2015–16 Iraqi Premier League

Iraqi Premier League

Season	2015–16
Champions	Al-Zawraa 13th Premier League title 13th Iraqi title
Relegated	Duhok Al-Sinaa
AFC Cup	Al-Zawraa Naft Al-Wasat
Top goalscorer	Mohannad Abdul-Raheem Hammadi Ahmed (12 goals)
Highest scoring	Al-Karkh 4–4 Al-Talaba
Longest winning run	5 games Al-Mina'a
Longest unbeaten run	24 games Al-Zawra'a
Longest winless run	13 games Al-Sina'a
Longest losing run	5 games Al-Kahraba
← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 22 May 2016.

The 2015–2016 Iraqi Premier League (also known as the Fuchs Iraqi Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 42nd season of the Iraqi Premier League since its establishment in 1974. The season started on 15 September 2015 and concluded on 22 May 2016. Al-Zawraa won a record 13th Iraqi Premier League title, finishing one point ahead of defending champions Naft Al-Wasat. Al-Zawraa went through all 24 matches without a single defeat: the eighth time that a team has won the league undefeated since the league's inception in 1974.

Promoted teams

Teams promoted from 2014–15 Iraq Division 1

• Al-Samawa
• Al-Sinaa

Teams relegated to 2015–16 Iraq Division 1

• Masafi Al-Wasat
• Sulaymaniya FC

Teams

Source:

Al-Zawra'a | Al Talaba | Al Quwa Al Jawiya | Al Shorta | Naft | Al Minaa Basra | Al Karkh | Baghdad | Duhok | Al Hudod | Karbala | Al Simawa | Naft Al-Janoob | Naft Maysan | Al Najaf | Zakho | Naft Al-Wasat | Al Kahrabaa | Al Sinaah | Erbil

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Al-Talaba	Saleh Radi	Resigned	28 May 2015	Ayoub Odisho	6 June 2015
Zakho	Ali Hadi	End of contract	15 June 2015	Ilie Stan	15 June 2015
Al-Zawraa	Emad Mohammed	Sacked	24 June 2015	Basim Qasim	21 July 2015
Naft Maysan	Hassan Ahmed	End of contract	30 June 2015	Abbas Obeid	13 July 2015
Al-Shorta	Thair Jassam	End of contract	7 July 2015	Hakim Shaker	13 July 2015
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Abbas Attiya	Sacked	12 July 2015	Sabah Abdul-Jalil	9 August 2015
Naft Al-Wasat	Abdul Ghani Shahad	Resigned	10 August 2015	Hamza Gamal	19 August 2015
Erbil	Ahmad Salah	End of contract	1 September 2015	Thair Ahmed	1 September 2015
Al-Shorta	Hakim Shaker	Resigned	20 October 2015	Qahtan Chathir	20 October 2015
Al-Karkh	Essam Hamad	Resigned	20 October 2015	Abbas Attiya	20 October 2015
Najaf	Ali Wahab	Resigned	27 October 2015	Emad Mohammed	29 October 2015
Naft Maysan	Abbas Obeid	Resigned	7 November 2015	TBD	TBD
Duhok	Thair Jassam	Resigned	7 November 2015	TBD	TBD
Zakho	Ilie Stan	Mutual consent	25 December 2015	Marin Ion	26 December 2015
Al-Kahraba	Ali Hadi	Resigned	3 February 2016	TBD	TBD
Al-Shorta	Qahtan Chathir	Resigned	7 March 2016	Radhi Shenaishil	8 March 2016
Naft Al-Wasat	Hamza Gamal	Sacked	15 March 2016	Thair Ahmed	17 March 2016
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Sabah Abdul-Jalil	Sacked	2 April 2016	Ali Hadi	3 April 2016
Al-Shorta	Radhi Shenaishil	Resigned	8 May 2016	Hashim Ridha	8 May 2016

First Stage

Group 1 Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Zawraa	17	11	6	0	24	10	+14	39	Qualified to the final stage
2	Naft Al-Wasat	17	10	5	2	24	14	+10	35	Qualified to the final stage
3	Al-Naft	17	9	5	3	21	10	+11	32	Qualified to the final stage
4	Al-Talaba	17	7	6	4	20	14	+6	27	Qualified to the final stage
5	Naft Maysan	17	6	6	5	16	16	0	24
6	Al-Kahraba	17	3	7	7	9	17	−8	16
7	Naft Al-Janoob	17	3	6	8	15	20	−5	15
8	Al-Karkh	17	2	6	9	11	20	−9	12
9	Al-Samawa	17	2	4	11	14	26	−12	10
10	Duhokn1	9	2	1	6	8	15	−7	7	Relegation to Iraq Division 1

Updated to games played on 3 March 2016.
Source: Goalzz.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Group 1 Results

