The Iraqi Premier Division League () is the second-highest division of the Iraqi football league system after the

Iraq Stars League The Iraq Stars League (), is the highest level of the Iraqi football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Iraqi Premier Division League. It is governed by the Iraqi Pro League Associa ...

. The league is contested by 20 clubs and is operated by the

Iraq Football Association The Iraq Football Association (IFA) () is the governing body of football in Iraq, controlling the Iraq national football team, Iraqi national team and the Iraqi football league system. The Iraqi Football Association was founded in 1948 and has be ...

(IFA). Each season, the two top-finishing teams in the Premier Division League are automatically promoted to the Stars League, while the third-placed team enters a promotion play-off. The two lowest-finishing teams are relegated to the First Division League. From the 2023–24 season, the competition's name was changed from First Division League to Premier Division League. In the 2023–24 season, Diyala won the title and was promoted alongside runners-up Al-Karma. Al-Minaa are the record holders in the tournament having won three titles.

League structure

In November 2020, The Iraq FA announced that the number of teams will decrease from 28 to 24 in total starting from 2021 to 2022 season. To make these changes possible, the Iraq FA announced that in 2020–21 season, The top teams in each group are directly promoted to the top-tier, while 8 teams in total are directly relegated to third-tier. On April 8, 2023, the promotion and relegation mechanism was changed, and the Football Association announced the promotion of the winning team in each group directly to the top-tier, and the relegation of the last two teams in the standings in each group to the third-tier, as a result, two teams are promote and 4 teams are relegate.

Competition name

In the media

Iraqi Premier Division League is called in the media by the name of Dawri Al-Madhaleem (Oppressed League), because the media, the

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

, and the Referees Committee do not care about it, and the teams that play in it suffer from poor financing, and their stadiums are in a bad shape. However, the league includes very talented players, and the competition in it is so strong that it exceeds the competition in the Stars League.

List of champions

Most successful clubs

References

External links

Iraq Football Association
{{AFC second leagues Football leagues in Iraq Second level football leagues in Asia Sports leagues established in 1974 sv:Irakiska Division 1