Al-Minaa

 

Name: Al-Minaa (meaning Port in English)
Nickname: Al-Safana (meaning The Sailors in English)
City: Basra
Year of foundation: 1931

Number of Iraqi Premier League titles: 1
1977/78
Number of Iraqi FA Cup titles: 0
Number of Iraqi Elite Cup titles: 0
Number of Iraqi Super Cup titles: 0
Number of major continental titles: 0

Al-Minaa are the second-oldest existing football club in Iraq, having been founded in 1931. In 1974, they merged with Al-Bareed to form a Baghdad-based club named Al-Muwasalat, but just a year later, Al-Muwasalat (who finished third in the 1974/75 season) folded and Al-Minaa returned to being a Basra-based team. Their only league title came in the 1977/78 season when they became the second Iraqi club at the time to win the league without losing a match. Since then, they have never managed to win the league again and have suffered relegation twice, both times being in the 1980s. The closest they came to capturing their second league title was in the 2004/05 season but they lost the league final 2-0 to Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya. The club struggled financially last season and thus only managed to finish 15th.

Season-by-season record in the Iraqi Premier League:
1974/75: 3rd
1975/76: 4th
1976/77: 6th
1977/78: 1st
1978/79: 4th
1979/80: 10th
1980/81: 8th
1981/82: 9th
1982/83: 11th
1983/84: 12th
1984/85: Season abandoned
1985/86: 14th (relegated)
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1987/88: 12th
1988/89: 8th (relegated)
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1990/91: 8th
1991/92: 9th
1992/93: 11th
1993/94: 17th
1994/95: 11th
1995/96: 9th
1996/97: 8th
1997/98: 7th
1998/99: 4th
1999/2000: 8th
2000/01: 9th
2001/02: 10th
2002/03: Season abandoned
2003/04: Season abandoned
2004/05: 2nd
2005/06: 10th
2006/07: 7th
2007/08: 10th
2008/09: 11th
2009/10: 13th
2010/11: 7th
2011/12: 11th
2012/13: 8th
2013/14: 11th
2014/15: 4th
2015/16: 6th
2016/17: 6th
2017/18: 15th
2018/19: 17th
2019/20: Season abandoned