Foundation and early years (1932–1948) The Al-Shorta (Police) football team was formed in 1932 by Mudhafar Ahmed, the director of the Police Schools in Baghdad. Al-Shorta participated in the second edition of the Prince Ghazi Cup in the 1932–33 season, and claimed their first trophy in 1938 by winning the Taha Al-Hashimi Cup, followed by victories in the Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Cup and Al-Olympi Club Cup in 1939. The team later became known as Madaris Al-Shorta (Police Schools) after a new Police team called Al-Quwa Al-Siyara (Mobile Force) was formed.
"Select XI" era (1948–1974) The
Iraq Football Association was established in 1948 and it was decided that a Police Select XI (
Montakhab Al-Shorta) would compete in the inaugural Baghdad top-flight league season in
1948–49. The Al-Shorta Select XI were relegated from the top-flight that season, and therefore competed in the second division in the 1949–50 season. and the two teams were both leading their respective divisions before the season was abandoned. From the 1951–52 season, Madaris Al-Shorta and Al-Quwa Al-Siyara combined to form the Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' and 'B' teams to compete in the region's top-flight and second division respectively. In 1960, the Police Games Committee (later renamed to Police Games Directorate) was formed to control Police sports in Iraq, and they decided to expand the Police force's sporting activities for the 1960–61 season. Al-Quwa Al-Siyara re-entered the IFA's football pyramid as an individual team, joining the regional second division along with newly-formed Police teams
Aliyat Al-Shorta and Shortat Al-Najda, while the Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' and 'B' teams continued to compete in the top-flight and second division respectively. After finishing as
Iraq Central FA Premier League runners-up again in
1960–61, Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' won the league title for the first time in the
1962–63 season. At the end of that season, Aliyat Al-Shorta secured promotion to the top-flight, meaning there were two Police teams in the top division. As a result, the Al-Shorta Select XI 'A' team were replaced in the top-flight by Madaris Al-Shorta from the
1963–64 season, while the Al-Shorta Select XI 'B' team were disbanded. From this point, the Al-Shorta Select XI would only compete in the Republic Championship and in matches against visiting foreign teams. Formed from the best players of the individual Police teams, the Al-Shorta Select XI won the Republic Championship in both 1968 and 1969. The Al-Shorta Select XI was led by the coach of Aliyat Al-Shorta, Mohammed Najeeb Kaban, and included many of the star players from Aliyat Al-Shorta, a team that went on to win four league titles and reach the final of the
1971 Asian Champion Club Tournament where they refused to face Israeli side
Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Club transition and Arab title (1974–1990) In 1974, the
Iraq Football Association (IFA) decided to implement a clubs-only policy for domestic competitions, forming the
Iraqi National Clubs League which was only open to clubs and not institute-representative teams such as the individual Police teams. With the IFA dictating that only a single club would be allowed to represent the Police in the new top-flight, Al-Shorta Sports Club was provisionally established on 18 August 1974 by the
Iraqi Olympic Committee and was placed under the control of the Police Games Directorate (PGD) until the club's formal establishment. the amateur players were replaced by players from the Shortat Al-Najda and Kuliyat Al-Shorta teams for the remainder of the season, Al-Shorta was formally established as a sports club in 1978, registering as such with the
Ministry of Youth and Sports and being attached to the
Ministry of Interior. Al-Shorta won their first national league title in the
1979–80 season, finishing ahead of rivals
Al-Zawraa on goal difference under the leadership of former player
Douglas Aziz. This qualified them for the inaugural
Arab Club Champions Cup in
1981–82, and Al-Shorta became the first ever Arab club champions with a 4–2 aggregate win over
Al-Nejmeh in the final. In 1983, the club changed their name to Qiwa Al-Amn Al-Dakhili (Internal Security Forces) while Iraq was at war; that name only lasted for one season before they returned to the name Al-Shorta. In 1985, Al-Shorta won the Arab Police Championship for the third time while representing the Iraq Police team, having previously won in 1976 and 1978.
Resurgence and national records (1990–2003) On 23 December 1990, Al-Shorta played their first match at the
original Al-Shorta Stadium, which was built with the help of volunteers and club workers, beating
Al-Tijara 3–2. In the
1993–94 season, Al-Shorta striker
Younis Abid Ali scored 36 league goals which remains an Iraqi record for most goals scored by a player in one league season. There were three contenders for the
1997–98 Iraqi Premier League title going into the final day of the season; Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were on top of the league with Al-Shorta in second and Al-Zawraa third. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were playing Al-Zawraa at the same time as Al-Shorta were playing
Al-Sulaikh. Al-Shorta were 2–1 down to Al-Sulaikh before an 84th-minute goal from Mufeed Assem and a 91st-minute penalty kick from league top scorer Mahmoud Majeed earned a dramatic 3–2 victory, which was enough to overtake Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (who had drawn 1–1 with Al-Zawraa) and achieve their second Premier League title and first for eighteen years. In the process, Al-Shorta broke the Iraqi records for most consecutive wins in a league season (11) and most consecutive league games scored in (43). That season also saw them reach the quarter-finals of the
Asian Cup Winners' Cup, earning wins over
Al-Seeb and
Bargh Shiraz before being eliminated in the quarter-final. Al-Shorta reached the quarter-finals of the
1999–2000 Asian Club Championship before making history by becoming the first club to win the
Umm al-Ma'arik Championship (later known as the Baghdad Championship) three times in a row, winning the trophy in the
2000–01,
2001–02 and
2002–03 seasons. They were also in the lead of the
2002–03 league competition before it was cancelled due to the
Iraq War.
Post-war instability (2003–2012) In April 2003, the club's former goalkeeper and captain
Raad Hammoudi became Al-Shorta's president and saved the club from bankruptcy after the war. Al-Shorta participated in the
2003 edition of the
Arab Club Champions Cup and the
2004 and
2005 editions of the
AFC Champions League but were knocked out at the group stage each time. Al-Shorta entered into an unstable post-war period, often dominating the initial group stage in the league (topping their Central Group in each of the
2005–06,
2006–07 and
2007–08 seasons) but failing to sustain their performance and exiting at the elite stage. The club's fortunes declined towards the end of the decade which culminated in a relegation battle in the
2010–11 campaign, with
Amjad Kalaf's brace against
Al-Naft on the last day of the season saving the club from relegation to the
Iraqi First Division League for the first time.
Golden era and dominance (2012–present) Al-Shorta returned to the top of Iraqi football in the
2012–13 season, securing their third
Iraqi Premier League title with a final-day 3–0 victory over rivals
Al-Talaba at
Al-Shaab Stadium. Al-Shorta finished in first place in the Premier League in
2013–14 under Brazilian coach
Lorival Santos but the season was ended prematurely due to the worsening war situation in the country. Al-Shorta also appeared in the
2014 AFC Champions League qualifiers, losing 1–0 to
Al-Kuwait, which was followed by a group stage elimination at the
2014 AFC Cup and a round of 16 exit at the
2015 AFC Cup. Al-Shorta won the Premier League title again in
2018–19, led by Montenegrin coach
Nebojša Jovović, equalling the Iraqi record for most consecutive league games unbeaten (39) in the process. Al-Shorta won the
Iraqi Super Cup for the first time in
2019 with a penalty shootout win over
Al-Zawraa, before reaching the quarter-finals of the
2019–20 Arab Club Champions Cup and being eliminated from the group stages of the
2020 and
2021 AFC Champions Leagues, the former on goal difference. Under the management of
Egyptian coach
Moamen Soliman, Al-Shorta enjoyed one of the best league seasons in their history in
2021–22. Al-Shorta set a record for the earliest Iraqi Premier League title win with seven rounds of the competition remaining, finishing a record 21 points clear at the top of the table, and became the first club to beat all other teams in a 20-team season and the first club to win all
Baghdad derbies home and away in one season. Their tally of 91 points equalled the record for the most points in a 38-game season in Iraq. Al-Shorta went on to win the
2022 Iraqi Super Cup with a 1–0 victory over
Al-Karkh, and then retained their Iraqi Premier League crown by clinching the
2022–23 title in the penultimate round of the season. Al-Shorta also reached the semi-finals of the
2023 Arab Club Champions Cup, defeating
CS Sfaxien and
Al-Sadd before losing 1–0 to
Al-Nassr from a penalty scored by
Cristiano Ronaldo. Al-Shorta were crowned champions of the
2023–24 Iraq Stars League, the first edition of the competition since it had been transformed into a professional league, and coupled that success with their first
Iraq FA Cup title, beating
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 1–0 in the
final to secure the domestic
double for the first time. Al-Shorta became the first club in Iraq to win four consecutive league championships when they clinched the title again in the
2024–25 season. The
new Al-Shorta Stadium with a capacity of 10,089 seats was opened for its first match on 8 November 2025. ==Emblem==