Kuwait Premier League


The Kuwait Premier League, known as STC Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Kuwait football pyramid system. Formed in 1961, Qadsia holds the best record in the competition, having won 17 times.

History

The Kuwaiti league officially began in the 1962/1961 season after playing unofficially for eight years from 1951 to 1959, where it played a group of informal clubs in the fifties: "Ahli - Al Jazeera - Arabism - Gulf - Solidarity - Al-Qubali, Al-Nahda, Al-Sharqai, Al-Merqab, Al-Mawalim, Al-Taawon. The companies and ministries also entered the local championships in Kuwait, including Al-Habara club in Al-Ahmadi.

1960s

In the 1961/1962 season, the first season of the Kuwaiti League began officially after the closure of the old clubs and the opening of the football activity again with the participation of 8 new teams between clubs and schools. Al-Arabi won the league title without losing and winning 7 points ahead of Qadsia scoring 42 goals and conceding 10 goals.
In the following season, the number of teams was reduced to 7 after Kifan highschool withdraw and played the league as Away goals rule. Al-Arabi managed to win the second title in a row after winning 18 points ahead of Qadsia with only three points, scoring 45 goals and conceding 6 goals.
The third season of the league almost witnessed the end of the Arab monopoly of the title after fierce competition from Qadsia and the participation of the 6 teams themselves the previous season. Arab and Qadsia equal points after Qadsia scored the first defeat of the Arab 2-0 with the latest league matches and equalized by 18 points for both teams with a preference for the Arab goals. In the decisive match to determine the champion of the league managed to maintain the Arab title after defeating Qadsia 2 goals to achieve the third title in a row, scoring 42 goals and conceded nine goals.
In the fourth season 1966/1965, the school teams were removed from participating in the league and saw the participation of 3 new clubs, Salmiya, Fahaheel and Al-Shabab. The Kuwait Club managed to end the Arab monopoly of the league championship to achieve its first title in its history after winning the competition without any defeat by 18 points scored 44 goals and received a net 9 goals.
The 1960s witnessed a sweep of the Arab club when it won six titles against two titles for Kuwait and a title for Qadsia.

1970s

The 1970 era began with Qadsia's winning the league championship of the 1971/1970 season for the second time in his history. Al-Arabi lost his championship in a strange way during the ten years. He did not win any title during this period until the end of the season 1980/1979.

1980s

The eighties witnessed the end of the monopoly of Al Arabi, Al-Qadsia and Kuwait in winning the league title when they won the title of three other clubs, namely Salmiya, who won his first title in the 1981/80 season and Kazma club, which won the titles of 1986/1985 and 1987/1986 and Jahra club, which ended the 1980s by winning the title The league in the season of 1990/1989, while the Arab returned to the championship, winning six times in the eighties.

1990s

The league championship was not held in the 1990–91 season because of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The competition began again in the 1991–92 season, which was held in the group system with the qualification of the first and second groups. Al-Qadsia Club, the system of merger again returned to the league with the participation of 14 teams in the 1994–95 season. The era of the nineties witnessed a parity between the clubs where Al-Arabi won 3 titles and Al-Salmiya won 3 titles and Qadsia won two titles and Kazma won two titles.

2000s

At the beginning of the second millennium Kuwait SC achieved the league championship after a long absence lasted 22 years since the last league achieved, followed by the victory of Al-Arabi for the sixteenth time in its history in the 2002/2001 season, and since this season so far monopolized the championship between the clubs of Qadsia and Kuwait SC, With Qadsia having nine titles while Kuwait Club won five titles. Qadsia Club the most winning league titles with 17 titles.

Kuwaiti Premier League clubs (2017-18)

Source:

Previous winners

Source:

By season

ClubTitlesSeasons
Qadsia
17
1968–69, 1970–71, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1991–92, 1998–99, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2015–16
Al-Arabi
16
1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1969–70, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1979–88, 1988–89, 1992–93, 1996–97, 2001–02
Kuwait SC
15
1964–65, 1967–68, 1971–72, 1973–74, 1976–77, 1978–79, 2000–01, 2005–06, 2006–07 2007–08, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19
Kazma
4
1985–86, 1986–87, 1993–94, 1995–96
Al-Salmiya
4
1980–81, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1999–00
Al-Jahra
1
1989–90

Topscorers

Participation by the Years

PeriodNumber of Clubs
1961–627
1962–63 to 1970–716
1971–72 to 1973–747
1974–75 to 1978–798
1979–80 to 1984–8514*
1985–867
1986–87 to 1989–908
1990-91N/A Not held due to
Gulf War
1991–9214*
1992–93 to 1993–948
1994–9514*
1995–966*

PeriodNumber of Clubs
1996–9713*
1997–98 to 1999–0014
2000–01 to 2002–038
2003–04 to 2005–0614
2006–078
2007–089
2008–09 to 2012–138
2013–14 to 2014–1514*
2015–1613*
2016–1715
2017–188
2018–19 - Present10

Notes: