Al-Shorta

Football club infobox
clubname = Al Shorta
Police Club (English)


fullname = Al Shorta Football Club
nickname = Al Qeetharah القيثارة|{| class="wikitable" founded = 1938
founded = 1938
ground = Al Shorta StadiumBaghdad
capacity = 7,000
chairman = flagicon|IRQ Raad Hammoudi
manager = flagicon|IRQ Karim Farhan
league = Iraq Super League
season = 2006-07
position = 10th (6th in Final (elite) group)
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pattern_la2=_whiteshoulders|pattern_b2=_whiteshoulders|pattern_ra2=_whiteshoulders
leftarm2=00AA22|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=00AA22|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FFFFFF

Al Shorta ( _ar. الشرطة) (Police Club) is an Iraqi football club based in Baghdad. They are widely regarded as Iraq's best team, as they are only one of two Iraqi teams to ever win any competition outside of Iraq (the other being Al-Rasheed.) Al Shorta have won 12 cups. They were runners-up in the 1971 Asian Champions Cup, having withdrawn from the final in which they were due to face Maccabi Tel Aviv for political reasons. They were also the winners of the first-ever edition of the Arab Champions League in 1982, then called the "Arab Club Champions Cup" by defeating Al-Nejmeh from Lebanon 2-0.During the early years of Iraqi football, Al-Shorta were dominant in the Baghdad Super League, winning over half of the titles expanding from 1962 to 1973. Since the Baghdad Super League expanded to form the Iraq Super League, they have won two titles and been runners-up as well. They have reached the Iraq FA Cup final on 5 occasions, losing every time. However, they did win the Umm Al Ma’arak (mother of all battles) Cup 3 times in 2000, 2001 and 2003. After starting the 2006/07 season brilliantly by being the only team to win all their games in the first group, including two victories over Al Quwa Al Jawiya, Al Shorta were eventually knocked out in the final (elite) stage of the competition. They will be hoping to do much better this season by winning the Iraq Super League as they are expected to.

Kits

The home kit is all green and the away kit is green with white trimming and it is sponsored by Puma.

2007/2008 Squad

The First Team

quad changes during 2007/08 season

In:
* Mohammed Ali Karim - from "Al-Jazeera"
* Ammar Abdul-Zahra - from "Al Zawraa"

Out:
* Ali Salah Hashim - to "Al Hussein Irbid"
* Samal Saeed Mujbel - to "Arbil FC"

Youth

Famous Head Coaches

*Emmanuel "Ammo" Baba
*Wathik Naji Jasim
*Anwar Jassim

Famous players

*Raad Hammoudi
*Abdul-Fatah Nasif
*Shakir Mahmoud
*Emad Hashim
*Saad Qais
*Reead Abdel-Abbas
*Nashat Akram
*Samal Saeed Mujbel
*Mostafa Karim

Honours

*Baghdad Super League(6): 1962-63, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70, 1971-72, 1972-73
*Iraq Super League(2): 1979-80, 1997-98
*Arab Champions League (1): 1981-82
*Umm Al Ma’arak (mother of all battles) Cup(3): 2000, 2001, 2003

International performance

Arab Champions League

(1): 1981-82

AFC Champions League

*2004: Group Stage
*2005: Group stage

Asian Champions Cup

*1971: Runners-up (refused to play final against Maccabi Tel Aviv for political reasons)
*2000: Group Stage

ee also

* Iraqi clubs at the AFC Champions League

External links

* [http://www.goalzz.com/main.aspx?team=442&mode=p Team info at goalzz.com]