Iraq League

Up until 1973, leagues in Iraq were played at a regional level. The Central FA League, the Basra League and the Kirkuk League were all founded in 1948, while the Mosul League was founded in 1950. The first nationwide league to be held in the country was in the 1973–74 season when the Iraqi National First Division was formed, with Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya being crowned champions. The IFA then decided to replace the competition with a new National Clubs League which would only be open to clubs and not institute-representative teams.

The league held its first season in 1974–75 and was originally composed of ten clubs. The league's first ever goal was scored by Falah Hassan of Al-Tayaran (now known as Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya) in a 1–1 draw with Al-Sinaa. Al-Tayaran were crowned champions of the inaugural season which featured the following teams:

On 4 June 2023, Iraq Football Association (IFA) signed a three-year partnership agreement with Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LaLiga) to transform the Iraqi Premier League into a professional league from the 2023–24 season. The competition is named the Iraq Stars League and is designed to meet the licensing criteria set down by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). A new association named the Iraqi Pro League Association, chaired by Javier Jiménez Sacristán and Matteo Mantovani, was formed to operate the competition and supervise the associated youth leagues. An Iraqi management team is also being trained by LaLiga to take control of the committee once the partnership deal ends. A start date of 26 October 2023 was set for the first Stars League season.

Ever since the league began, it has been dominated by the four biggest clubs in Baghdad: Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Shorta, Al-Talaba and Al-Zawraa, who together contest the Baghdad derbies. From the 1989–90 season until the 2005–06 season, the league was won by one of the four Baghdad teams every time. After the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, players started to leave the Baghdad-based clubs and join clubs in the North such as Erbil and Duhok due to the economic instability and security issues in the capital city. This led to a shift in the dominance of the "Big Four" as Erbil won three consecutive league titles from 2007 to 2009 with Duhok winning the league in 2010. In the 2008–09 season, none of Baghdad's Big Four clubs finished in the top four and this is the only time that this has happened in the history of the league; the top four spots were occupied by Erbil, Al-Najaf, Duhok and Al-Amana. However, Baghdad's Big Four have since returned to dominating the league, having won all titles since 2015–16.