–2		1–1	3–1
Shabab Al Ahli–Dubai	1–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–2	1–1	4–0	4–1		0–1
Sharjah	3–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	2–3	1–2	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–3	0–0

Updated to match(es) played on 9 February 2018. Source: AGLeague
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

UAE Relegation Play Offs

Because the League 2018–2019 season needs 14 teams, the bottom two teams of year and the 3rd and 4th place team of the 2nd division will have to face each other to see who will secure the final two spots this year.

First leg

9 May 2018

Fujairah	2–1	Hatta
	Report

Fujairah Club Stadium, Fujairah

9 May 2018

Al Hamriyah	0–0	Emirates
	Report

Al Hamriya Sports Club Stadium, Al Hamriyah

Second Leg

14 May 2018

Hatta	0–1	Fujairah
	Report

Hamdan Bin Rashid Stadium, Hatta

Fujairah won 3–1 on aggregate.

14 May 2018

Emirates	1–0	Al Hamriyah
	Report

Emirates Club Stadium, Ras Al Khaimah

Emirates won 1–0 on aggregate.

References

1. "New League name announced by H.E. Mohammed Thani Murshed Al Romaithi - News - UAE Pro League Committee".
2. "Prandelli to manage Al Nasr FC in the new season". Al Nasr Club. 25 May 2017.
3. Hammond, Ashley (16 October 2017). "Coach Peseiro sacked by Sharjah". GulfNews. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
4. "Article (15) of Arabian Gulf League Regulations" (PDF). Retrieved 12 February 2017.
5. "Fairplay - Arabian Gulf League - UAE Pro League Committee". uae.agleague.ae. Retrieved 12 February 2017.