2011–12 UAE Pro League

Pro-League

Season	2011–12
Champions	Al Ain 10th title
Relegated	Emirates Club Al Sharjah
Champions League	Al Ain Al Jazira Al Nasr Al Shabab
Matches played	132
Goals scored	449 (3.4 per match)
Top goalscorer	Asamoah Gyan (22)
Biggest home win	Al Jazira 5–0 Al Sharjah
Biggest away win	Emirates Club 1–5 Al Shabab Al Wasl 2–6 Al Ahli Al Jazira 1–5 Al-Nasr
Highest scoring	Al Sharjah 4–5 Al-Nasr (9 goals)
Highest attendance	21,455 Al Jazira 1–3 Al Ain
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The 2011–12 Pro League season (known as Etisalat Pro League for sponsorship reasons) was the 37th top-level football season in the UAE, and the fourth Professional season.

Al Jazira was the defending champions, having won their 1st Pro League title in the 2010–11 campaign after being runner-up for three times in a row. Al Dhafra and Ittihad Kalba were relegated from the previous season. Ajman and Emirates were promoted from the UAE Division 1 Group A. The campaign began on 15 October 2011 and finished on 27 May 2012.

Teams

Ittihad Kalba and Al Dhafra were relegated to the 2011–12 UAE Division 1 Group A after finishing in the bottom two spots of the table at the end of the 2010–11 season. The two relegated teams were replaced by 2nd level champions Ajman Club and runners up Emirates Club.

Stadia and locations

Dubai

Ajman

Abu Dhabi

Al Ain

Sharjah

Ras al-Khaimah

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Locations of teams in the 2011–12 UAE Pro-League

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Al Ahli	Dubai	Rashed Stadium	18,000
Al Jazira	Abu Dhabi	Al Jazira Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium	42,056
Al Ain	Al Ain	Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium	15,000
Al Wahda	Abu Dhabi	Al-Nahyan Stadium	12,000
Al Shabab	Dubai	Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Al Wasl	Dubai	Zabeel Stadium	12,000
Al Nasr	Dubai	Al-Maktoum Stadium	12,000
Al Sharjah	Sharjah	Sharjah Stadium	18,000
Ajman	Ajman	Ajman Stadium	10,000
Dubai	Dubai	Police Officers Club Stadium	6,500
Bani Yas	Abu Dhabi	Bani Yas Stadium	9,570
Emirates Club	Ras al-Khaimah	Emirates Club Stadium	5,000

Personnel

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

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Captain
Al Ahli	Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum	Quique Flores	Mohammed Qassim
Al Jazira	Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Caio Junior	Lucas Neill
Al Wahda	Saeed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Josef Hickersberger	Fahed Masoud
Al Ain	Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Cosmin Olăroiu	Rami Yaslam
Al Sharjah	Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani	Valeriu Tiţa	Nawaf Mubarak
Al Nasr	Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid	Walter Zenga	Abdallah Mousa
Ajman	Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi	Abdulwahab Abdulkadir	Mohamed Zahran
Emirates	Ahmed bin Saqr Al Qassimi	Ghazi Ghrairi	Karim Kerkar
Baniyas	Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Gabriel Calderón	Fawzi Bashir
Al Wasl	Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum	Diego Maradona	Khalid Darwish
Al Shabab	Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum	Paulo Bonamigo	Hassan Al Sharif
Dubai	Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Maktoum	Ayman Ramadi	Jamal Abdullah

Managerial changes

Managerial changes during the 2011–12 campaign.

Pre-season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Replaced by
Al Wasl	Khalifa Mubarak	Caretaker role ended	Diego Maradona
Al Jazira	Abel Braga	Contract finished	Franky Vercauteren
Al Ain	Alexandre Gallo	Contract finished	Cosmin Olăroiu
Baniyas	Mahdi Ali	Caretaker role ended	Jorvan Vieira
Al-Ahli	Abdulhameed al Mishtiki	Caretaker role ended	Ivan Hašek
Al Sharjah	Carlos Azenha	Resigned before season started	Valeriu Tiţa

During the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Replaced by
Dubai	Néstor Clausen	Resigned	Umberto Barberis
Dubai	Umberto Barberis	Caretaker role ended	Ion Marin
Baniyas	Jorvan Vieira	Sacked	Salem Al-Orfi
Al-Ahli	Ivan Hašek	Sacked	Quique Flores
Baniyas	Salem Al-Orfi	Sacked	Gabriel Calderón
Dubai	Ion Marin	Sacked	Pierre-Andre Schurmann
Dubai	Pierre-Andre Schurmann	Caretaker role ended	Ayman Ramadi
Al Sharjah	Valeriu Tiţa	Sacked	Jorvan Vieira
Al Sharjah	Jorvan Vieira	Sacked	Valeriu Tiţa
Al Jazira	Franky Vercauteren	Sacked	Caio Junior
Al Sharjah	Valeriu Tiţa	Sacked	Abdulmajeed Al Nimr

