# 2021–22 Qatar Stars League

The 2021–22 Qatari League, also known as Qatar Stars League or QNB Stars League, was the 48th edition of top-level football championship in Qatar. The league kicked off on 11 September 2021 and ended on 11 March 2022. Al-Sadd were defending champions and won the league for a second straight undefeated season.

## Teams
### Stadia and locations

| Club | City/Town | Stadium | Capacity |
| Al-Ahli | Doha | Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium | 18,000 |
| Al-Arabi | Doha | Grand Hamad Stadium | 13,000 |
| Al-Duhail | Doha | Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium | 9,000 |
| Al-Gharafa | Doha | Thani bin Jassim Stadium | 21,175 |
| Al-Khor | Al Khor | Al-Khor SC Stadium | 12,000 |
| Al-Rayyan | Al-Rayyan | Ahmad bin Ali Stadium | 50,000 |
| Al-Sadd | Doha | Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium | 12,946 |
| Al-Sailiya | Doha | Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium | 18,000 |
| Al-Shamal | Al Shamal | Al-Shamal SC Stadium | 5,000 |
| Al-Wakrah | Al Wakrah | Al Janoub Stadium | 40,000 |
| Qatar SC | Doha | Suheim bin Hamad Stadium | 13,000 |
| Umm Salal | Doha | Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium | 13,000 |

### Personnel and kits

| Club | Coach | Captain | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
| Al-Ahli | Nebojša Jovović | Ali Qadry | Puma | Regency Group Holding |
| Al-Arabi | Younes Ali | Ahmed Fatehi | Puma | Doha Bank Sharq Insurance Snoonu |
| Al-Duhail | Luís Castro | Almoez Ali | Puma | Al Rayan Bank |
| Al-Gharafa | Andrea Stramaccioni | Qasem Burhan | Puma | N/A |
| Al-Khor | Andre Lima (caretaker) | Helal Mohammed | Adidas | N/A |
| Al-Rayyan | Nicolás Córdova (interim) | Yacine Brahimi | Puma | Baladna Mall of Qatar |
| Al-Sadd | Javi Gracia | Hassan Al-Haydos | Puma | Qatar Airways |
| Al-Sailiya | Sami Trabelsi | Majdi Siddiq | Zat Outfit | N/A |
| Al-Shamal | Hicham Jadrane | Baha' Faisal | Erreà | N/A |
| Al-Wakrah | Tintín Márquez | Ahmed Fadhel | Puma | N/A |
| Qatar SC | Youssef Safri | Sebastián Soria | Macron | N/A |
| Umm Salal | Wesam Rizik | Aymen Abdennour | Jako | N/A |

### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
| Al-Gharafa | Slaviša Jokanović | Signed by Sheffield United | 27 May 2021 | | Andrea Stramaccioni | 2 July 2021 |
| Umm Salal | Aziz Ben Askar | End of contract | 30 June 2021 | | Sérgio Farias | July 2021 |
| Qatar SC | Younes Ali | End of contract | 30 June 2021 | | Zé Ricardo | July 2021 |
| Al-Arabi | Heimir Hallgrímsson | End of contract | 30 June 2021 | | Younes Ali | July 2021 |
| Al-Duhail | Sabri Lamouchi | Resigned | July 2021 | | Luís Castro | July 2021 |
| Al Sadd | Xavi | Signed by Barcelona | 5 November 2021 | 1st | Javi Gracia | 7 December 2021 |
| Al-Khor | Winfried Schäfer | Sacked | 11 November 2021 | 12th | Andre Lima (caretaker) | 12 November 2021 |
| Al-Rayyan | Laurent Blanc | Sacked | 13 February 2022 | 10th | Nicolás Córdova (interim) | 13 February 2022 |