Home ╲ Away	KAR	TAL	KAH	NFT	SAM	ZAW	DUH	JAN	NWT	NMY
Al-Karkh		4–4	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–2		2–1	0–1	1–1
Al-Talaba	1–0		3–1	0–1	2–0	0–1		1–0	1–1	2–0
Al-Kahraba	0–0	0–2		1–1	0–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–1
Al-Naft	3–2	2–0	0–0		2–1	0–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	0–0
Samawa	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–1		0–1		0–1	3–1	2–2
Al-Zawraa	2–0	0–0	2–1	2–2	2–1		1–0	0–0	2–1	0–0
Duhokn1	1–0	1–1			3–2			1–2	1–3
Naft Al-Janoob	0–0	2–2	0–0	0–1	2–1	2–2			2–3	1–1
Naft Al-Wasat	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	1–0	1–1		2–1		2–1
Naft Maysan	1–0	0–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–3	2–1	1–0	2–2

Source: Goalzz.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

^{note 1} Duhok withdrew from the league after 12 games. They lost all 3 of their second round-robin matches; these 3 results were annulled but their 9 matches from the first round-robin remained.

Group 2 Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	17	10	3	4	22	11	+11	33	Qualified to the final stage
2	Al-Minaa	18	9	5	4	27	17	+10	32	Qualified to the final stage
3	Baghdad	18	9	3	6	22	17	+5	30	Qualified to the final stage
4	Al-Shorta	18	9	2	7	20	19	+1	29	Qualified to the final stage
5	Zakho	18	7	7	4	17	10	+7	28
6	Erbil	17	5	8	4	19	17	+2	23
7	Najaf	18	7	2	9	13	22	−9	23
8	Karbala	18	5	7	6	17	16	+1	22
9	Al-Hedood	18	2	6	10	11	23	−12	12
10	Al-Sinaa	18	1	7	10	8	24	−16	10	Relegation to Iraq Division 1

Updated to games played on 5 March 2016.
Source: Goalzz.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Group 2 Results

Home ╲ Away	HED	MIN	JAW	SHO	SIN	BGD	ERB	KAR	NJF	ZAK
Al-Hedood		0–2	1–2	1–2	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–0
Al-Minaa	1–1		1–1	2–0	4–1	0–2	3–1	2–0	3–0n2	1–1
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	2–0	1–2		2–0	0–2	3–1	2–0	1–0	3–0	0–0
Al-Shorta	1–0	0–1	1–1		1–0	1–0	2–3	1–0	2–1	1–0
Al-Sinaa	0–0	1–2	0–2	0–2		0–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–1
Baghdad	1–3	0–0	0–1	2–0	3–0		2–2	2–1	1–0	2–1
Erbil	1–1	3–1	n3	0–2	1–1	2–0		0–0	2–0	0–0
Karbalaa	3–2	3–1	1–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	1–1		0–1	1–0
Najaf	2–0	1–0	0–1	3–2	1–0	0–2	1–3	1–0		0–0
Zakho	3–0	1–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–0

Updated to games played on 5 March 2016.
Source: Goalzz.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

^{note 2} Al-Minaa were awarded a 3–0 victory after Najaf did not turn up for the game.

^{note 3} The match was postponed due to Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya's involvement in the AFC Cup, and was later cancelled altogether due to the outcome of the match having no effect on qualification to the next round or relegation to the lower division.

Final Stage

The final stage started on 2 April and finished on 22 May. Each team played each other just once.

Final Stage Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Zawraa (C)	7	4	3	0	13	5	+8	15	2017 AFC Cup group stage
2	Naft Al-Wasat	7	4	2	1	10	6	+4	14
3	Al-Talaba	7	3	3	1	8	6	+2	12
4	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	7	3	0	4	11	7	+4	9
5	Al-Naft	7	2	3	2	9	9	0	9
6	Al-Minaa	7	2	2	3	9	13	−4	8
7	Al-Shorta	7	1	2	4	6	12	−6	5
8	Baghdad	7	1	1	5	6	14	−8	4

Updated to games played on 22 May 2016.
Source: Goalzz.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Final Stage Results

Home ╲ Away	MIN	NFT	JAW	SHO	TAL	ZAW	BGD	NWT
Al-Minaa			1–0	2–2			1–0
Al-Naft	3–2			2–0	1–1		2–2
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya		2–0		3–0n4	1–2			1–3
Al-Shorta					1–0	2–2	1–2	0–1
Al-Talaba	1–0					1–1	2–1
Al-Zawraa	5–1	1–1	1–0
Baghdad			0–4			0–2		1–2
Naft Al-Wasat	2–2	1–0			1–1	0–1

Source: Goalzz.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

^{note 4} Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were awarded a 3–0 victory after Al-Shorta did not turn up for the game.

Top scorers

As of 22 May 2016

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Hammadi Ahmed	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	12
	Mohannad Abdul-Raheem	Al-Zawraa
3	Abdul-Qadir Tariq	Al-Talaba	10
	Omar Khribin	Al-Minaa
4	Alaa Abdul-Zahra	Al-Zawraa	9

See also

• 2015–16 Iraq FA Cup

References

• Goalzz.com
• Soccerway