Al-Shorta SC

Al-Shorta Sports Club (Arabic: نادي الشرطة الرياضي, lit. 'Police Sports Club') is an Iraqi sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Baghdad. It has teams in 19 different sports, and the best known section of the club is the football team, whose origins date back to 1932. Al-Shorta was formally established as a sports club in 1978 after a clubs-only policy was introduced to Iraqi football.
Al-Shorta's football team is one of the most successful in Iraq, having won the Iraq Stars League seven times and the Iraq FA Cup once, completing the domestic double in the 2023–24 season. Al-Shorta were crowned the inaugural Arab Club Champions Cup winners in 1982 and are one of only two Iraqi clubs to have won the tournament. Al-Shorta have won two Iraqi Super Cup titles and are also the only team to win the Umm al-Ma'arik Championship three times in a row.
Al-Shorta hold the Iraq Stars League records for the joint-longest unbeaten run (39 games) and the most consecutive wins in a season (11 wins). In the 2021–22 season, Al-Shorta set records for the earliest league title win (seven rounds remaining) and the largest title-winning margin (21 points), and also became the first club to win all Baghdad derbies home and away in one season.
The Al-Shorta (Police) football team was formed in 1932 by Mudhafar Ahmed, the director of the Police Schools in Baghdad. Al-Shorta participated in the second edition of the Prince Ghazi Cup in the 1932–33 season, and claimed their first trophy in 1938 by winning the Taha Al-Hashimi Cup, followed by victories in the Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Cup and Al-Olympi Club Cup in 1939. The team later became known as Madaris Al-Shorta (Police Schools) after a new Police team called Al-Quwa Al-Siyara (Mobile Force) was formed.
The Iraq Football Association was established in 1948 and it was decided that an Al-Shorta Select XI (Montakhab Al-Shorta) would compete in the inaugural Baghdad top-flight league season in 1948–49. The Al-Shorta Select XI were relegated from the top-flight that season, and therefore competed in the second division in the 1949–50 season. In the 1950–51 season, Madaris Al-Shorta entered the newly-formed third division and Al-Quwa Al-Siyara competed in the second tier instead of the Al-Shorta Select XI, and the two teams were both leading their respective divisions before the season was abandoned.
From the 1951–52 season, Madaris Al-Shorta and Al-Quwa Al-Siyara combined to form the Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' and 'B' teams to compete in the region's top-flight and second division respectively. Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' finished as runners-up of the top-flight in 1957–58, while Al-Shorta Select XI 'B' finished as runners-up of the second division in 1958–59. In 1960, the Police Games Committee (later renamed to Police Games Directorate) was formed to control Police sports in Iraq, and they decided to expand the Police force's sporting activities for the 1960–61 season. Al-Quwa Al-Siyara re-entered the IFA's football pyramid as an individual team, joining the regional second division along with newly-formed Police teams Aliyat Al-Shorta and Shortat Al-Najda, while the Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' and 'B' teams continued to compete in the top-flight and second division respectively. After finishing as Iraq Central FA Premier League runners-up again in 1960–61, Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' won the league title for the first time in the 1962–63 season.
At the end of that season, Aliyat Al-Shorta secured promotion to the top-flight, meaning there were two Police teams in the top division. As a result, the Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' team were replaced in the top-flight by Madaris Al-Shorta from the 1963–64 season, while the Al-Shorta Select XI 'B' team were disbanded. From this point, the Al-Shorta Select XI would only compete in the Republic Championship and in matches against visiting foreign teams. Formed from the best players of the individual Police teams, the Al-Shorta Select XI won the Republic Championship in both 1968 and 1969. The Al-Shorta Select XI was led by the coach of Aliyat Al-Shorta, Mohammed Najeeb Kaban, and included many of the star players from Aliyat Al-Shorta, a team that went on to win four league titles and reach the final of the 1971 Asian Champion Club Tournament where they refused to face Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv.
In 1974, the Iraq Football Association (IFA) decided to implement a clubs-only policy for domestic competitions, forming the Iraqi National Clubs League which was only open to clubs and not institute-representative teams such as the individual Police teams. With the IFA dictating that only a single club would be allowed to represent the Police in the new top-flight, Al-Shorta Sports Club was provisionally established on 18 August 1974 by the Iraqi Olympic Committee and was placed under the control of the Police Games Directorate (PGD) until the club's formal establishment. The PGD was strongly opposed to the IFA's new clubs-only policy and thus decided to field a team of amateurs for Al-Shorta to compete in the inaugural 1974–75 season in protest. After suffering heavy defeats in their first two games, the amateur players were replaced by players from the Shortat Al-Najda and Kuliyat Al-Shorta teams for the remainder of the season, before ten Aliyat Al-Shorta players joined the team for the 1975–76 season. Al-Shorta was formally established as a sports club in 1978, registering as such with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and being attached to the Ministry of Interior. Al-Shorta won their first national league title in the 1979–80 season, 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.
