Al-Minaa Sports Club is an Iraqi multi-sport club based in Al-Maqal, Basra that participates in the Iraq Stars League, the top tier of Iraqi football. It is one of the most popular clubs in Iraq, particularly in the south, and became the first club outside Baghdad to win the Iraqi Premier League.
Al Mina'a Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Basra, Iraq. It is currently used mostly for football matches and served as the home stadium of Al Minaa. The stadium holds 30,000 people.
The 2006–07 Iraqi Premier League kicked off on December 22, 2006 and finished on July 6, 2007. Erbil were crowned champions for the first time in their history, defeating Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 1–0 in the final, hosted at the Franso Hariri Stadium, Erbil's home ground.
The 2004–05 Iraqi Premier League kicked off on October 20, 2004. The 36 teams were split into four groups. At the end of the group stage, the top three teams from each group advanced to the Elite Stage, while the bottom three in each group were demoted to the lower division.
Alaa Ahmed is an Iraqi former footballer. He played as a midfielder and spent the majority of his career with Al-Minaa club.
The 2009–10 Iraqi Premier League was the 36th edition of the competition. It was initially set to start in October 2009, but was later rescheduled for December as a 36-team league. The season saw Duhok crowned as champions for the first time.
The 2012–13 Iraq FA Cup was the 26th edition of the Iraq FA Cup as a clubs-only competition, the main domestic cup in Iraqi football. It was the first edition held since the 2002–03 season.
The 2014–15 Iraqi Premier League was the 41st season of the Iraqi Premier League since its establishment in 1974. The season started on 30 September 2014 and ended on 11 July 2015. The league was played in a group stage format for the first time since the 2010–11 season.
The 2013–14 season will be Al-Minaa's 38th season in the Iraqi Premier League, having featured in all 40 editions of the competition except two.
Jalil Hanoon Motar Al-Asadi is an Iraqi former footballer who is the president of Al-Minaa club.
The 2016–17 Iraq FA Cup was the 28th edition of the Iraqi knockout football cup as a clubs-only competition, the main domestic cup in Iraqi football. A total of 19 teams from the Iraqi Premier League and 41 teams from the Iraqi First Division League participated. It started on 2 December 2016 and the final was played at Al-Sinaa Stadium in Baghdad on 22 August 2017. It was the second Iraq FA Cup final to be held outside Al-Shaab Stadium, with the first being in 2003.
Southern Iraqi football clubs Al-Minaa and Naft Al-Basra have been rivals since the 2004–05 season when Naft Al-Basra club started playing in the Premier League. The clubs are respectively from Al-Maqal and Al-Tamimia, in the same city Basra, and for this reason a match between the two teams is sometimes called a "Basra derby". Another name is often used in the press is "South derby", which comes from the location of Basra province in southern Iraq. The animosity intensified since the first match, as Naft Al-Basra was not expected to win Al-Minaa 1–0, and the exaggerated protest by Al-Minaa supporters to referee of match Khalil Yousuf prompted him to retire arbitration forever. and this animosity reached a peak during the 2010–11 season, when both teams played at the end of the season in the Premier League in a match, that if it end at a draw, Naft Al-Basra will relegate to the Iraq Division One. Indeed, the match ended in a draw, and Al-Minaa fans celebrated the relegation of Naft Al-Basra, and considered it a winning of league title. In the 2015–16 season, Naft Al-Basra returned to avenge Al-Minaa, when both teams played at the end of the season in the Premier League. Al-Minaa needed two goals to go to the final, but Naft Al-Basra played a defensive squad until the end of the match, although they were losing 1–0.
The 1978–79 Iraq FA Cup was the third edition of the Iraq FA Cup as a clubs-only competition. The tournament was won by Al-Zawraa, beating Al-Jaish 3–1 in the final on 3 May 1979 to secure their second cup, with goals from Hazem Jassam, Ibrahim Ali and Thamir Yousef. Al-Zawraa's previous matches in the tournament were a 7–0 win over Al-Hurriya, a 3–1 win over Al-Ittihad, a 4–0 win over Al-Shorta and a 6–0 win over Al-Shabab, while Al-Jaish had eliminated Al-Tayaran from the semi-finals who in turn had beaten Al-Minaa in the quarter-finals. Al-Zawraa also won the 1978–79 Iraqi National League to complete the second double in Iraqi football.
The 2017–18 Iraqi Premier League was the 44th season of the Iraqi Premier League, the highest division for Iraqi association football clubs, since its establishment in 1974. The season started on 20 November 2017, and ended on 18 July 2018. Al-Zawraa won a record 14th title, finishing four points ahead of both the previous season's champions and runners-up and five points ahead of Al-Shorta.
The 1998–99 Iraq FA Cup was the 22nd edition of the Iraq FA Cup as a clubs-only competition. The tournament was won by Al-Zawraa for the second time in a row and for the 13th time in their history, beating Al-Talaba 1–0 after extra time in the final with a golden goal by Mohamed Jassim. Al-Zawraa also won the 1998–99 Iraqi Premier League to complete the double.
The 25th Arabian Gulf Cup, known as Khaleeji Zain 25 for sponsorship reasons, was the 25th edition of the biennial football competition for the eight members of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation. The tournament was hosted in Iraq for the first time since 1979, in the host city of Basra.
The 1949–50 Iraq FA Basra League was the second season of the Iraq FA Basra Premier League organised by the Basra branch of the Iraq Football Association. The tournament began on 19 October 1949, and the regular season ended in November 1949 with Sharikat Naft Al-Basra and Al-Ittihad qualifying for the final. Sharikat Naft Al-Basra beat Al-Ittihad 5–1 in January 1950 to win the title for the first time.
Al-Fayhaa Stadium, also known as Mohamed Musbah Al‑Waeli Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Basra, Southern Iraq. The stadium is part of the much larger Basra Sports City complex, and is surrounded by football training pitches, four Five Star hotels and other sports-related facilities. It is currently used mostly for football matches and also has facilities for athletics. The stadium has an official capacity of 10,000 spectators. It is owned by the Government of Iraq.
The 2022–23 season will be Al-Minaa's first season in the Iraq Division One since the 1989–90 season and their third overall, having been relegated from the Iraqi Premier League in the 2021–22 season. Al-Minaa are participating in the Iraq Division One and the Iraq FA Cup.
The 2022–23 Iraqi First Division League was the 49th season of what is now called the Iraqi Premier Division League, the second tier of the Iraqi football league system, since its establishment in 1974. The number of clubs in the league have varied throughout history for various reasons. The top two teams are promoted to the Iraq Stars League, while the bottom two teams in each group are directly relegated to the Iraqi Second Division League.