### Foreign players

* Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.
* Players in italics were out of squad or left club within the season, after pre-season transfer window, or in the mid-season transfer window, and at least had one appearance.
| Club | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | AFC Player | UAFA Player | Former Players |
| Al-Ahli | Sandro Manoel | Yazan Al-Naimat | José Ángel Pozo | Hossein Kanaanizadegan | Soufiane Bouftini | Hernán Pérez Marko Jevtović Patrick Friday Eze |
| Al-Arabi | Aron Gunnarsson | Adama Diomande | Aaron Boupendza | Farshid Esmaeili | Youssef Msakni | Mehrdad Mohammadi Marc Muniesa |
| Al-Duhail | Edmilson Junior | Toby Alderweireld | Michael Olunga | Nam Tae-hee | Ferjani Sassi | |
| Al-Gharafa | Sofiane Hanni | Gabriel Pires | Cheick Diabaté | Saeid Ezatolahi | Mehdi Tahrat | Jonathan Kodjia Mohammed Al-Musalami |
| Al-Khor | Giannis Fetfatzidis | Pierre-Michel Lasogga | Juma Al-Habsi | Harib Al-Saadi | Ismail El Haddad | Kayke Koo Ja-cheol Rafael Vaz |
| Al-Rayyan | Steven Nzonzi | Yohan Boli | James Rodríguez | Shojae Khalilzadeh | Yacine Brahimi | Franck Kom |
| Al-Sadd | Guilherme | André Ayew | Santi Cazorla | Jung Woo-young | Baghdad Bounedjah | |
| Al-Sailiya | Carlos Strandberg | Kara Mbodji | Walter Bwalya | Dostonbek Khamdamov | Driss Fettouhi | Adama Diomande Ramin Rezaeian Nassim Hnid |
| Al-Shamal | Matías Nani | Jeison Medina | Jeremy de Nooijer | Ali Olwan | Amjad Attwan | Baha' Faisal |
| Al-Wakrah | Boualem Mesmoudi | Gelson Dala | Lucas Mendes | Omid Ebrahimi | Mohamed Benyettou | Ousmane Coulibaly |
| Qatar SC | Anthony Okpotu | Javi Martínez | Salaah Al-Yahyaei | Bashar Resan | Djamel Benlamri | Youcef Belaïli Isaac Mbenza |
| Umm Salal | Isael | Moses Orkuma | Aymen Abdennour | Aymen Hussein | Yaseen al-Bakhit | |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Al-Sadd (C) | 22 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 80 | 24 | +56 | 62 | Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Al-Duhail | 22 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 59 | 24 | +35 | 47 | Qualification for AFC Champions League play-off round |
| 3 | Al-Wakrah | 22 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 34 | 30 | +4 | 37 | |
| 4 | Al-Arabi | 22 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 34 | 31 | +3 | 36 | |
| 5 | Al-Gharafa | 22 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 39 | 40 | −1 | 30 | |
| 6 | Umm Salal | 22 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 32 | 36 | −4 | 25 | |
| 7 | Al-Ahli | 22 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 24 | 39 | −15 | 25 | |
| 8 | Al-Rayyan | 22 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 31 | 40 | −9 | 24 | |
| 9 | Qatar SC | 22 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 21 | 31 | −10 | 23 | |
| 10 | Al-Shamal | 22 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 32 | 47 | −15 | 22 | |
| 11 | Al-Sailiya (O) | 22 | 3 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 36 | −19 | 16 | Qualification for Relegation play-off |
| 12 | Al-Khor (R) | 22 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 21 | 46 | −25 | 16 | Relegation to Qatargas League |
* ↑ as 2022 Emir of Qatar Cup winner

## Results

| Home \ Away | AHL | ARA | DUH | GHA | KHO | RAY | SAD | SAI | SHA | WAK | QAT | UMM |
| Al-Ahli | — | 1–1 | 0–6 | 0–1 | 6–3 | 0–1 | 2–8 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 2–1 |
| Al-Arabi | 2–3 | — | 1–2 | 3–2 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 0–4 | 1–0 | 4–2 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 0–2 |
| Al-Duhail | 0–0 | 2–0 | — | 3–1 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 3–3 | 5–0 | 4–1 | 0–4 | 2–1 | 6–1 |
| Al-Gharafa | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–4 | — | 5–0 | 3–2 | 1–5 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 |
| Al-Khor | 2–2 | 0–2 | 1–4 | 1–1 | — | 0–0 | 2–4 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Al-Rayyan | 1–1 | 2–4 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 2–2 | — | 2–4 | 4–2 | 3–2 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 2–3 |
| Al-Sadd | 4–1 | 4–2 | 1–1 | 6–4 | 3–0 | 1–0 | — | 2–0 | 7–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| Al-Sailiya | 2–2 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–2 | — | 0–2 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Al-Shamal | 3–0 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 2–3 | 4–0 | 1–2 | 1–5 | 2–3 | — | 3–0 | 2–1 | 0–6 |
| Al-Wakrah | 0–0 | 0–1 | 4–1 | 3–2 | 4–1 | 1–1 | 0–6 | 2–1 | 1–1 | — | 0–1 | 1–4 |
| Qatar SC | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–5 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | — | 2–2 |
| Umm Salal | 1–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–4 | 1–2 | — |

## Positions by round

* Leader : 2023 AFC Champions League Group stage
* 2023 AFC Champions League group stage
* 2023 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off
* Qualification to Relegation play-off
* Relegation to 2022–23 Qatargas League
| Team ╲ Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| Al-Sadd | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Al-Duhail | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Al-Arabi | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Gharafa | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Wakrah | 9 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5* | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Umm Salal | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Qatar SC | 7 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Rayyan | 5 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Ahli | 8 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 9 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Shamal | 10 | 12 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Khor | 12 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Al-Sailiya | 11 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Season statistics
### Top scorers

    As of 2 March 2022
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Michael Olunga | Al-Duhail | 25 |
| 2 | André Ayew | Al Sadd | 15 |
| 3 | Akram Afif | Al Sadd | 14 |
| 4 | Baghdad Bounedjah | Al Sadd | 13 |
| 5 | Aymen Hussein | Umm Salal | 11 |
| 5 | Gelson Dala | Al-Wakrah | 11 |
| 7 | Cheick Diabaté | Al-Gharafa | 10 |
| 8 | Mohamed Benyettou | Al-Wakrah | 9 |
| 9 | Jeison Medina | Al-Shamal | 8 |
| 9 | Sebastián Soria | Qatar SC | 8 |