2008–09 Qatar Stars League

The season was played in 3 stages. The 2008–09 calendar released by the QFA saw the first phase run through 13 September till 23 November before phase two kicked off on 27 November to end on 7 February 2009. The final phase started on February 12 and concluded on April 17.

Ten teams played for the title of league champions with each outfit playing 27 matches. The last team in the standings was to be relegated until the QFA announced an expansion to the league for the following season.

The competition was played at the seven stadiums of Al Sadd, Al-Rayyan, Al-Gharafa, Al-Wakrah, Al-Khor, Qatar SC, and Al-Arabi.

Al-Gharafa won the title last season after pipping powerhouse Al Sadd into second place while Al-Shamal were relegated and their place in the top division would be taken up by Al Kharaitiyat.

League expansion

The league has slowly expanded since the turn of the decade, moving from 9 clubs to 10 clubs and then latest setup of 12 clubs for the next season campaign.

There are two divisions in the Qatari football structure and the league has previously seen one club promoted and relegated each year except in 'expansion' years.

It was announced on 15 April 2009 that no clubs would be relegated from the top flight due to expansion reasons. The announcement was made with only one game remaining.^[1]

Foreign players

More information Club, Player 1 ...

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	AFC player	Former players
Al-Arabi	Leonardo Pisculichi	Salman Isa	Kim	Lomana LuaLua	Souleymane Keïta		Mohammed Al-Balushi	Younis Mahmoud
Al-Gharafa	Clemerson	Fernandão	Nashat Akram	Otmane El Assas	Hakan Yakin		Younis Mahmoud
Al-Khor	Sayed Mohamed Adnan	Moumouni Dagano	Bill Tchato	Alaa Abdul-Zahra	Mahdi Karim	Kamel Zaiem	Salam Shaker	Mehdi Méniri Fabrício Souza Jean Paul Yontcha
Al Kharaitiyat	Abdulla Baba Fatadi	Oumar Tchomogo	Fabão	Rodolfo Soares	Joseph-Désiré Job	Sabri Lamouchi	Ashraf Bait Taysir	Wílton Figueiredo Ali Hasan Kamal
Al-Rayyan	Aloísio Chulapa	Élton Arábia	Marcelo Tavares	Amara Diané	Amad Al-Hosni	Abasse Ba	Hassan Mudhafar Al-Gheilani	Ricardinho Roque Júnior
Al Sadd	Felipe	Carlos Tenorio	Agyemang Opoku	Pascal Feindouno	Khalifa Ayil Al-Noufali	Mohammed Rabia Al-Noobi	Ismail Matar
Al-Sailiya	Abdoulaye Cissé	Jean-Emmanuel Effa Owona	Ahmed Kano				Badar Al-Maimani
Al-Wakrah	Wilsinho	Ali Rehema	Adil Ramzi	Anouar Diba	Delano Hill	Elbekay Bouchiba	Karrar Jassim
Qatar SC	Marcinho	Roger	Qusay Munir	Talal El Karkouri	Youssef Safri		Ahmed Al-Dokhi
Umm Salal	Fabrício Souza	Magno Alves	Nivaldo	Aziz Ben Askar	Moussa N'Diaye		Mohamed Husain	Maurito Sabri Lamouchi

Close

25 goals

• Magno Alves (Umm Salal)

21 goals

• Leonardo Pisculichi (Al-Arabi)

20 goals

• Clemerson (Al-Gharafa)

19 goals

• Amara Diané (Al-Rayyan)
• Sebastián Soria (Qatar SC)

15 goals

• Khalfan Ibrahim (Al Sadd)

13 goals

• Agyemang Opoku (Al Sadd)

11 goals

• Sayed Mohamed Adnan (Al-Khor)
• Jean-Emmanuel Effa Owona (Al-Sailiya)
• Pascal Feindouno (Al Sadd)
• Amad Al-Hosni (Al-Rayyan)

10 goals

• Fernandão (Al-Gharafa)
• Moumouni Dagano (Al-Khor)
• Anouar Diba (Al-Wakrah)