In the late-1940s, a basketball club was established under the name of
Al-Mansour Club, where a lot of national basketball players started. The team won the 1958 Adhamiya Tournament with thousands of people either celebrating in the court or crowding outside of it. In 1974, the club was merged with Al-Karkh Sports Club. Since it was founded in 1963, Al-Karkh were unsuccessful to get promoted to the
Iraq Central FA Premier League or later the
Iraqi Premier League. For 27 years, they had been languishing in the lower divisions. Taking the
Al-Mansour Local Administration Stadium as his club's, on 23 November 1983,
Uday Hussein founded a new sports club named
Al-Rasheed. Al-Rasheed soon won the lower division in their first season followed by three top division league titles, two FA Cups, three
Arab Club Champions Cup trophies and a runners-up spot at the
AFC Champions League, all between 1983 and 1990. On 18 August 1990, the
Iraqi Olympic Committee decided to dissolve Al-Rasheed Sports Club, transferring all of its properties to Al-Karkh Sports Club, and replaced Al-Rasheed with Al-Karkh in the
Iraqi Premier League. When Al-Karkh replaced Al-Rasheed's place in the
Iraqi Premier League, the team for the first time in their history played in the top tier of Iraqi football. Most of the
Iraq national team players left, retiring, like
Adnan Dirjal,
Haris Mohammed, and
Samir Shaker, or transferring to other teams, like
Ahmed Radhi,
Laith Hussein, and
Habib Jafar. In their first season in the senior division,
1990–91, they finished in 4th place at 38 points. Being coached by Adnan Dirjal, Al-Karkh, on Dirjal's first season as a coach, finished in the furthest place they have ever been in the league, which is 3rd place in the
1991–92 season, three points away from the leaders. Dirjal received the best Iraqi coach award for the team's performance through the season, while
Saad Qais Noaman received the best player award. Al-Karkh also finished in 4th place in the
1st Umm al-Ma'arik Championship. In the seasons of
1992–93,
1993–94,
1994–95 and
1995–96, Al-Karkh managed to keep an average of 9th place in the league, where
Ammo Baba, in the 1994–95 season, made the team reach the lowest he had ever reached with an Iraqi team through his entire managing career, which was 7th place. The
Iraq FA Cup editions from 1992 to 1996 didn't witness Al-Karkh succeeding in passing the round of 16, while in the
Umm al-Ma'arik Championship, Al-Karkh reached 4th place in the
1993–94 season. In 1996, they participated in the 102nd edition of the
IFA Shield, a competition in India. They finished as runners-up, losing 1–0 after extra time to
JCT Mills. In the
1996–97 season, Al-Karkh finished in the relegation zone's 14th place at 27 points from 30 matches. The team was relegated to the
Iraqi First Division League for the first time since they have replaced Al-Rasheed in 1990. They were promoted back to the
Iraqi Premier League in the
1997–98 season. They maintained an average of 7th place throughout the five seasons after promotion. In the
1999–00 Iraq FA Cup, Al-Karkh reached the semifinals after beating
Al-Talaba and
Samarra FC, but they lost to
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 1–0 in both the first and second legs. The team also reached the semifinals in the
9th Umm al-Ma'arik Championship, where they were beaten by Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya. They won the third place match. A season after, Al-Karkh achieved the
Umm al-Ma'arik Championship 3rd place again. In the
2003–04 season, after
Sharar Haidar was appointed as the new president of the club, Al-Karkh didn't qualify for the second phase while in the season after, the team only qualified to the second phase. They participated in the Arab Istiqlal Championship in 2005 but were knocked out at the group stage. In the
2005–06 season, Al-Karkh finished in the relegation zone with 12 points out of 12 matches, one point away from
Diyala FC that had 13 points, being relegated for the second time to the
Iraqi First Division League. The team stayed in the First Division League until the
2009–10 season, where they were among the six clubs that were elected to play the last two
Iraqi Premier League places playoff. Under the management of Nasrat Nassir, Al-Karkh won promotion and returned to the Premier League. After two seasons, Al-Karkh was relegated again before returning once again to the Premier League after winning First Division League in the
2012–13 season. In the
2021–22 season, Al-Karkh won their first
Iraq FA Cup title with a 2–1 victory over
Al-Kahrabaa in the
final. == Stadium ==