The 2008–09 Iraqi Premier League was the 35th edition of the competition. It started on 1 November 2008 and ended on 16 July 2009. 27 teams from all over the country competed for the title. Erbil won the title by defeating Al-Najaf in the final via penalty shootout after a goalless draw. It was Erbil's third league title in a row. The two teams would have qualified for the 2010 AFC Cup, but were disqualified due to FIFA's suspension of the Iraq Football Association.
The 2008–09 season is the only season in history where none of the four Baghdad Derby clubs (Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Shorta, Al-Talaba and Al-Zawraa) finished in the top four.
Name changes Al-Bareed renamed to Al-Etisalat wal-Bareed at the end of 2008.
Group stage Group 1
Results
Group 2
Note: Al-Mosul withdrew from the league.
Results
Championship play-off
!colspan="3"|Third place match
!colspan="3"|Final
Third place match
Final
GK 20 Alaa GateaDF 7 Chasib Sultan (c)DF 3 Uday Omran DF 5 Nabeel AbbasDF 24 Faisal JassimMF 22 Saeed MohsenMF 18 Dhia FalehMF 15 Dhia Abbas MF 9 Sahel NaeemFW 10 Hussein Karim FW 12 Alaa Aasi Substitutions:DF 6 Ayad Sadir MF Faris Saadoun MF 25 Hatim Sahib Manager: Hatif Shamran
GK 1 Ahmad AliDF 2 Samal Saeed DF 3 Yassir RaadDF 16 Saad AttiyaDF 14 Khaldoun Ibrahim MF 19 Deyar RahmanMF 12 Herdi Noor Al-Deen MF 25 Ahmed Abid AliFW 17 Ahmed Salah (c) FW 11 Luay Salah FW 10 Muslim MubarakSubstitutions:FW 9 Ali Mansoor MF 23 Shirzad Mohammed MF 20 Hussein Abdul-Wahed DF 4 Rafid Badr Al-Deen Manager: Thair Ahmed
Match officials Assistant referees: Ali Zaidan Luay Subhi
Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shootout if scores still level.
Season statistics Top four positions TeamQualification1Erbil27205255172010 AFC Cup (disqualified)2Al-Najaf25158239122010 AFC Cup (disqualified)3Duhok27197148114Al-Amana25131113716
Top scorers RankPlayerClubGoals1 Ahmed SalahErbil152 Luay SalahErbil113 Nasser TallaaNaft Al-Junoob9 Sahib AbbasKarbala Hussein KarimAl-Najaf
Hat-tricks
Player For Against Result Date Al-Amana Karbala 3–0 Karbala Al-Samawa 4–0 Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Naft 3–1 Al-Kufa Al-Nasiriya 3–1 Erbil Al-Kahrabaa 6–0
References
External links Iraq Football Association