In 1983, the club changed their name to Qiwa Al-Amn Al-Dakhili (Internal Security Forces) while Iraq was at war; that name only lasted for one season before they returned to the name Al-Shorta. In 1985, Al-Shorta won the Arab Police Championship for the third time while representing the Iraq Police team, having previously won in 1976 and 1978. On 23 December 1990, Al-Shorta played their first match at Al-Shorta Stadium, which was built with the help of volunteers and club workers, 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 the same time as Al-Shorta were playing Al-Sulaikh. Al-Shorta were 2–1 down to Al-Sulaikh before an 84th-minute goal from Mufeed Assem and a 91st-minute penalty kick from league top scorer Mahmoud Majeed earned a dramatic 3–2 victory, which was enough to overtake Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (who had drawn 1–1 with Al-Zawraa) 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 (11) and most consecutive league games scored in (37). 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 reached the quarter-finals of the 1999–2000 Asian Club Championship before making history by becoming the first club to win the Umm al-Ma'arik Championship three times in a row, winning the trophy in the 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. They were also in the lead of the 2002–03 league competition before it was cancelled due to the Iraq War. In April 2003, the club's former goalkeeper and captain Raad Hammoudi became Al-Shorta's president and saved the club from bankruptcy after the 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 at the group stage each time.
After an unstable post-war period which culminated in a relegation battle in the 2010–11 season, Al-Shorta returned to the top of Iraqi football in the 2012–13 season, securing their third Iraqi Premier League title with a final-day 3–0 victory over rivals Al-Talaba at Al-Shaab Stadium. Al-Shorta finished in first place in the Premier League in 2013–14 under Brazilian coach Lorival Santos but the season was ended prematurely due to the worsening war situation in the country. Al-Shorta also appeared in the 2014 AFC Champions League qualifiers, losing 1–0 to Al-Kuwait, and they were eliminated at the group stage and the round of 16 at the 2014 and 2015 AFC Cups, respectively. Al-Shorta won the Premier League title again in 2018–19, led by Montenegrin coach Nebojša Jovović, equalling the Iraqi record for most consecutive league games unbeaten (39) 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 and being eliminated from the group stages of the 2020 and 2021 AFC Champions Leagues, the former on goal difference.
Under the management of Egyptian coach Moamen Soliman, Al-Shorta enjoyed one of the best league seasons in their history in 2021–22. Al-Shorta set a record for the earliest Iraqi Premier League title win with seven rounds of the competition remaining, finishing a record 21 points clear at the top of the table, and became the first club to beat all other teams in a 20-team season and the first club to win all Baghdad derbies home and away in one season. Their tally of 91 points equalled the record for the most points in a 38-game season in Iraq. Al-Shorta went on to win the 2022 Iraqi Super Cup with a 1–0 victory over Al-Karkh, and then retained their Iraqi Premier League crown by clinching the 2022–23 title with a 3–0 win away to Naft Maysan in the penultimate round of the season. Al-Shorta also reached the semi-finals of the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup, defeating CS Sfaxien and Al-Sadd before losing 1–0 to Al-Nassr from a penalty scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. Al-Shorta became only the fourth club in Iraq to win three consecutive national league titles when they were crowned champions of the 2023–24 Iraq Stars League, the first edition of the competition since it had been transformed into a professional league. They coupled that success with their first Iraq FA Cup title, beating Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 1–0 in the final to secure the domestic double.
Al-Shorta's first club crest was the same as the logo of the Iraqi Police, with the addition of the Olympic rings at the bottom alongside the club's name and the year 1978, which was the year of the club's formal establishment. 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-Qithara (The Harp) to refer to the club on his program Letter of the League by likening the team's attractive style of play to the tunes of a musical instrument. In 2002, laurel leaves were added either side of the harp on the shirt, and the Olympic rings were added underneath it.
In 2005, Al-Shorta adopted a new emblem which was blue with a green outline, with a harp featuring in the centre of the crest along with the Iraq flag. Under the presidency of Raad Hammoudi, the club decided to recognise 1975 as its year of foundation, as this was the year in which the Police Games Directorate accepted the new clubs-only policy in Iraqi football and integrated its top players into Al-Shorta Sports Club which had been provisionally established along with the Iraqi National Clubs League a year prior. Thus, 1975 was written on either side of the logo in English and Arabic, and this remained the club's crest for the next seven years.
In 2012, the club's new administrative body decided to recognise 1932 as the club's year of foundation, as the club's origins date back to the football team that formed in 1932 and went on to compete in the Iraq Central FA Premier League. This came with a change to the club's logo in the form of a new white circular crest with a green outline, which contained the harp, laurel leaves and Olympic rings inside it along with the club's name and year of foundation at the bottom.
