Al-Minaa SC

Al-Mina'a Sports Club (Arabic: نادي الميناء الرياضي, lit. 'Port Sports Club') is an Iraqi multi-sport club based in Al-Maqal, Basra that participates in the Iraq Stars League, the top tier of Iraqi football. It is one of the most popular clubs in Iraq, particularly in the south, and became the first club outside Baghdad to win the Iraqi Premier League.

Al-Mina'a was founded on November 22, 1931, in Al-Maqal. In 1974, the club was merged with another team called Al-Bareed to form a single club called Al-Muwasalat, and it was a strange situation because the Al-Bareed team were based in Baghdad while Al-Mina'a were based in Basra and the two teams met in Baghdad on the day of the match only, so after just one season the club was dissolved and Al-Mina'a returned in their place. In 1978, the team won the national league title for the first time. After a lean period in the post-war years, the team finished second in the league in the 2004–05 season, and therefore qualified for the 2006 AFC Champions League, becoming the first Iraqi club from outside Baghdad to play in this tournament.

For a long time, the club was considered to be one of the Iraqi football clubs that had its own style of play, and the team practised only under the supervision and training of coaches who graduated from the club, until the beginning of 2011, when the club started to depend on foreign coaches.

Al-Mina'a Sports Club was formed by some of the British sailors and workers serving in the Marine Transportation Company in Basra on the banks of the Shatt Al-Arab after Mandatory Iraq, where Colonel Sir John Ward was the director of company in the 1920s. When they were forming gatherings, sports were practiced and football was the most important. After the founding of Al-Maqal City and establishment the General Company for Ports on March 1, 1931, by Colonel Sir Ward under the auspices of King Faisal, and the transfer of employees in the company to Al-Maqal, the club coordinated with the company's management to make the green squares in the park located there to be a playing field for them, and after a few months, the company announced the establishment of the club officially, and Mr. C. F. Neikell was chosen as the first president of the club. The first football team consisted of Markar Avadician, Kadhim Dawood, Dehjat Ohaness, Liu Steven, Samuel Akesh, Aziz Hormuz, Rashad Al-Mufti, Khudair Abbas and others. After the founding of the Iraq Football Association, Al-Mina'a participated in the Iraq FA Basra Premier League, a regional league for teams in Basra organised by the Basra branch of the IFA. Al-Mina'a won the league title in its first season, beating Sharikat Naft Al-Basra 1–0 in the final. Al-Mina'a also participated in the first ever national knockout cup in Iraq, the 1948–49 Iraq FA Cup, but were knocked out in the quarter-finals 2–0 by Baghdad-based side Al-Haras Al-Malaki. Al-Mina'a went on to finish in third place in the regional league in both the 1949–50 and 1950–51 seasons.

In 1950, Al-Mina'a played its first match outside the country as the first Iraqi team to play outside Iraq, they played against Shahin at the Amjadiyeh Stadium in Tahran and the result was 2–2, The team was composed of these players: Mustafa Hameed, Karim Allawi, Noori Lafta, Jassim Bader, Karim Jaber, Jali Najeeb, Subhi Mohammed Zaki, Alwan Hussein, Michael Stanley, Salih Mohammed and Sabeeh Darwish. And the team played several friendly matches with other Iranian clubs. They played against Arteshe and the game ended in a 2–1 victory for Al-Mina'a, and they played against Taj Ahvaz and won that match 5–1. They also played against Khorramshahr and won 3–1, and they faced Abadan F.C. and won that game too. The team benefited greatly from those matches. In 1951, the team won the Hanna Al-Sheikh Cup, which was organized for Basra-based teams. And in the same year, the first Iraqi national football team was established. Coach Dhia Habib invited three players from the Al-Mina'a club to join them – Percy Lynsdale, Saeed Easho and Karim Allawi – to play against Turkey in Turkey. Before traveling, and on Wednesday 2 May 1951, Al-Mina'a played – with adding a player from Sharikat Naft Al-Basra club; Shaker Ismail – against Iraq in Basra, and ended the match a draw 1–1, Tariq Khalil scored for Al-Mina'a.

The 1950s and 1960s were periods of preparation for Al-Mina'a, and the team played several friendly matches with different teams in this period; some of these clubs were strong European teams, and other were strong Asian teams. These matches helped the club develop the qualities of the players in terms of tactics and technique and other aspects.

On 6 January 1956, Al-Mina'a played with Tehran F.C. and lost 3–0, and after a year they played with a number of English sailors teams, who were arriving in Basra in those years. On December 20, 1958, Al-Mina'a team travelled to Kuwait, playing against Kuwait national football team in a friendly match in Ahmadi, defeating Kuwait 8–0, scoring goals by Mohammed Manther, Karim Allawi, Nouri Lafta and Waleed Dawood, each with two goals, It was a very big result against a national team. In 1961, under the leadership of Danish coach Ingvard Hansen, the team played with a number of Iranian teams, beating Abadan F.C. 4–3 and losing to Shahin 1–0. and in February 1962, the Romanian club; Steaua București visited Iraq and Al-Mina'a, under the same coach, played with them and lost 4–1, then, Al-Mina'a played with the Syrian team Damascus and won 2–0. In February 1963, the team under the same coach, played with another Romanian club, Petrolul Ploiești, and lost 2–0 to them. The 1962–63 season saw Al-Mina'a win the Iraq FA Basra First Division, the top-tier league in the region, by winning three and drawing one of their four games. The club's B team were the league's runners-up.

In November 1965, the team played the Kuwaiti club Al-Qadsia and the match ended in a 3–3 draw. In September 1968, the team traveled to Syria and played with some its teams, and the results were good, In 1969 the team under the leadership of coach Abdul Salam Saud, played against Bahraini club Al-Nusour and beat them 4–1; they then played against the Soviet club Neftçi and lost 1–0 On January 17, 1970, Al-Mina'a played against Yugoslavian club Sarajevo and lost 3–1, and over a year later on January 29, 1971, they played under the leadership of coach Hadi Hassan Wasfi, with Czechoslovak club Spartak Trnava and won 2–0; Waleed Dawood and Abdul Razzak Ahmed scored. On December 20, 1972, Al-Mina'a under the leadership of coach Hamza Qasim, played against the China national football team lost 1–0. These matches had a significant impact in making Al-Mina'a stronger team.