Qatar Stars League Information

The Qatar Stars League is the highest-level professional football competition in this country. The 2021/22 QNB Stars League is the 48^th edition of the tournament. It gathers 12 teams in a joint league where they play each other. Each club plays all the others home and away, so there are 22 rounds per season. The competition begins in September and finishes in April.

The winner of the Qatar Stars League qualifies for the group stage of the AFC Champions League. The second and third-placed teams secure a spot in the qualification playoff of this competition. The last club in the table are relegated to the Qatargas League, while the 11^th earn a spot in the relegation playoff.

Qatar Stars League History

The Qatar Football Association was established in 1960. It took three years to launch an unofficial season of the Qatar National League. An official season first took place in 1972/73, and Al Esteqlal were the championship winner.

Format and rule changes didn’t give much success in popularizing the Qatar Stars League. However, when the government gave each club $10m, many world stars rushed to Qatar. The country also formed the Aspire Academy to provide young footballers with high-quality training facilities. The last big change for the competition occurred in 2009. It was renamed the Qatar Stars League and expanded to 12 teams.

Qatar Stars League Clubs

Al Sadd won the Qatar Stars League title on 16 occasions, which is twice as many championships as Al-Rayyan. Here are some other club statistics:

• Al-Ahli are the oldest club in the league – they were formed in 1950.
• Al-Duhail SC beat Al-Shahania 10-0 on December 21, 2016. This is the biggest win in Qatar Stars League history.
• Al Sadd take first place in the all-time table of the Qatar Stars League. They won 566 points from 256 matches, only three more than Al-Duhail.

Qatar Stars League Players

Journalists select player and manager of the year after each season. Akram Afif is the only player who won the MVP award on two occasions (in 2020 and 2021).

Here are some other interesting stats about the players:

• Nam Tae-hee won six titles with two clubs. The attacking midfielder played for Lekhwiya (Al-Duhail) and Al Sadd, winning championships with both teams.
• Karim Boudiaf, Mohammed Musa, Amine Lecomte, Luiz Júnior, Ismael Mohamed and Ali Afif also won six titles, but each of them with a single team.
• Ali Nader Mahmoud is the youngest player to feature in the Qatar Stars League. The goalkeeper was only 16 years and 10 months in October 2021 when he played for AL-Khor SC. Unfortunately, his team lost 0-5 to Al-Gharafa.
• Baghdad Bounedjah scored the most goals in a single season. The Algerian forward scored 39 times for Al Sadd in 2018/19. Bounedjah is also the top scorer in the league’s history, with 130 goals.
• Many amazing footballers have played in Qatar. The most notable names include Gabriel Batistuta, Romário, Marcel Desailly, Pep Guardiola, and Ronald and Frank de Boer.