The Iraqi football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

clubs in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. There are 5 individual levels, containing 26 leagues. It is run by the

Iraq Football Association The Iraq Football Association (IFA) ( ar, الاتحاد العراقي لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Iraq, controlling the Iraqi national team and the Iraqi Premier League. The Iraqi Football Association was founded ...

(IFA).

History

Up until 1973, leagues in Iraq were played at a regional level. The Central FA League, the Basra League and the Kirkuk League were all founded in 1948, while the Mosul League was founded in 1950. The first nationwide league to be held in the country was in the 1973–74 season when the

National First Division The National First Division (NFD), officially known as the Motsepe Foundation Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest league of South African club football after the South African Premier Division. Both the NFD and South Afr ...

was formed, with

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya ( ar, نادي القوة الجوية الرياضي, lit=Air Force Club) is an Iraqi sports club based in Rusafa District, Baghdad that competes in the Iraqi Premier League, the top-flight of Iraqi football. Founded in 193 ...

being crowned champions. The IFA then decided to replace the competition with a new National Clubs First Division which would only be open to clubs and not institute-representative teams.

About the system

The system consists of a pyramid of leagues, bound together by the principle of

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

. A certain number of the most successful clubs in each league can rise to a higher league, whilst those that finish the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

at the bottom of their league can find themselves sinking down a level. In addition to sporting performance, promotion is usually contingent on meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning appropriate facilities and finances. In theory, it is possible for a lowly local amateur club to achieve annual promotions and within a few years rise to the pinnacle of the Iraqi game and become champions of the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. While this may be unlikely in practice (at the very least, in the short run), there certainly is significant movement within the pyramid.

Structure

At the top is the single division of the

(level 1, which is often referred to as the "top-flight"), which has contained 20 clubs since the 2014–15 season,

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

(level 2) which consists of 24 clubs, Division Two (level 3),

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the fo ...

(level 4) and Division Four (Regional Leagues, level 5).

Promotion and relegation rules for All the levels

(level 1, 20 teams): The bottom four teams are relegated. #

(level 2, 24 teams): The top team in each group is automatically promoted, the bottom 4 are relegated. # Division Two (level 3, 126 teams): The top 2 teams in each group automatically promoted. #

(level 4, TBD teams) #

Division Four The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

(level 5, TBD teams): Baghdad Province League, Babylon Province League, Nineveh Province League, Diyala Province League, Erbil Province League, Dhi Qar Province League, Basra Province League, Al-Anbar Province League, Saladin Province League, Kirkuk Province League, Najaf Province League Al-Qadisiyah Prvovince League, Muthanna Province League, Maysan Province League, Karbala Province League, Wasit Governorate League, Suleymaniyah Province League, Duhok Province League.

Cup eligibility

Being members of a league at a particular level also affects eligibility for Cup, or single-elimination, competitions. *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

: Levels 1 to 4

The system

Level one in the pyramid, the top division of Iraq football, is the

, the winners of which are regarded as the champions of Iraq and the contenders have access to the Asian premier football competition, AFC Champions League. Level 1 to 4 are operated by the

while level 5 is organised by Regional associations.

Notes

References

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