Al-Shorta SC


Al-Shorta Sports Club is an Iraqi sports club based in Rusafa District, East Districts of the Tigris River, Baghdad. It has teams in 18 different sports, more than any other Iraqi club, and the best known section of the club is the football team, whose origins date back to 1932 with the police-representative team Montakhab Al-Shorta. In 1974, Al-Shorta became a sports club and were attached to the Ministry of Interior.
They are one of Iraq's most successful clubs and are the only existing Iraqi team to win a major top-tier continental club competition, having lifted the Arab Club Champions Cup trophy in 1982. They also reached the final of what is now the AFC Champions League in 1971, where they refused to face Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv in protest at the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They were referred to as champions by the Arab media and were greeted with a heroes' reception upon their return to Baghdad, holding an open top bus parade, with Israel being expelled from the AFC three years later. Al-Shorta have added two stars above their logo to represent these two achievements.
They are the reigning champions of the Iraqi Premier League, having won the title in the 2018–19 season. They also won a joint record three Iraqi Elite Cups, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, being the only team to win that trophy three consecutive times. Al-Shorta hold numerous Premier League records in Iraq, such as the longest unbeaten run, the fewest losses in a season, the fewest goals conceded in a season, the most consecutive wins in a season, the most consecutive games scored in and the most seasons played in the top flight.

