Al-Talaba

Al-Talaba has never known relegation. Since the club's first season in the Iraqi top flight it has stayed there, built on an identity that has nothing to do with a neighbourhood or a tribe: it grew out of the University of Baghdad, founded on 17 December 1969 as the students' own team, and only took the name Al-Talaba after a merger with a club of the same name in the late 1970s. The National Union of Iraqi Students owned it until 1993, when the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research took over.

The 1980s belonged to them. Under Ammo Baba, Al-Talaba took the league in 1981–82 and 1985–86, part of five titles won between 1981 and 2002, and Hussein Saeed built his career there through those years and went on to become Iraq's all-time leading scorer. The early 2000s brought a second peak: both Iraqi Cups, in 2002 and 2003, and the Super Cup in 2002. Younis Mahmoud started out at Al-Talaba before leaving to win the Asian Cup with Iraq in 2007.

They play in blue and black, the stripes that give the nickname Al-Aneeq — "the elegant" — and share Baghdad's fiercest derby rivalry with Al-Zawraa, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and Al-Shorta. League matches are held at Al-Madina Stadium, cup ties at the smaller Al-Talaba Stadium a short distance away. In 1995–96 the club reached the final of the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, losing to Bellmare Hiratsuka.