The 1st Umm al-Ma'arik Championship ( ar, بطولة أم المعارك الأولى) was the first occurrence of the

Umm al-Ma'arik Championship The Umm al-Ma'arik Championship ( ar, بطولة أم المعارك, lit=''Mother of all Battles Championship''), known as the Baghdad Championship ( ar, بطولة بغداد) in its last edition, and also referred to as the Iraqi Elite Cup, was ...

. This edition of the competition was organised by Al-Talaba. The top six teams of the

1990–91 Iraqi National League The 1990–91 Iraqi National Clubs First Division was the 17th season of the competition since its foundation in 1974. The league title was won by Al-Zawraa for the first time since the 1978–79 season. They also won the Iraq FA Cup to complete ...

were supposed to compete in the tournament, but

Al-Naft Al Naft Sport Club ( ar, نادي النفط الرياضي, lit=''Oil SC'') is an Iraqi professional sports club based in the Adhamiyah District, East Districts of the Tigris River, Baghdad. Their football team plays in the highest division in ...

withdrew from the competition and were replaced by seventh-placed

Al-Najaf Najaf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف) or An-Najaf al-Ashraf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف ٱلْأَشْرَف), also known as Baniqia ( ar, بَانِيقِيَا), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated popula ...

. All the matches were played at Al-Shaab Stadium. The competition started on 2 September and ended on 13 September where, in the final,

Al-Zawraa Al-Zawraa Sports Club ( ar, نادي الزوراء الرياضي) is an Iraqi sports club based in Utayfia, Karkh District (near Tigris River), Baghdad. Their football team compete in the Iraqi Premier League, the top-flight of Iraqi footbal ...

defeated Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 3–1 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

Background

Al-Talaba proposed the establishing of a new tournament that includes only the top six teams of the

, Al-Talaba,

Al-Shorta Al-Shorta Sports Club ( ar, نادي الشرطة الرياضي, lit=''Police Sports Club'') is an Iraqi sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Baghdad. It has teams in 17 different sports, more than any other Iraqi club, and the best known sectio ...

, Al-Karkh, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and

. Salim Rasheed, the vice president of Al-Talaba, stated that the competition would be played at Al-Shaab Stadium and in two groups. The Iraq Football Association agreed on the proposition on 24 August 1991. The higher organizing committee of the competition held a meeting with the participating teams' representatives and the FA's representatives at Al-Talaba's headquarters on 25 August 1991 to discuss the start and end dates of the tournament and other technical matters. The duration of the competition was decided to be from 2–13 September 1991 and 31 August would be the last day to receive squad lists. Before the start of the tournament, Al-Naft did not accept the invitation, so they were replaced by

, the seventh-placed team of the league.

Pre-opening

The organizing committee invited 41 former national players, organizing a charity match between them, but only 24 got to play. The players were split into two teams. The green team included Jalal Abdul-Rahman, Muthanna Hameed, Saadi Toma, Shakir Ali, Falah Hassan,

Ali Kadhim Ali Kadhim Nassir Al-Tameemi ( ar, علي كاظم ناصر التميمي), 1 January 1949 – 2 January 2018) was an Iraqi football striker who played for Iraq in the 1972 AFC Asian Cup & 1976 AFC Asian Cup. He also played for Al Zawraa. ...

, Hadi Al-Janabi, Hassan Saddawi,

Sabah Hatim Sabah Hatim (born 1 July 1950) is a former Iraqi football forward who played for Iraq in the 1972 AFC Asian Cup The 1972 AFC Asian Cup was the 5th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised b ...

, Ayoub Odisho, Abdelilah Abdul-Wahid and Jaleel Salih, while the white team consisted of Kadhim Khalaf,

Samir Shaker Samir Shaker Mahmoud (born 28 February 1958) is an Iraqi former professional footballer who played as defender. He represented the Iraq national team in the 1986 FIFA World Cup. He also played for Al-Rasheed Club. Career Samir Shaker was on ...

, Ibrahim, Wathiq Aswad, Abdul-Zahra Aswad, Hussein Saeed, Haris Mohammed, Thair Ahmed, Mahdi Jassim, Faisal Aziz, Abdul-Karim Farhan and Abdul-Muhsin Mohammed. It ended in a 4–1 win for to the green team.

Group stage

The matches were drawn on 29 August 1991.

Group 1

Group 2

Semifinals

Third place match

Final

References

{{Reflist

External links

Iraqi Football Website
Football competitions in Iraq 1991–92 in Iraqi football