Iraqi Premier Division League

The Iraqi Premier Division League (Arabic: دوري الدرجة الممتازة العراقي)^[1] is the second-highest division of the Iraqi football league system after the Iraq Stars League. The league is contested by 22 clubs and is operated by the Iraq Football Association (IFA). It will be governed by the Iraqi Pro League Association from the 2024–25 season. Each season, the two top-finishing teams in the Premier Division League are automatically promoted to the Stars League. The four lowest-finishing teams are relegated to First Division League.

Iraqi Premier Division League

Founded	1974; 50 years ago (1974)
Country	Iraq
Number of teams	22
Level on pyramid	2
Promotion to	Iraq Stars League
Relegation to	Iraqi First Division League
Domestic cup(s)	Iraq FA Cup
International cup(s)	AFC Champions League 2 (via Iraq FA Cup)
Current champions	Al-Minaa (3rd title) (2022–23)
Most championships	Al-Minaa (3 titles)
TV partners	Al-Iraqiya Sports
Current: 2023–24 Iraqi Premier Division League

The number of clubs in the league have changed throughout history, most recently in the 2023–24 season, when the number of clubs decreased from 24 to 22 and the competition's name was changed from First Division League to Premier Division League.

In the 2022–23 season, Al-Minaa won the title and were promoted alongside runners-up Amanat Baghdad.^[2][3] Thus, Al-Minaa was considered the record holder in the tournament (won 3 titles).^[4]

League structure

In November 2020, The Iraq FA announced that the number of teams will decrease from 28 to 24 in total starting from 2021 to 2022 season. To make these changes possible, the Iraq FA announced that in 2020–21 season, The top teams in each group are directly promoted to the top-tier, while 8 teams in total are directly relegated to third-tier.^[5]

On April 8, 2023, the promotion and relegation mechanism was changed, and the Football Association announced the promotion of the winning team in each group directly to the top-tier, and the relegation of the last two teams in the standings in each group to the third-tier, as a result, two teams are promote and 4 teams are relegate.^[6][7]

Competition name

Name history

Period	Name
1974–1995	National Clubs Second Division
1995–1999	First Division League
1999–2000	Second Division League
2000–2002	First Division League
2002–2003	Second Division League
2003–2023	First Division League
2023–present	Premier Division League

In the media

Iraqi Premier Division League is called in the media by the name of Dawri Al-Madhaleem (Oppressed League), because the media, the Football Association, and the Referees Committee do not care about it, and the teams that play in it suffer from poor financing, and their stadiums are in a bad shape. However, the league includes very talented players, and the competition in it is so strong that it exceeds the competition in the Stars League.^{[8][9][10][11]}

List of champions

No. Season Champion 1 1974–75 Al-Zawraa 2 1975–76 Al-Ittihad 3 1976–77 Al-Thawra or Salahaddin 4 1977–78 Al-Shabab 5 1978–79 Al-Bahri 6 1979–80 Al-Adhamiya 7 1980–81 Al-Ittihad 8 1981–82 Al-Mosul 9 1982–83 Wahid Huzairan^[a] 10 1983–84 Al-Rasheed 11 1984–85 Al-Naft or Al-Sulaikh 12 1985–86 Al-Bahri 13 1986–87 Al-Minaa 14 1987–88 Multiple groups 15 1988–89 Samarra 16 1989–90 Al-Minaa 17 1990–91 Al-Amana^[b]

No. Season Champion 18 1991–92 Saad 19 1992–93 Multiple groups 20 1993–94 Al-Tijara 21 1994–95 No promotion 22 1995–96 Al-Sulaikh 23 1996–97 Diyala 24 1997–98 Duhok 25 1998–99 Erbil 26 1999–2000 No promotion 27 2000–01 Kirkuk 28 2001–02 Al-Mosul 29 2002–03 Multiple groups 30 2003–04 Abandoned 31 2004–05 Multiple groups 32 2005–06 Multiple groups 33 2006–07 Multiple groups 34 2007–08 Multiple groups

No. Season Champion 35 2008–09 Multiple groups 36 2009–10 Peshmerga^[c] 37 2010–11 Al-Shirqat 38 2011–12 Sulaymaniya 39 2012–13 Al-Karkh 40 2013–14 Multiple groups 41 2014–15 Al-Samawa 42 2015–16 Al-Hussein 43 2016–17 Al-Diwaniya 44 2017–18 Al-Karkh 45 2018–19 Al-Qasim 46 2019–20 Abandoned 47 2020–21 Al-Sinaa 48 2021–22 Al-Hudood 49 2022–23 Al-Minaa 50 2023–24 TBD

1. Now known as Kirkuk.
2. Now known as Amanat Baghdad.
3. Now known as Peshmerga Sulaymaniya.

Multiple winners

Club	Titles	Winning seasons
Al-Minaa	3	1986–87, 1989–90, 2022–23
Al-Ittihad	2	1975–76, 1980–81
Al-Bahri	2	1978–79, 1985–86
Kirkuk	2	1982–83, 2000–01
Al-Mosul	2	1981–82, 2001–02
Al-Karkh	2	2012–13, 2017–18

See also

• Iraq Stars League
• Iraq FA Cup
• Iraqi Super Cup

References

1. "في دوري الدرجة الممتازة تعادل فريق ديالى مع غاز لشمال من دون أهداف" (in Arabic). Al-Rabiaa Sports. 23 December 2023.
2. "الميناء بطلا لدوري الدرجة الأولى بعد فوزه على الامانة". shafaq.com (in Arabic). 2 June 2023.
3. "بالصور.. الميناء يتوج بلقب دوري الدرجة الأولى على حساب بغداد". kooora.com (in Arabic). 2 June 2023.
4. "الميناء يحرز لقب دوري الدرجة الاولى للموسم 2022/ 2023". al-mirbad.com (in Arabic). 2 June 2023.
5. "اعتماد تصنيف وآلية وموعد انطلاق دوري الدرجة الأولى". ifa.iq (in Arabic). Retrieved 2021-08-10.
6. "تغيير في آلية التأهل والهبوط بالدرجة الاولى". almaalomah.me (in Arabic). 8 April 2023.
7. "بالوثيقة.. تغيير آلية الصعود والهبوط في الدوريين الممتاز والأول". baghdadtoday.news (in Arabic). 8 April 2023.
8. "دوري الدرجة الاولى دوري مظاليم بإمتياز". ipoa.me (in Arabic). 19 May 2021.
9. "دوري المظاليم.. قوة وتحدٍّ وإصرار". magazine.imn.iq (in Arabic). 30 May 2023.
10. "المظاليم أولى بالاهتمام". alsabaah.iq (in Arabic). 31 May 2023.
11. "تنظيم جيد لدوري المظاليم لكنه بحاجة إلى المزيد من الأضواء". azzaman-iraq.com (in Arabic). 7 June 2023.

External links

• Iraq Football Association