2016–17 UAE Pro-League

Arabian Gulf League

Season	2016–17
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 UAE Pro-League (also known as Arabian Gulf League for sponsorship reasons), was the 42nd top-level football season in the United Arab Emirates.

Stadia and locations

Ahli

Ain

Dhafra

Dibba

Hatta

Jazira

Nasr

Kalba

Shabab

Sharjah

Wahda

Wasl

Baniyas

Emirates

Locations of teams in the 2015–16 UAE Pro League

Note: Table lists clubs in alphabetical order.

Club	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Ahli	Dubai	Al-Rashid Stadium	8,844
Al-Ain	Al-Ain	Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium	22,717
Al-Dhafra	Madinat Zayed	Al Dhafra Stadium	5,012
Al-Jazira	Abu Dhabi	Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium	42,056
Al-Nasr	Dubai	Al-Maktoum Stadium	10,750
Al-Shabab	Dubai	Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Sharjah	Sharjah	Sharjah Stadium	11,073
Al-Wahda	Abu Dhabi	Al Nahyan Stadium	11,456
Al-Wasl	Dubai	Zabeel Stadium	8,439
Baniyas	Abu Dhabi	Baniyas Stadium	8,954
Dibba	Fujairah	Fujairah Club Stadium	10,465
Emirates	Ras Al-Khaimah	Emirates Club Stadium	5,127
Hatta	Hatta	Hamdan Bin Rashid Stadium	5,000
Kalba	Kalba	Ittihad Kalba Stadium	8,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head Coach	Assistant Coach	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor
Al-Ahli	Cosmin Olaroiu	Catalin Necula[1]	Ahmed Khalil	Nike	Skydive Dubai
Al-Ain	Zlatko Dalic	Borimir Perkovic[2]		Nike	First Gulf Bank
Al-Dhafra	Mohammad Kwid	Badreddine Al-Idrissi[3]		Adidas
Al-Jazira	Henk ten Cate	Jan Versleijen	Ali Khasif	Nike	IPIC
Al-Nasr	Dan Petrescu	Christos Kontis[4]		Adidas	Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority Emirates NBD DP World
Al-Shabab	Fred Rutten	Saad Obaid Patrick Greveraars[5]		Umbro	Al-Naboodah
Sharjah	Giorgos Donis			Adidas	SAIF Zone
Al-Wahda	Javier Aguirre	Juan Erabrin	Ismail Matar	Adidas	Al-Wahda Mall
Al-Wasl	Rodolfo Arruabarrena	Saleem Abdulrahman	Waheed Ismail	Macron	Saif Belhasa Holding
Baniyas	José Manuel Gomes	Salem Al-Arfi	Yousif Jaber	Adidas	Saaed Secure Engineering
Dibba	Paulo Sergio	Tarek Al-Sayed		uhlsport
Emirates	Theo Bucker	Klaus Dieter Nourredine bin Al-Hadi[6]	Haidar Alo Ali	uhlsport
Hatta	Waleed Obaid	Mohammad Al-Ajmani[7]		Adidas
Kalba	Fabio Viviani	Salem Al-Qaddami [8]		Errea

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field during each game including at least one player from the AFC country.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player
Al-Ahli	Lima	Everton Ribeiro	Asamoah Gyan	Kwon Kyung-Won
Al-Ain	Caio[9]	Douglas	Danilo Asprilla	Lee Myung-Joo
Al-Dhafra[10]	Issam El Adoua	Adil Hermach	Makhete Diop	Omar Khribin
Al-Jazira	Mirko Vucinic[11]	Mbark Boussoufa[12]	Jefferson Farfan[13]	Park Jong-woo
Al-Nasr	Jonathan Pitroipa	Jires Kembo Ekoko	Abdel Barrada[14]	Mohannad Karrar[15]
Al-Shabab	Tomas De Vincenti	Luvannor	Ruud Boymans[16]	Azizbek Haydarov
Sharjah	Adrian Mierzejewski	Song Jin-hyung	Gelmin Rivas[17]	Digão[18]
Al-Wahda	Sebastian Tagliabue	Jorge Valdivia	Balázs Dzsudzsák	Rim Chang-Woo
Al-Wasl	Fábio Lima	Ronaldo Mendes[19]	Helder Barbosa	Caio
Baniyas	Joaquin Larrivey	Fellipe Bastos	Daniel Hernández	Mark Milligan
Dibba	Danilo	Hamed Kone[20]	Nicandro Breeveld[21]	Heo Jae-Won[22]
Emirates	Sebastián Sáez	Augusto	Hocine Ragued	Ahmad Ibrahim
Hatta	Samuel	Mihai Răduț[23]	Adrian Ropotan	Yaseen Al-Bakhit[24]
Kalba	Yahia Kebe	Carmelo	Mihai Costea	Salam Shaker[25]

