The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as 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 In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

with the

Lebanese Second Division The Lebanese Second Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الثانية) is the second division of Lebanese football. Established in 1933, it is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 12 teams that participate ...

. The league's first season began in May 1934, with

Nahda The Nahda ( ar, النهضة, translit=an-nahḍa, meaning "the Awakening"), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Leb ...

winning the first title. The most successful club in the league is Ansar, with 14 league titles; they set a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

by winning 11 consecutive league titles between 1988 and 1999. Seasons run from September to June with each team playing 21 games per season. Most games are played on weekend afternoons.

History

On 22 March 1933, representatives of 13 football clubs gathered in the Minet El Hosn district in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

to form the

Lebanese Football Association The Lebanese Football Association (LFA) ( ar, الاتحاد اللبناني لكرة القدم, Al-Ittiḥād Al-Lubnānī Likurat Al-Qadam; french: Fédération Libanaise de Football) is the governing body of association football in Lebanon. ...

(LFA). The Lebanese Premier League began in May 1934 as the Edmond Rubeiz Cup, in honour of

player Edmon Rubeiz who died of

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...

the previous year. The competition was held in a knockout format, with Nahda beating

DPHB Association Sportive DPHB,) known as Al Sikkat Al Hadid Wal Marfa' in Arabic ( ar, نادي السكة الحديد والمرفأ, lit=Railway and Port Club),) was a multi-sports club based in Forn El Chebbak, a district in Beirut, Lebanon. D ...

7–1 in the final to win the inaugural competition. Nahda,

AUB Aub () is a city in the district of Würzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated southeast of Würzburg, and northwest of Rothenburg ob der Tauber and, nearby the border of Baden-Württemberg. The river Gollach is the main body of water. ...

, and DPHB shared the titles during the first decade of the league. Between the 1940s and 1960s Armenian clubs, mainly

Homenetmen Homenetmen ( hy, Հ.Մ.Ը.Մ., , short for hy, Հայ Մարմնակրթական Ընդհանուր Միութիւն, meaning ''Armenian General Athletic Union'') is a pan-Armenian diaspora organization devoted to sport and scouting. The motto of ...

and

Homenmen Homenmen ( ) is a pan-Armenian sports and Scouting organization established in 1921 in Aleppo, Syria. Its sports include association football, football, basketball, table tennis, cycle sport, cycling, sport of athletics, athletics, and many others ...

, 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 The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

, Ansar dominated the league winning 11 consecutive league titles between 1988 and 1999. They set a

for most consecutive league titles, which has been since broken by Skonto of Latvia in 2002. From 2000,

Nejmeh Nejmeh Sporting Club ( ar, نادي النجمة الرياضي, lit=The Star Sporting Club) is a football club based in Manara, a district in Ras Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the . The club was established in Beirut in 1945, and ...

were the dominating force in Lebanon, winning five out of nine league titles until 2009. In 2008, Ahed won their first league title; they have won the league eight times since. After winning the league in 2018–19, Ahed became the three-time defending champions, a feat accomplished only one other time, by Ansar in 1992. Due to financial and political issues in the country, as well as the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the LFA decided to cancel the ongoing 2019–20 season.

Competition format

Competition

There are 12 clubs in the Lebanese Premier League. Prior to the 2020–21 season, each club played the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents', for 22 games. Starting from the 2020–21 season, the league has operated on a "split" system. A season is divided in two phases: in the first phase, each club plays each other once for a total of 11 matchdays. After the first phase, the league splits into two halves – a "top six" section and a "bottom six" section. Each club plays a further five matches (once against each club in its own section). Points achieved during the first phase are carried over into the second phase. From the 2022–23 season onwards, the points carried over are halved. The system has been viewed positively by various members of Lebanese football. Teams receive

three points for a win Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is ...

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: # Head-to-head points; # Goal difference; # Goals scored; # Decisive match; in case of a draw, a penalty-shootout will determine the winner. If more than two teams are par on points: # Head-to-head points of the concerned clubs; # Goal difference in the direct confrontation games; # Goal difference in the league; # Goals scored in the league; # Mini-league between the involved teams, which play each other once.

Promotion and relegation

A system of

exists between the Lebanese Premier League and the

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

2022–23 season

The following 12 clubs will compete in the Lebanese Premier League during the 2022–23 season.