On 12 December 2013, before the start of the 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 centre of the logo features a golden harp on a green and white backdrop, and the club's year of foundation and the Iraq flag feature at the top and bottom of the logo respectively. The club's name in English is displayed in a golden banner towards the bottom of the logo.
On 18 November 2020, the club revealed a brand new crest as part of a ceremony to celebrate its 88th anniversary. However, the logo change was abandoned after a negative reception from supporters.
In 1958, the Al-Shorta Select XI had a yellow and brown kit, and also had an all-white kit. The team began to wear purple kits under the leadership of coach Mohammed Najeeb Kaban in the 1960s. Since 1978, Al-Shorta have mainly worn green home kits, white away kits and purple third kits, with the exception of the 1983–84 season when they wore a black home shirt while playing under the name Qiwa Al-Amn Al-Dakhili (Internal Security Forces).
Since the 2016–17 season, Al-Shorta have worn purple as the away kit colour rather than white. In August 2020, Al-Shorta launched their own clothing brand called Qitharah to manufacture kits and other apparel for the club.
Al-Shorta's shirts have featured a number of different sponsors' logos over the years:
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. It is a self-financed group that travels to both home and away matches across Iraq, providing flags and banners for fans to wave during the game. Before kickoff, the Ultras Green Harp members often hold up a large banner which can vary depending on the opposition. Another prominent fan group called Majaneen Al-Qithara was founded in 2017.
Al-Shorta are one of the top four clubs in Baghdad along with Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Zawraa, and Al-Talaba; these four clubs together contest the Baghdad derbies. The Baghdad derbies are often considered to be the most important games of a season and they are usually held at neutral venues such as Al-Shaab Stadium to accommodate a larger number of spectators.
Al-Shorta's rivalry with Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya is the longest-standing, with its origins dating back to the 1930s. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya are also Al-Shorta's local rivals as the two clubs' stadiums are located within a short distance of each other on Falastin Street.
Al-Shorta also compete in the "Al-Dakhiliya derbies" with fellow Ministry of Interior clubs Al-Hudood and Aliyat Al-Shorta.
In their early years, the Al-Shorta Select XI played their home matches on the playing field at the team's headquarters, located on what would become Falastin Street in the early 1960s. After the establishment of the Iraqi National Clubs League, the club played their home games at the Local Administration Stadium in Al-Mansour and later at Al-Furusiya Stadium owned by the Ministry of Interior.
In the 1980s, the club decided to build their own stadium at the club's headquarters, with construction of the four stands being overseen by club president Abdul-Qadir Zeinal and work being carried out by club workers and volunteers. Al-Shorta Stadium was opened for its first match on 23 December 1990 with Al-Shorta beating Al-Tijara 3–2. The stadium was able to hold 8,634 people, while the white hall on the side of the field (named the Abid Kadhim Hall in honour of former player and manager Abid Kadhim) can hold approximately 2,000 people.
The stadium began to be demolished in March 2014 to make way for the construction of Al-Shorta Sports City.
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 with natural grass, a training pitch with an artificial surface and athletics tracks. The complex is being constructed by Swedish company Nordic Sport through its regional partner Nynord, along with Emirati company AKG Engineering. Börje Österberg, the owner of Nordic Sport, announced the initiation of construction of Al-Shorta Sports City on 16 December 2013.
On 7 January 2015, AKG Engineering released a video showing what the sports complex should look like once construction is completed. The stadium will have a capacity of 10,076 and will have green and white seats. Also at Al-Shorta Sports City will be a hotel, a club office, an indoor swimming pool with 1,500 seats, a multi-purpose closed hall with 2,500 seats, a full-quality relaxation club (with sports facilities), restaurants, theatres and a shopping centre.
Construction work was suspended in December 2015 before resuming in November 2022, with the all-seater stadium set to be opened in April 2025.
Al-Shorta currently play their home matches at Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
In 1958, the Al-Shorta Select XI appointed their first foreign manager in Palestinian coach Dennis Nasrawi. Since 1974, Al-Shorta have been coached by ten foreign managers from seven countries. The first of these was Yugoslavian coach Rajko Menista who took charge of Al-Shorta from 1982 to 1983.
Since 2013, Al-Shorta have hired two Brazilian managers (Lorival Santos and Marcos Paquetá), three Egyptian managers (Mohamed Youssef, Moamen Soliman and Mohamed Azima), one Jordanian manager (Haitham Al-Shaboul as caretaker), one Montenegrin manager (Nebojša Jovović), one Serbian manager (Aleksandar Ilić) and one Tunisian manager (Chiheb Ellili). The rest of the club's managers throughout history have been of Iraqi nationality.
The following managers won at least one major trophy when in charge of the team: