 Instead of relegating teams from the 1999–2000 season and promoting teams from the lower division in order to decide which teams were playing in the competition, the Iraq Football Association decided that every team in the country from every division should play qualifying games in order to decide who participated.The qualifying rounds started in September and saw a total of 135 teams being split into groups based on geographical position, all competing for the 16 places in the league.After all the qualifiers were over in December, the league competition itself was played and was 30 rounds long.