In December 2006 the “Qatar Professional Football League Development Committee”, as a special committee within the Qatar Football Association, was created to develop a strategic approach to raising the standards of football professionalism for the top ten clubs in Qatar. Re-named the “Qatar Professional Football League Management (QPFLM)" in 2008, it then became a department of QFA.

Already working on professionalising programmes, the QPFLM was able to neatly fulfil the new AFC requirements needed to become a professional league that were asked for at a later stage. The Management team, finally put down roots and the League’s body was established as a separate legal entity from QFA on the 30th of October 2008.

After having run through the full AFC assessment procedure it was officially certified as a professional league by the AFC on 16th of December 2008 which granted Qatar 2 seats in the upcoming reformed AFC Champions League. The outcomes of this strategic approach are to increase the commercial value of the League, increase match attendance and elevate the football clubs to international sporting standards.

A special Mission Team from Asian Football Confederation visited and inspected the twelve professional football clubs in Qatar as well as the Qatar Football Association and the Qatar Stars League Management from the 30th September until the 5th October 2010.

The main purpose of this inspection was to assess the clubs structures, management and facilities as well as the professional league organization, taking into account the items of the Criteria for Participation in the Asian Champions League 2011.

Further to the above inspection visit, AFC decided to allocate 21/2 slots for the Asian Champions League 2011 edition and ranked Qatar 4th in Asia in managing the professional football league.