2020–21 Qatar Stars League

The 2020–21 Qatari League, also known as Qatar Stars League or QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, was the 47th edition of top-level football championship in Qatar. Al-Duhail are the defending champions.

Qatar Stars League

Season	2020–2021
Dates	3 September 2020 – 10 April 2021
Champions	Al-Sadd (15th title)
Relegated	Al-Kharaitiyat
Champions League	Al-Sadd Al-Duhail
Champions League Play-off round	Al-Rayyan
Matches played	132
Goals scored	376 (2.85 per match)
Top goalscorer	Baghdad Bounedjah (21 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Ivanildo Rodrigues
Biggest home win	Al Sadd 8–0 Al-Sailiya (7 January 2021)
Biggest away win	Al-Ahli 1–7 Al Sadd (25 October 2020)
Highest scoring	Al-Duhail 8–1 Al-Wakrah (8 January 2021)
Longest winning run	Al Sadd (7 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Al Sadd (22 matches)
Longest winless run	Al-Kharaitiyat (13 matches)
Longest losing run	Al-Kharaitiyat (13 matches)
← 2019–20 2021–22 → All statistics correct as of 10 April 2021.

Al Sadd won the league title for a record 15th time, without suffering a defeat during the entire campaign.^[1]

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-Kharaitiyat	Umm Salal	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-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	Omid Ebrahimi	Puma	Regency Group Holding
Al-Arabi	Heimir Hallgrímsson	Ahmed Fatehi	Puma	N/A
Al-Duhail	Sabri Lamouchi	Almoez Ali	Puma	Al Rayan Bank
Al-Gharafa	Andrea Stramaccioni	Qasem Burhan	Puma	N/A
Al-Khor	Winfried Schäfer	Helal Mohammed	Adidas	N/A
Al-Kharaitiyat	Wissam Rizk	Pejman Montazeri	Joma	N/A
Al-Rayyan	Laurent Blanc	Yacine Brahimi	Nike	QIC
Al-Sadd	Xavi	Hassan Al-Haydos	Puma	Qatar Airways
Al-Sailiya	Sami Trabelsi	Majdi Siddiq	Umbro	UCC Holding Qatar Islamic Bank
Al-Wakrah	Tintín Márquez	Isaías	Umbro	N/A
Qatar SC	Younes Ali	Álex Gálvez	Puma	N/A
Umm Salal	Aziz Ben Askar	Anas Mubarak	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	July 2021

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^[2]	Former Players
Al-Ahli	Omid Ebrahimi	Mohamed Diamé	Hernán Pérez	Shane Lowry	Nabil El Zhar
Al-Arabi	Aron Gunnarsson	Marc Muniesa	Youssef Msakni	Mehrdad Mohammadi	Ayoub Azzi	Pierre-Michel Lasogga   Mehdi Torabi   Hamdi Harbaoui
Al-Duhail	Edmilson Junior	Dudu	Michael Olunga	Ali Karimi	Medhi Benatia	Ramin Rezaeian   Youssef Msakni
Al-Gharafa	Sofiane Hanni	Jonathan Kodjia	Wilfried Kanon	Koo Ja-cheol	Adlène Guedioura	Héctor Moreno
Al Kharaitiyat	Evans Mensah	Oumar Sako	Rachid Tiberkanine	Pejman Montazeri	Mohammed Osman
Al-Khor	Pierre-Michel Lasogga	Rafael Vaz	Giannis Fetfatzidis	Yuki Kobayashi	Ismail El Haddad	Lucca   Alexander Michel Melki   Ibrahim Amada   Léo Gamalho
Al-Rayyan	Gabriel Mercado	Franck Kom	Yohan Boli	Shoja' Khalilzadeh	Yacine Brahimi
Al-Sadd	Guilherme	Nam Tae-hee	Santi Cazorla	Jung Woo-young	Baghdad Bounedjah
Al-Sailiya	Nadir Belhadj	Tiago Bezerra	Kara Mbodji	Ramin Rezaeian	Mohanad Ali	Ahmed Hammoudan
Al-Wakrah	Lucas Mendes	Ousmane Coulibaly	Abdennour Belhocini	Isaías Sánchez	Mohamed Benyettou	Cristian Ceballos   Fahad Al Ansari
Qatar SC	Anthony Okpotu	Cristian Ceballos	Youcef Belaïli	Bashar Resan	Mehdi Berrahma	Kayke   Álex Gálvez   Ali Karimi   Abdenasser El Khayati
Umm Salal	Kayke	Moses Orkuma	Aymen Abdennour	Rouzbeh Cheshmi	Ahmed Hammoudan	Ayoub Azzi   Abdennour Belhocini   Walid Mesloub   Késsé Mangoua   Yannick Sagbo   Mahmoud Al-Mawas

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Sadd (C)	22	19	3	0	77	14	+63	60	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al-Duhail	22	15	2	5	53	25	+28	47
3	Al-Rayyan	22	10	5	7	31	22	+9	35
4	Al-Gharafa	22	10	3	9	41	34	+7	33	Qualification for AFC Champions League play-off round
5	Al-Ahli	22	10	3	9	28	38	−10	33
6	Qatar SC	22	9	5	8	30	24	+6	32
7	Al-Arabi	22	8	5	9	28	32	−4	29
8	Al-Wakrah	22	7	5	10	19	29	−10	26
9	Al-Sailiya	22	7	5	10	22	36	−14	26
10	Umm Salal	22	5	6	11	13	31	−18	21
11	Al-Khor (O)	22	3	8	11	17	42	−25	17	Qualification for Relegation play-off
12	Al Kharaitiyat (R)	22	4	0	18	17	49	−32	12	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

Results

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

Source: QSL, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Positions by round

	Leader : 2022 AFC Champions League Group stage
	2021 AFC Champions League group stage
	2022 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off
	Qualification to Relegation play-off
	Relegation to 2021–22 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	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Al-Duhail	2	4	4	6	4	5	4	6	5	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Al-Rayyan	8	3	6	4	6	4	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	5	4	5	4	3	3	3	3	3
Al-Gharafa	3	5	5	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	2	3	4	3	3	4	5	4	5	6	6	4
Al-Ahli	4	2	2	1	2	2	2	3	2	3	5	4	5	6	6	7	6	7	6	4	4	5
Qatar SC	10	12	8	10	12	8	7	4	4	5	4	5	3	4	5	3	3	5	4	5	5	6
Al-Arabi	5	9	11	7	9	10	10	10	11	9	9	7	7	7	7	6	7	6	7	7	8	7
Al-Wakrah	9	6	3	5	5	7	6	8	8	8	7	9	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	9	9	8
Al-Sailiya	7	11	7	8	7	6	8	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	9
Umm Salal	11	10	12	12	10	12	12	9	9	10	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10
Al-Khor	6	8	10	9	11	11	11	12	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11
Al Kharaitiyat	12	7	9	11	8	9	9	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Source: QSL

Relegation play-off

5 May 2021

12:00

Al-Khor	3-1	Al-Shahania
I Fetfatzidis   2' Y Kobayashi   19' S Brahmi   77' (pen.)		A. Al-Yahri   86'

Suheim bin Hamad Stadium

Attendance: 0

Referee: Saoud Ali Al-Adba

Season statistics

Top scorers

^[3]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Baghdad Bounedjah	Al-Sadd	21
2	Dudu	Al-Duhail	14
3	Santi Cazorla	Al-Sadd	13
	Youcef Belaïli	Qatar SC
5	Edmilson Junior	Al-Duhail	12
6	Yohan Boli	Al-Rayyan	11
	Jonathan Kodjia	Al-Gharafa
8	Mehrdad Mohammadi	Al-Arabi	10
	Rodrigo Tabata	Al-Sadd
	Nabil El Zhar	Al-Ahli

Top assists

As of 3 January 2021^[3]

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Santi Cazorla	Al Sadd	8
	Sofiane Hanni	Al-Gharafa
3	Dudu	Al-Duhail	6
4	Abdelkarim Hassan	Al Sadd	5
	Akram Afif	Al Sadd
	Ahmed Fatehi	Al-Arabi
5	Edmilson Junior	Al-Duhail	4

Clean sheets

As of 29 December 2020

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Ivanildo Rodrigues	Al-Ahli	5
2	Jassem Adel	Qatar SC	4
	Papa Djibril	Al-Khor
4	Baba Malick	Umm Salal	3
	Fahad Younes	Al-Rayyan
	Salah Zakaria	Al-Gharafa
7	Qasem Burhan	Al-Gharafa	2
	Saoud Al Khater	Al-Wakrah
	Amine Lecomte	Al-Sailiya
	Meshaal Barsham	Al Sadd
11	Khalifa Ababacar	Al-Duhail	1
	Mohammed Al-Bakri	Al-Duhail
	Mahmud Abunada	Al-Arabi

References

1. "West Asia Wrap: Al Sadd end Qatar season unbeaten, Al Hilal suffer defeat in Saudi Arabia". AFC. 12 April 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
2. "One Arab player allowed at each club, says QFA Exec Com". QFA. 15 January 2019.
3. "Players - Stars League - Top Scorer & Assist".

External links

• Official website (in Arabic and English)