2016–17 UAE Pro-League

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.

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

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