Al-Karma

The final of the 2023–24 Iraqi Premier Division League came down to penalties, and Al-Karma lost it to Diyala SC. They had needed only a season in the third tier, the 2022–23 First Division League, to win it outright and start climbing.

The club was put together in 2020 by Muthana Reikan Al-Halbousi, a local political figure from the Halbousi tribe, who became its president and has bankrolled its progress ever since. That backing shows in how fast the squad has turned over: the side that won promotion under Ali Brefkani was not the one that took the field for the top-flight opener under Ghazi Fahad, alongside foreign signings such as Youssouf Oumarou and John Okoli brought in to survive at the higher level.

There is no ground of their own yet — matches are played at Al-Ramadi Stadium, some way from home in the provincial capital, while a stadium bearing the club's own name is still being built back in Al-Karmah with a planned 5,000 seats. In the meantime, the closest thing to a rival has started to take shape in Al-Jolan SC, from nearby Fallujah.