History

Al-Shorta's origins can be traced back to the year 1932 with the formation of the police-representative football team Montakhab Al-Shorta on 14 November and their participation in the second edition of the Prince Ghazi Cup in that same month. Montakhab Al-Shorta's first trophy came in 1938, when they won the Taha Al-Hashimi Cup, before winning the Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Cup and the Al-Olympi Club Cup the following year. Montakhab Al-Shorta were briefly renamed to Madaris Al-Shorta in 1948, and were founding members of the Iraq Football Association in October of that year. In 1960, the Police Games Committee, later known as Police Games Directorate, was founded to take control of police-representative sports in Iraq, and they founded several other police-representative teams throughout the 1960s.
After winning their first Iraq Central FA League title in the 1962–63 season, Montakhab Al-Shorta were renamed to Madaris Al-Shorta again, a name they had previously used in 1948–49 and from 1950 to 1952. However, Madaris Al-Shorta were relegated shortly after and were disbanded in 1966. Aliyat Al-Shorta, a police-representative team founded in 1961 by the Police Games Directorate, had won the region's third-tier title in 1962 and the second-tier title in 1963, and under the management of Mohammed Najib Kaban, they became one of the strongest teams in the region. Along with winning the Police Director General Cup in 1965 and Alexandria International Summer Tournament in 1967, Aliyat Al-Shorta won four league titles in a row, while a select team consisting of the best players from the PGD's sides won two consecutive Republic Championships in 1968 and 1969.
In 1971, participating under the name Al-Shorta Baghdad, they became the first Iraqi team to take part in Asia's main club competition, the Asian Champion Club Tournament, and made history by becoming the first Arab side to reach the final. They won all the games they played en route to the final of the tournament, including two wins against the competition's defending champions Taj Tehran, but refused to face Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv in protest at the Israeli occupation of Palestine, waving the Palestinian flag around the field. They were regarded as champions by the Arab media and were greeted with a heroes' reception upon their return to the country, holding an open top bus parade. Israel were subsequently expelled from the AFC and their clubs now compete in UEFA competitions. Aliyat Al-Shorta won the league title again in 1971–72, also picking up another Police Director General Cup.
In 1974, the Iraq Football Association formed the Iraqi National League, an official nationwide league of clubs. As they were not formally registered clubs, the PGD's teams including Aliyat Al-Shorta were stripped of their licenses to compete in official competitions, and were consigned to competing in unofficial tournaments such as the Armed Forces League and the Baghdad Police tournaments. With the IFA dictating that only one police-representative club would be allowed to participate in the new league, "Al-Shorta Sports Club" was thus formally registered as a sports club in 1974 by the Iraqi Olympic Committee, being attached to the Ministry of Interior. The sports club considers itself an extension of the two main teams that had represented the Iraqi Police force from Baghdad in official competitions before 1974, hence the recognition of 1932 as the club's year of foundation and the recognition of Al-Shorta as the continental finalist in 1971 by the Asian Football Confederation.
The PGD were strongly opposed to the IFA's new league system and decided to field a team of amateurs for Al-Shorta to compete in the first season in protest. After suffering heavy defeats in their first two games, talks between the IFA and the PGD resulted in the amateurs being replaced by players from two of the PGD's other teams, before Aliyat Al-Shorta's players returned for the 1975–76 season which led to an improved third place finish. Al-Shorta won the first two Arab Police Championships in 1976 and 1978, and earned their first Iraqi National League title in 1979–80, finishing ahead of rivals Al-Zawraa on goal difference under the leadership of former player Douglas Aziz. This qualified them for the inaugural Arab Club Champions Cup in 1981–82, and Al-Shorta became the first ever Arab champions with a 4–2 aggregate win over Al-Nejmeh in the final.
Al-Shorta won the President's Gold Cup, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by defeating the Malaysia national team 2–0 in the final. The club changed their name to Quwat Al-Emen Al-Dakhili for the 1983–84 season while Iraq was at war; that name only lasted for that one season before they returned to the name Al-Shorta. Al-Shorta won the Arab Police Championship for the third and fourth times in 1985 and 1988 respectively, before achieving victory in the Saddam Qadisiya Championship in 1988 and the Great Victory Championship in 1996, which were both tournaments held between the four Baghdad Derby clubs. Al-Shorta played their first match at their new Al-Shorta Stadium on 23 December 1990, beating Al-Tijara 3–2. In the 1993–94 season, Al-Shorta striker Younis Abid Ali scored 36 league goals which remains an Iraqi record for most goals scored by a player in one league season.
There were three contenders for the 1997–98 Iraqi Premier League title going into the final day of the season; Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were on top of the league with Al-Shorta in second and Al-Zawraa third. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were playing Al-Zawraa at Al-Shaab Stadium at the same time as Al-Shorta were playing Al-Sulaikh at Al-Kashafa Stadium. Al-Shorta were 2–1 down to Al-Sulaikh before an 84th-minute goal from Mufeed Assem and a 93rd-minute penalty kick from league top scorer Mahmoud Majeed earned a dramatic 3–2 victory, which was enough to overtake Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and achieve their second Premier League title and first for eighteen years. In the process, Al-Shorta broke the Iraqi records for most consecutive wins in a league season and most consecutive league games scored in. That season also saw them reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, earning wins over Al-Seeb and Bargh Shiraz before being eliminated in the quarter-final.
Al-Shorta also reached the quarter-final of the 1999–2000 Asian Club Championship before making history by becoming the first club to win the Iraqi Elite Cup three times in a row, winning the trophy in 2000, 2001 and 2002. They also won their fifth Arab Police Championship and first Jerusalem International Championship titles in 2002, and capped off their successful start to the 2000s with their third Iraqi Premier League title in 2002–03, earning 65 points from 27 games. In April 2003, the club's former goalkeeper and captain Raad Hammoudi became Al-Shorta's president and he saved the club from bankruptcy after the Iraq War. Al-Shorta participated in the 2003 edition of the Arab Club Champions Cup and the 2004 and 2005 editions of the AFC Champions League but were knocked out in the group stage each time. In September 2005, they won the Baghdad Cup that was held in support of the families that been affected by the Al-Aaimmah bridge stampede.
In the 2005–06 Iraqi Premier League, Al-Shorta finished top of their group in the first stage but were knocked out at the elite stage, and the same was repeated in the 2006–07 and 2007–08 seasons. After a lacklustre 2008–09 campaign, Al-Shorta almost reached the semi-finals in the 2009–10 season, but gave away a 2–0 lead versus Al-Najaf to draw 2–2 which saw them eliminated at the elite stage again. In the 2010–11 season, Al-Shorta found themselves in a relegation battle, only surviving the drop on goal difference thanks to a brace from Amjad Kalaf on the final day of the season against Al-Naft. The 2011–12 league returned to a double round-robin format and Al-Shorta achieved improved results under Basim Qasim's leadership until a run of six defeats in their final seven matches saw them drop down to seventh place. Midway through the campaign, Ayad Bunyan became Al-Shorta's president and the club began to experience a change of fortunes.
Al-Shorta returned to the top of Iraqi football in the 2012–13 season, first winning the Baghdad Cup and then securing their fourth Iraqi Premier League title with a final-day 3–0 victory over rivals Al-Talaba at Al-Shaab Stadium. Al-Shorta successfully defended the Premier League title for the first time in 2013–14 as Brazilian coach Lorival Santos became only the second foreign manager ever to win the competition. Al-Shorta also appeared in the 2014 AFC Champions League qualifiers, losing 1–0 to Al-Kuwait, and they were eliminated from the group stage and round of 16 at the 2014 and 2015 AFC Cups respectively. Al-Shorta won their sixth Premier League title and their third in the past seven seasons in 2018–19, led by Montenegrin coach Nebojša Jovović, equalling the Iraqi record for most consecutive league games unbeaten in the process. Al-Shorta won the Iraqi Super Cup for the first time in 2019 with a penalty shootout win over Al-Zawraa before reaching the quarter-finals of the 2019–20 Arab Club Champions Cup.

