2003–04 Iraqi Premier League

The 2003–04 Iraqi Premier League kicked off on January 8, 2004. The name of the league was changed from Iraqi First Division to Iraqi Premier League. Due to security issues, the season was abandoned in May 2004 during the opening group stage and was declared null and void.

Iraqi Premier League
Season2003–04
ChampionsNone
AFC Champions LeagueAl-Shorta
Al-Zawraa

The top four teams from each group were meant to advance to the elite stage, which would be followed by semi-finals, a third place match and a final, with the champions and runners-up qualifying for the 2005 AFC Champions League and the third and fourth-placed teams qualifying for the 2004–05 Arab Champions League.

As this was not able to happen, the Iraq Football Association (IFA) decided that a play-off would be held between the top four teams from the Central Groups to decide which two sides would qualify for the AFC Champions League, on the assumption that the leaders of the North and South Groups at the time of cancellation (Erbil and Al-Najaf) would be able to take part in the Arab Champions League along with Al-Talaba, who were specially invited to compete.

Al-Shorta and Al-Zawraa were the teams to qualify to the AFC Champions League, but no teams were admitted to the Arab Champions League after Iraq withdrew from the tournament following UAFA's decision to only let them have one participant in Al-Talaba.[1][2]

Name changes
  • Al-Difaa Al-Jawi renamed to Al-Estiqlal.

Group stage

As many teams had played different numbers of games to each other, the points per game method was used to decide which teams qualified for the continental play-off or potentially for the Arab Champions League.

North Group
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts PPG
1 Erbil[lower-alpha 1] 10 6 3 1 19 8 +11 21 2.10
2 Al-Mosul 8 5 1 2 13 8 +5 16 2.00
3 Zakho 10 4 3 3 11 9 +2 15 1.50
4 Kirkuk 10 4 3 3 8 10 −2 15 1.50
5 Duhok 7 4 0 3 10 6 +4 12 1.71
6 Al-Sulaymaniya 9 2 0 7 6 17 −11 6 0.67
7 Peris 8 0 2 6 5 14 −9 2 0.25
Source: Al-Zubaidi Archive
Notes:
  1. On the assumption that Iraq would be granted three slots for the 2004–05 Arab Champions League, the IFA planned to admit Erbil into the competition as leaders of the North Group. However, UAFA only allowed Iraq to have one participant, leading to Iraq withdrawing from the tournament.

Results
Home \ Away MSL SUL DUH ERB KIR PRS ZAK
Al-Mosul 1–0 2–1 2–2 2–1 3–0
Al-Sulaymaniya 1–2 1–0 2–0 0–2
Duhok 3–0 2–0 3–2 1–0
Erbil 2–1 5–0 2–1 4–1 2–1 1–1
Kirkuk 1–0 1–0 1–0 0–0 2–1 0–0
Peris 0–0 0–0
Zakho 3–2 1–2 1–0 3–0
Source: Goalzz
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Central Group 1
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts PPG Qualification
1 Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 6 6 0 0 13 0 +13 18 3.00 Continental play-off
2 Al-Shorta 6 5 1 0 19 4 +15 16 2.67
3 Al-Karkh 8 4 1 3 12 11 +1 13 1.63
4 Al-Estiqlal 8 3 1 4 11 15 −4 10 1.25
5 Diyala 9 2 0 7 7 21 −14 6 0.67
6 Salahaddin 9 1 1 7 5 16 −11 4 0.44
Source: Al-Zubaidi Archive

Results
Home \ Away EST KAR QWJ SHR DIY SAL
Al-Estiqlal 5–1 0–2 0–5 2–4 1–0
Al-Karkh 2–2 2–0 2–0
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 1–0 2–0 5–0
Al-Shorta 2–1 7–1 2–1
Diyala 0–1 0–2 0–2 0–2 2–0
Salahaddin 0–2 0–1 1–1 3–0
Source: Goalzz
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Central Group 2
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts PPG Qualification
1 Al-Naft 6 3 2 1 3 2 +1 11 1.83 Continental play-off
2 Al-Jaish 7 3 1 3 11 11 0 10 1.43
3 Al-Talaba[lower-alpha 1] 2 2 0 0 5 1 +4 6 3.00
4 Samaraa 5 1 3 1 5 5 0 6 1.20
5 Al-Sinaa 8 1 2 5 9 15 −6 5 0.63
6 Al-Zawraa 2 1 0 1 3 2 +1 3 1.50 Continental play-off
Source: Al-Zubaidi Archive
Notes:
  1. On the assumption that Iraq would be granted three slots for the 2004–05 Arab Champions League, the IFA planned to admit Al-Talaba into the competition after they were invited to compete by ART. However, UAFA only allowed Iraq to have one participant, leading to Iraq withdrawing from the tournament.

Results
Home \ Away JSH NFT SIN TLB ZWR SMR
Al-Jaish 0–1 4–2 1–3 2–2
Al-Naft 1–0 0–2 0–0
Al-Sinaa 2–3 0–0 1–3 2–2
Al-Talaba 2–0
Al-Zawraa 0–1
Samaraa 0–1 1–0
Source: Goalzz
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

South Group
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts PPG
1 Al-Najaf[lower-alpha 1] 7 6 0 1 13 4 +9 18 2.57
2 Karbalaa 9 5 2 2 12 7 +5 17 1.89
3 Al-Samawa 9 4 3 2 12 11 +1 15 1.67
4 Al-Minaa 7 3 2 2 3 4 −1 11 1.57
5 Al-Nasiriya 8 1 0 7 8 15 −7 3 0.38
6 Al-Basra 8 0 3 5 6 13 −7 3 0.38
Source: Al-Zubaidi Archive
Notes:
  1. On the assumption that Iraq would be granted three slots for the 2004–05 Arab Champions League, the IFA planned to admit Al-Najaf into the competition as leaders of the North Group. However, UAFA only allowed Iraq to have one participant, leading to Iraq withdrawing from the tournament.

Results
Home \ Away BSR MIN NJF NAS SMA KRB
Al-Basra 1–2 3–3 1–2
Al-Minaa 0–0 1–0 1–0 1–0
Al-Najaf 2–0 3–0 3–1 1–0
Al-Nasiriya 2–0 0–1 2–3 2–3
Al-Samawa 1–0 0–0 2–1 2–1 0–2
Karbalaa 1–1 1–0 2–0 1–1
Source: Goalzz
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Continental play-off

First legs
Al-Zawraa3–0 (w/o)
Al-Naft withdrew		Al-Naft
Al-Shorta3–2Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
A. Abdul-Hussein
T. Abdul-Hussein  46'
Ridha  65'		 Mohammed
Abdul-Wahid

Second legs
Al-Naft0–3 (w/o)
Al-Naft withdrew		Al-Zawraa

Al-Zawraa won 6–0 on aggregate to qualify for the 2005 AFC Champions League

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya1–1Al-Shorta
Khudhair
Mohammed 		Ridha
Referee: Samir Shubaib

Al-Shorta won 4–3 on aggregate to qualify for the 2005 AFC Champions League

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References
  1. Al-Sabti, Ali (2014). Iraqi League History 1974-2011. Iraq.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Al-Munshi, Dr.Dhia (2005). Iraqi Football Encyclopedia: Chico.. Jamoli… and football in Iraq. Citadel Printing & Design, Al-Saadoun, Baghdad.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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