Transfers

Managerial Changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Manner of departure	Pos.	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al-Shabab	Caio Junior	8 May 2016	End of Contract	Pre-season	Fred Rutten	11 May 2016 [26]
Sharjah	Abdulaziz Al-Anbari	13 May 2016	End of Contract		Giorgos Donis	27 July 2016[27]
Al-Wasl	Gabriel Calderon	25 May 2016[28]	Sacked		Rodolfo Arruabarrena	6 June 2016[29]
Baniyas	Abdullah Mesfer	5 June 2016 [30]	Mutual Consent		* Pablo Repetto
Dibba	Theo Bucker	22 June 2016[31]	Left to Emirates		Paulo Sergio	29 June 2016[32]
Emirates	Paulo Comelli	31 May 2016 [33]	Mutual Consent		Theo Bucker	22 June 2016
Al-Sharjah	Paulo Bonamigo	27 July 2016	Sacked		Giorgos Donis	27 July 2016
Kalba	Mourad Okbi	28 Aug 2016	Mutual Consent		Fabio Viviani	28 Aug 2016
Baniyas	Pablo Repetto	22 October 2016	Sacked	12th	José Manuel Gomes	23 October 2016
Al-Nasr	Ivan Jovanović	31 October 2016	Sacked	8th	Dan Petrescu	31 October 2016

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Jazira	9	7	2	0	27	7	+20	23	Qualification to the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup and 2018 AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al-Wasl	9	7	1	1	18	7	+11	22	Qualification to the 2018 AFC Champions League group stage
3	Al-Ahli	9	5	3	1	20	7	+13	18
4	Al-Shabab	10	5	3	2	12	11	+1	18	Qualification to the 2018 AFC Champions League play-off round
5	Al-Wahda	10	4	4	2	22	10	+12	16	Qualification to the 2018 GCC Champions League
6	Al-Ain	6	5	1	0	14	7	+7	16
7	Hatta	9	4	3	2	9	15	−6	15
8	Sharjah	10	4	1	5	16	21	−5	13
9	Al-Nasr	10	4	0	6	20	17	+3	12
10	Al-Dhafra	9	3	1	5	14	20	−6	10
11	Kalba	10	1	2	7	7	19	−12	5
12	Dibba	9	0	5	4	4	14	−10	5
13	Baniyas	10	1	1	8	9	26	−17	4	Relegation to the 2017–18 UAE First Division
14	Emirates	10	0	3	7	8	20	−12	3

Updated to games played on 28 October 2016.
Source: http://uae.agleague.ae/en/stats/the-arabian-gulf-league.html
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

References

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2. "الكرواتي كارابيغ مدرباً لفريق العين تحت 21 سنة" (in Arabic). 19 July 2016.
3. "الإدريسي: الظفرة يسعى لانهاء الدوري الاماراتي بأفضل طريقة".
4. "Al Nasr Club - The Squad". Retrieved 20 July 2016.
5. "الشباب يغادر إلى معسكر "تجلين" اليوم".
6. بوكير مع الصقور ودبا يستنجد بالاتحاد - صحيفة الرؤية
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8. قادري, تونس - صالح (29 May 2016). "إدارة النادي وراء الصعود إلى المحترفين".
9. "كايو في قبضة الزعيم". 19 June 2016.
10. "الظفرة يجدد عقود ديوب وخريبين والعدوة وهرماش - مصر 20". 4 July 2016.
11. "ميركو فوسينيتش يعود إلى الجزيرة الإماراتي".
12. "بوصوفة يفاجئ الجماهير المغربية بالتوقيع لهذا الفريق العربي - أخر أخبار الرياضة المغربية والدولية".
13. "جيفرسون فارفان مستمر مع الجزيرة".
14. "رسميا: عبد العزيز برادة يوقع للنصر الاماراتي".
15. Al Nasr sign Iraq striker Mohannad Abdulraheem to replace Wanderley as Asian player | The National
16. "Al Shabab bolster attacking ranks with signing of Dutch striker Ruud Boymans from Utrecht".
17. "Sharjah swoop for Al Ittihad striker Gelmin Rivas".
18. "Transfer talk: Al Hilal defender Digao set to join his former manager Giorgos Donis at Sharjah | The National". The National. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
19. Reporter, Ashley Hammond, Staff (14 July 2016). "Al Wasl signs Ronaldo Mendes".
20. "دبا الفجيرة يتعاقد مع كونيه".
21. فضل, دبا - محمد (15 July 2016). "دبا الفجيرة يضم الهولندي نيكاندرو".
22. "Dibba Al Fujairah bring in South Korean Heo Jae-won to shore up defensive line".
23. "Hatta sign Romanian duo Adrian Ropotan and Mihai Radut in preparation for AGL return".
24. "Yaseen Al Bakhit becomes latest Hatta recruit as club step up AGL preparations".
25. "Arabian Gulf League: Ittihad Kalba complete foreign quota with Carmelo Gonzalez and Salam Shaker signings".
26. "Fred Rutten new manager of Al-Shabab - Football Oranje". 10 May 2016.
27. "اليوناني دونيس مدرباً جديداً لفريق الشارقة" (in Arabic). 28 July 2016.
28. "الوصل الإماراتي ينهي تعاقده مع المدرب الارجنتيني كالديرون".
29. "Al Wasl confirm former Boca Juniors boss Rodolfo Arruabarrena as new manager". sport360.com.
30. محمد, أبوظبي - مالك (5 June 2016). "بني ياس يُنهي عقد عبدالله مسفر بالتراضي".
31. الخيمة, محمد أبوإسماعيل – رأس (22 June 2016). "بوكير يوقع رسمياً مع فريق الإمارات.. ويتكفل بحل مشكلته مع دبا".
32. "البرتغالي باولو سيرجيو مدرباً لدبا الفجيرة" (in Arabic). 29 June 2016.
33. "إدارة نادي الإمارات تودع الجهاز الفني". 31 May 2016.