Emblem

Aliyat Al-Shorta's logo consisted of a star containing the team's name which was surrounded by laurel leaves. Al-Shorta began to wear a harp on their shirts in the 1992–93 season, after television presenter Majid Abdul-Haq coined the now-popular nickname Al-Qeetharah to refer to the club on his program Letter of the League by likening the team's attractive style of play to the beautiful tunes of a harp. The full crest was white and circular, and consisted of a green harp on top of the Olympic rings, above the club's year of foundation and surrounded by green laurel leaves. The laurel leaves and Olympic rings were added to the kit in 2002.
At the start of the 2005–06 season, Al-Shorta adopted a new crest which was blue with a green outline. A green harp featured in the centre with the club's year of foundation, and the Iraq flag featured on the crest for the first time. This remained the logo for seven years until they reverted to their previous white badge in the 2012–13 season, which featured on the kit in its entirety this time. On 12 December 2013, before the start of 2014 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off, Al-Shorta announced the change to a new logo which was designed by Luay Abdul-Rahman, the artistic director of Al-Shorta's newspaper. The harp in the centre of the logo is gold rather than green, and gold is a prevalent colour in the crest. The club's foundation year is at the top with the Iraqi flag at the bottom. Two stars were later added above the crest to represent the club's continental achievements in 1971 and 1982, and this remains their logo today.

Kits

During their time in the Iraq Central FA League, Aliyat Al-Shorta wore purple home kits, often with a white diagonal sash. After becoming a sports club in 1974, Al-Shorta mainly switched to using green home kits and white away kits, with purple becoming the third kit colour. However, since the 2016–17 season, Al-Shorta have worn purple as the away kit colour. Their current kits are manufactured by Givova.

Shirt sponsors

Al-Shorta's shirts have featured a number of different sponsors' logos over the years:
PeriodShirt sponsor
1998–1999Shai Al-Nasoor
1999–2003Samsung
2003Peugeot
2005Motorola
2005–2006Lay's
2007MTC-Vodafone
2008Asia Cell
IraqCom
2014–2015Royal Arena Sport

Supporters

Ultras Green Harp is an ultras group that was formed in 2012 at the start of the 2012–13 season and has grown to become one of Iraq's largest fan groups. The group leads the chants inside the stadium and provides flags and banners for fans to wave during the game to create an exciting atmosphere. It is a self-financed group that travels to both home and away matches in cities all over Iraq. Before kickoff, the Ultras Green Harp members usually hold up a large banner to intimidate the opposition. This banner changes with every match depending on the opposing team. They are known for setting off fireworks when Al-Shorta score a goal and using flares before and during games. During the match, they typically chant songs and use instruments such as drums and air horns to create a lively atmosphere.

Rivalries

Al-Shorta are one of the top four clubs in Baghdad. The club compete in Baghdad derbies with the other three big clubs in Baghdad: Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Zawraa, and Al-Talaba. The rivalry with Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya developed during the Iraq Central FA League era while the rivalries with Al-Zawraa and Al-Talaba were born after the foundation of the Iraqi Premier League. Of the three, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya are the most local to Al-Shorta, as their stadium is located only 500 metres away from Al-Shorta's on the opposite side of Falastin Street.

Stadiums

Al-Shorta Stadium

Al-Shorta Stadium was the name of Al-Shorta's old home ground, which held approximately 7,000 people. The white hall on the side of the field, called the Abid Kadhim Hall in honour of former player and manager Abid Kadhim, can hold approximately 2,000 people. The stadium had no seats, but instead there were stairs on each side of the playing field and spectators sat or stood on these stairs. Former club manager Abdul-Kadir Zeinal helped build the stadium with other volunteers and it was opened for its first match on 23 December 1990. In 2008, the stands were painted green and white to match the club's colours. The stadium began to be demolished on 4 March 2014 to make way for Al-Shorta Sports City.

Al-Shorta Sports City Stadium

Early in the 2012–13 season, Al-Shorta announced plans to build a sports complex called Al-Shorta Sports City, which will include a new all-seater stadium among other sports facilities. On 20 December 2013, the chairman of the construction company Nordic Sport announced the initiation of construction of Al-Shorta Sports City, and on 7 January 2015, AKG Engineering released a video showing what the sports complex should look like once construction is completed. The stadium, which will have a capacity of over 10,000, will have purple and green seats and the words 'Police Club' alongside the club's name in Arabic will be spelled out with white seats in the main stand, which will have a roof over it. Next to the stadium will be a training field with an athletics track. Also at Al-Shorta Sports City will be an indoor swimming pool with 1,500 seats, a multi-purpose closed hall with 2,500 seats, a full-quality relaxation club, restaurants, theatres, meeting areas and a shopping centre among other facilities.

Al-Shaab Stadium

Al-Shorta currently play their home matches at the historical national stadium, Al-Shaab Stadium, which is located in the same area as the club's old ground.

Players

First-team squad

Out on loan

Personnel

Technical staff

Management

PositionNameNationality
President:Abdul-Wahab Al-Taei
Financial Secretary:Uday Tariq
Board SecretaryAlaa Bahar Al-Uloom
Member of the Board:Sadiq Jafar
Member of the Board:Ghazi Faisal
Member of the Board:Tahseen Al-Yassri
Member of the Board:Ali Al-Shahmani
Member of the Board:Ghalib Al-Zamili
Member of the Board:Ahsan Al-Daraji

Managers

The majority of Al-Shorta's managers in major tournaments throughout their history have been of Iraqi nationality. They have been managed by a total of eight different foreign coaches from seven countries.
;Notes

Honours

Domestic

International

Matches

;Firsts
;Wins
;Defeats
;Consecutive results