Foreign Players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per AGL team.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player	Former Players
Ajman	Karim Kerkar	Boris Kabi	Olivier Tia	Hassan Maatouk	Ibrahima Touré
Al-Ahli	Grafite	Achille Emaná	Luis Jiménez	Youssef Mohamad	Jajá Coelho
Al-Ain	Ignacio Scocco	Asamoah Gyan	Mirel Rădoi	Yasser Al-Qahtani
Al-Jazira	Matías Delgado	Baré	Ricardo Oliveira	Lucas Neill
Al-Nasr	Léo Lima	Luca Toni	Amara Diané	Mark Bresciano	Careca Ismaël Bangoura
Al-Shabab	Ciel	Kieza	Carlos Villanueva	Azizbek Haydarov	Júlio César
Al-Sharjah	Edinho	Marcelinho	Lee Sang-ho	Timur Kapadze	Vandinho Iman Mobali Igor Đurić
Al-Wahda	Fernando Baiano	Hugo (footballer, born 1980)	Magrão	Mohammed Al-Balushi
Al-Wasl	Juan Mercier	Mariano Donda	Juan Manuel Olivera	Reza Khalatbari	Richard Porta Edson Puch
Baniyas	Ismaël Bouzid	André Senghor	Francisco Yeste	Fawzi Bashir	David Trezeguet Antonin Koutouan
Dubai	Aboubacar Camara	Simon Feindouno	Nicolas Marin	Abbas Atwi	Faouzi Aaish Ulugbek Bakayev
Emirates	Modibo Diarra	Mohsine Moutouali	Alexander Geynrikh	Jasur Khasanov	Alhassane Keita Pejman Nouri Orok Akarandut

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al Ain (C)	22	17	4	1	52	16	+36	55	2013 AFC Champions League Group stage
2	Al Nasr	22	11	8	3	49	33	+16	41	2013 AFC Champions League Qualifying play-off
3	Al Shabab	22	10	8	4	39	27	+12	38
4	Al Jazira	22	11	2	9	47	38	+9	35	2013 AFC Champions League Group stage
5	Al-Ahli	22	10	4	8	45	42	+3	34
6	Al-Wahda	22	8	9	5	32	30	+2	33
7	Ajman	22	9	4	9	36	35	+1	31
8	Al Wasl	22	7	5	10	32	40	−8	26
9	Baniyas	22	6	6	10	34	39	−5	24	2012–13 GCC Champions League
10	Dubai Club	22	5	5	12	29	40	−11	20
11	Emirates Club (R)	22	5	2	15	28	56	−28	17	Promotion/relegation Stage
12	Sharjah (R)	22	2	5	15	26	53	−27	11

Updated to match(es) played on 27 May 2012. Source: Standings
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Results

Home \ Away	AJM	ALI	AIN	JAZ	NAS	SHA	WAH	WAS	YAS	DUB	EMI	SHR
Ajman		0–1	1–4	3–4	1–2	0–1	3–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–1
Al-Ahli	2–0		0–2	2–1	3–3	2–3	2–2	1–2	6–4	5–2	2–0	2–2
Al Ain	4–0	1–0		2–0	2–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	2–1	4–0	2–1
Al Jazira	1–0	4–0	1–3		1–5	2–0	4–2	1–0	3–1	0–2	4–1	5–0
Al Nasr	1–1	4–0	2–0	2–2		2–1	0–1	1–1	2–1	0–1	5–3	3–2
Al Shabab	4–4	2–0	1–1	3–2	2–2		2–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	5–1
Al-Wahda	1–0	3–3	2–2	3–2	1–1	0–0		2–1	2–1	1–1	2–2	1–0
Al Wasl	2–4	2–6	2–2	0–1	2–2	2–2	0–2		1–0	1–2	4–1	3–0
Baniyas	1–2	1–3	2–2	2–1	2–2	0–1	2–2	1–2		2–0	4–1	2–2
Dubai Club	1–3	1–2	0–2	2–4	1–2	1–1	0–0	5–2	1–2		2–4	3–0
Emirates Club	1–3	2–1	1–4	3–2	1–3	1–5	2–1	1–2	0–2	2–1		1–2
Sharjah	1–3	1–2	1–4	2–2	4–5	1–0	1–2	1–2	1–2	1–1	1–1

Updated to match(es) played on 11 May 2012. Source: UFL
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Goalscorers

22 goals

• Asamoah Gyan (Al Ain)

16 goals

• Grafite (Al-Ahli)
• André Senghor (Bani Yas)

14 goals

• Ricardo Oliveira (Al-Jazira)

13 goals

• Luis Jiménez (Al-Ahli)
• Juan Manuel Olivera (Al Wasl)

11 goals

• Ciel (Al Shabab)

10 goals

• Mark Bresciano (Al Nasr)
• Baré (Al-Jazira)
• Edinho (Al-Sharjah)
• Marcelinho (Al-Sharjah)
• Modibo Diarra (Emirates Club)

Source: official site:

See also

• List of United Arab Emirates football transfers summer 2011
• 2011–12 UAE President's Cup
• 2011–12 Etisalat Emirates Cup

External links

• Pro League Official Website
• Football Association The UAE Football Association