Lebanese Premier League


The Lebanese Premier League is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, which operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Lebanese Second Division.
The league's first season began in May 1934, with Nahda winning the first title. The most successful club in the league is Ansar, with 13 league titles. They have set a Guinness World Record by winning 11 consecutive league titles between 1988 and 1999, a record that has since been surpassed. Seasons run from September to April with each team playing 22 games. Most games are played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

History

On 22 March 1933, representatives of 13 football clubs gathered in the Minet El Hosn district in Beirut to form the Lebanese Football Association. Hussein Sejaan was the LFA's first president. It joined FIFA in 1935 and the AFC in 1964. The Lebanese Premier League began on May 1934 as the Edmond Rubeiz Cup, in honour of Nahda player Edmon Rubeiz who died of typhoid the previous year. The competition was held in a knockout format, with Nahda beating Sika 7–1 in the final to win the inaugural competition.
Most clubs were formed on the basis of sectarianism, such as Sagesse being a Christian club and Ansar having a Sunni fanbase. Nahda, AUB and Sika Railways shared the titles during the first decade of the league. Between the 1940s and 1960s Armenian clubs, mainly Homenetmen and Homenmen, were the most prominent in the Lebanese footballing scene. The two clubs shared 11 titles in 16 seasons between 1943 and 1969.
Following a 12-year interruption of the league due to the Lebanese Civil War, Ansar dominated the league winning 11 consecutive league titles between 1988 and 1999. They set a Guinness World Record for most consecutive league titles, which has been since broken by Skonto of Latvia in 2002. From 2000, Nejmeh were the dominating force in Lebanon, winning five out of nine league titles until 2009.
During the 2010s Ahed, who had only won one league title prior, won six league titles. After winning the 2018–19 Lebanese Premier League Ahed became the three-time defending champions, a feat accomplished only one other time, by Ansar in 1992. The 2018–19 season was one of the worst in Lebanese football since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, with poor preparations by teams, match-fixing, and tensions between clubs and the Federation being the hot-topics of the season. Due to financial and political issues in the country, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, the LFA decided to cancel the ongoing 2019–20 season.

Competition format

Competition

There are 12 clubs in the Lebanese Premier League. During the course of a season each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents', for 22 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss.
Teams are ranked by total points; in case two teams are par on points, the following rules for classification apply:
  1. Head-to-head points;
  2. Goal difference;
  3. Goals scored;
  4. Decisive match; in case of a draw, a penalty-shootout will determine the winner.
If more than two teams are par on points:
  1. Head-to-head points of the concerned clubs;
  2. Goal difference in the direct confrontation games;
  3. Goal difference in the league;
  4. Goals scored in the league;
  5. Mini-league between the involved teams, which play each other once.

    Promotion and relegation

A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Lebanese Premier League and the Lebanese Second Division since 1935. In April 1935, Second Division clubs requested a promotion system to be implemented. It was proposed that, at the end of the season, every Second Division team that wanted to be promoted to the First Division had to play against three teams from the First Division, winning all three. The teams from the First Division had to have at least 7 players from their squad in the previous season.
The two lowest placed teams in the Lebanese Premier League are relegated to the Second Division, and the top two teams from the Second Division promoted to the Lebanese Premier League.

Clubs

Champions

Wins by year

Wins by club

2019–20 season

Clubs

The following 20 clubs are competing in the Lebanese Premier League during the current 2019–20 season.
ClubHome cityPosition in 2018–19Top division titlesLast top division title
AhedBeirut 1st in the Lebanese Premier League72018–19
Akhaa AhliAley4th in the Lebanese Premier League0
AnsarBeirut 2nd in the Lebanese Premier League132006–07
BourjBeirut 1st in the Lebanese Second Division0
Chabab GhaziehGhazieh6th in the Lebanese Premier League0
NejmehBeirut 3rd in the Lebanese Premier League82013–14
SafaBeirut 9th in the Lebanese Premier League32015–16
Salam ZghartaZgharta10th in the Lebanese Premier League0
Shabab BourjBeirut 2nd in the Lebanese Second Division0
Shabab SahelBeirut 5th in the Lebanese Premier League0
Tadamon SourTyre7th in the Lebanese Premier League0
TripoliTripoli8th in the Lebanese Premier League12002–03

Maps

Media coverage

The Lebanese Premier League broadcasting rights were distributed to MTV Lebanon starting from the 2016–17 season, on a five-year contract worth $600,000 per season. Live coverage of selected games is broadcast each week, and weekly highlights of each match are produced once a week.
MyCujoo broadcasts some of the remaining matches online. They also stream a selection of Lebanese Second Division and Lebanese Futsal League games weekly.
At the start of the 2005–06 season, the Lebanese government imposed a ban on spectators due to fears of political and sectarian-inspired violence in the stadiums. After six years, in 2011, the ban was lifted and fans were allowed to regularly attend matches. While attendance was initially scarce, spectators started to show up more regularly season after season. Indeed, in 2018 ultras groups started to form, with Nejmeh's "Ultras Supernova" being the first. Other teams quickly followed, such as Ansar, Ahed and Bourj.
Prior to the start of each season, every team chooses two stadiums as their home venues. In case both stadiums are unavailable for a certain matchday, another venue is used. While teams such as Nejmeh and Ahed have their own stadiums, respectively Rafic El-Hariri Stadium and Ahed Stadium, they prefer to use bigger stadiums in Lebanon such as the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium and the Beirut Municipal Stadium.

Players

Foreign players and transfer regulations

Lebanese clubs are allowed to have three foreign players at their disposal at any time, as well as one extra Palestinian player born in Lebanon. Moreover, each club competing in an AFC competition is allowed to field one extra foreign player, to be only played in continental matches, as the AFC allows four foreign players to play in the starting eleven. Starting from the 1998–99 season, the Lebanese Football Association has prevented the acquisition of foreign goalkeepers.
Players may only be transferred during transfer windows that are set by the Lebanese Football Association. The two transfer windows run from 1 July to 15 September and from 20 December to 19 January.

Homegrown players

Starting from the 2019–20 season, all teams in the Lebanese Premier League and Lebanese Second Division must involve a certain number of under-22 players in the both the league and the Lebanese FA Cup, with a minimum of 1,000 minutes for one player, a minimum of 1,500 aggregate minutes for two players and a minimum of 2,000 aggregate minutes for three players. In case a club were to not meet the required number of minutes at the end of the season, they would have three points deducted from their total in the league.
As the 2019–20 season was cancelled, the player quota would be ultimately implemented for the 2020–21 season, with a few amendments. Each club must involve one player for at least 600 minutes, two players for at least 800 combined minutes, and three players for at least 1,200 combined players. Also, each club is allowed a maximum of eight players over the age of 30, with only five being able to be fielded in a game.

Top scorers

The Golden Boot is awarded to the top Lebanese Premier League scorer at the end of each season. Vartan Ghazarian and Fadi Alloush both hold the record for most Lebanese Premier League goals with 118. Six players were top scorers more than once: Levon Altonian, Fadi Alloush, Mohammad Kassas, Mohammed Ghaddar, Lucas Galán and El Hadji Malick Tall have all been top scorers twice. Fadi Alloush holds the record for most goals in a season while playing for Ansar.

Official match ball

On 30 July 2019, the Lebanese Football Association announced a three-year deal with German sportswear company Jako for €120,000, with the Jako Match 2.0 becoming the league's official match ball starting from the 2019–20 season.