The Syrian Premier League () is a professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

league in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and the top division of the Syrian football league system. The league comprises 12 teams and operates on a system of

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

with the

Syrian League 1st Division Syrian League 1st Division () is the second division in football in Syria. It is operated by the Syrian Football Association (SFA). The league started in the 1960s. After each season, the two top clubs are promoted to the Premier League. In the 2 ...

. The Syrian Premier League was founded in 1966, unifying the local leagues that had existed previously. Seasons mostly run from August to May. The first team to win the title was Al-Ittihad Ahli in 1967, whilst Al-Jaish has the record with 17 league titles. Their closest rivals, Al-Karamah, have won the league 8 times. In the beginning, the main tournament was the first division, then the

Syrian Football Association The Syrian Arab Football Association (SFA; ) is the governing body of football in Syria, controlling the Syrian national teams, the Syrian Premier League, and other domestic competitions. The SFA was founded in 1936 and has been a member of FIFA ...

developed the competition in a historic step that allowed the participation of foreign players to turn the competition into a professional league.

Competition format

Competition

From the 2022–23 season, there are 12 clubs in the Premier League, instead of the previous 14. During the course of a season (usually from August or September to May) each club plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents; for 22 games. Teams receive

three points for a win Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which 3 points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is draw ...

and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

by total points, then

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

, and then goals scored. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same position. If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for qualification to other competitions, a play-off match at a neutral venue decides rank.

Promotion and relegation

A system of

exists between the Syrian Premier League and the

. The two lowest placed teams in Premier League are relegated to the League 1st Division, and the top two teams from the League 1st Division are promoted to the Premier League.

Number of teams

Qualification for Asian competitions

As of 7 December 2021

Qualification criteria for 2022

At present, the winners of Syrian Premier League qualify for the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

play-off, and the league runners-up qualify for the

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

group stage alongside the winners of

Syrian Cup The Syrian Cup () is Syria's premier knockout Cup tournament in men's association football, football. It was first contested in 1959. Al-Ittihad SC Aleppo, Al-Ittihad SC have won the competition on 10 occasions. The final was first played in the 1 ...

. If the cup winners are also the league winners or runners-up, the third-placed team in the league qualifies for the AFC Cup group stage. The winners of the

and

may earn an additional qualification for the subsequent season's

qualifying play-offs if they have not already qualified. The number of places allocated to the Syrian clubs in AFC competitions is dependent upon the position the country holds in the AFC Club Competitions Ranking, which is calculated based upon the performance of teams in AFC competitions in the previous four years.

Current clubs (2024–25)

Stadiums and locations

1: Al-Karamah and Al-Wathba also use Bassel al-Assad Stadium (25,000 seats) as a home stadium.

List of seasons

Champions so far are:

Performances

Performance by club

Performance by city

Doubles

Five teams have won the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

of the Syrian Premier League and the

in the same season.

Records and statistics

All seasons top goalscorers

All time top goalscorers

Boldface indicates a player still active in Syrian Premier League.

League participation

As of 2022, 35 clubs have participated. The tallies since its establishment in 1966 until the end of the 2021–22 season. * 50 seasons: Al-Ittihad Ahli

Records

*The highest points average for the league champion: 64 points (Al-Karamah, 2007–08 season). *The fastest goal in the history of the league was scored by Al-Majd player Samer Awad against Qardaha, the 2005–06 season, after just 16 seconds.

References

Sports leagues established in 1966 1966 establishments in Syria