Media coverage

Broadcasting rights for the Lebanese Premier League were distributed to

MTV Lebanon Murr Television, marketed and known as MTV Lebanon, is a Lebanese television station based in Naccache, Metn District. History Founded in 1991 by Gabriel Murr, a Lebanese businessman and politician. MTV was shut down in 2002 as it was found ...

starting from the 2016–17 season, on a five-year contract worth $600,000 per season; the contract was renewed in 2022 for a further four seasons. Live coverage of three games is broadcast each week, and weekly highlights of each match are produced once a week. The LFA broadcast the other weekly games on its

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel between 2020 and 2022. In October 2022, the LFA and FIFA signed an agreement to show all matches in the Lebanese Second Division,

Lebanese Super Cup The Lebanese Super Cup () is Lebanese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Lebanese Premier League season and the holders of the Lebanese FA Cup. If the Lebanese Premier League champions also won the Lebanese FA ...

and

Lebanese Women's Football League The Lebanese Women's Football League ( ar, الدوري اللبناني لكرة القدم للسيدات) is the only league of women's football in Lebanon. It is run by the Lebanese Football Association and began in May 2008, with six teams ...

through the

FIFA+ FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

platform; FIFA+ also replaced the LFA YouTube channel in transmitting the remaining Lebanese Premier League games not covered by MTV.

Stadiums

At the start of the 2005–06 season, the Lebanese government imposed a ban on spectators due to fears of political and

sectarian Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups which are often related to the form of government which they live under. Prejudice, discrimination, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo ...

-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

'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 Hariri Stadium Rafic Hariri Stadium ( ar, ملعب رفيق الحريري), also known as Al Manara Stadium ( ar, ملعب المنارة, links=no) or Nejmeh Stadium ( ar, ملعب نادي النجمه الرياضي, links=no), is a multi-use stadium in th ...

and Ahed Stadium, they prefer to use bigger stadiums in Lebanon such as the

Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium (CCSC) ( ar, ملعب مدينة كميل شمعون الرياضية; french: Cité sportive Camille-Chamoun) is a multi-purpose stadium with a capacity of 49,500 seats, located in the Bir Hassan area of Beir ...

and the

Beirut Municipal Stadium Beirut Municipal Stadium () is an 18,000 capacity multi-purpose stadium in Beirut, Lebanon. It is currently mostly used for football matches. History The stadium was built by the French colonials in 1935. DPHB played at the inaugural game of t ...

Players

Foreign players and transfer regulations

Lebanese clubs are allowed to have three foreign players at their disposal at any time, as well as two extra Palestinian players born in Lebanon in a given match sheet (both of whom can not be fielded at the same time in a match). 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 (one of whom from an AFC country). Starting from the 1998–99 season, the

has prevented the acquisition of foreign goalkeepers. Players may only be transferred during

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

s that are set by the Lebanese Football Association. The two transfer windows run from 20 June to 23 August and from 21 November to 20 December. Due to the economic situation in Lebanon, clubs were barred from fielding foreign players in the league in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

and the first half of 2021–22.

Homegrown players

Starting from the 2019–20 season, all teams in the Lebanese Premier League and

must involve a certain number of under-22 players in both the league and the

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is a Lebanese football annual cup competition. The first edition, held in 1937, was won by Nahda. The most successful club in the competition is Ansar with 15 titles, followed by Nejmeh ...

, 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 was 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 minutes. 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. In the 2022–23 season, the quotas changed to 2,000 combined minutes for two under-21 players and 3,000 combined minuted for three players.

Top scorers

''Italics'' denotes players still playing football,
Bold denotes players still playing in the Lebanese Premier League. The Golden Boot is awarded to the top Lebanese Premier League scorer at the end of each season. Fadi Alloush holds the record for most Lebanese Premier League goals with 120. Seven players were top scorers more than once:

Levon Altounian Levon Aram Altounian ( ar, ليون ارام التونيان; 15 February 1936 – 6 September 2020) was a Lebanese footballer who played as a right winger or an attacking midfielder. Altounian played his whole club career at Homenetmen, betw ...

, Fadi Alloush, Mohammad Kassas,

Mohammed Ghaddar Mohamad Mahmoud Ghaddar ( ar, محمد محمود غدار; born 1 January 1984) is a Lebanese former professional footballer who played as a forward. Coming through the youth system, Ghaddar began his senior career at Nejmeh in 2000. He staye ...

, Lucas Galán, Elhadji Malick Tall and Hassan Maatouk have all been top scorers twice. Fadi Alloush holds the record for most goals in a season (32) while playing for Ansar.

Official match ball

On 30 July 2019, the

announced a three-year deal with German sportswear company

Jako Jako AG is a German sportswear company based in the Hollenbach district of Mulfingen, Baden-Württemberg. The company was founded by Rudi Sprügel in 1989 in Stachenhausen. Jako provides kits for teams playing association football, handball, ...

for €120,000, with the Jako Match 2.0 becoming the league's official match ball starting from the 2019–20 season. * 2019–2020: Jako Match 2.0 * 2020–present: Jako Galaxy Match 2.0

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Lebanese Premier League
at

Lebanese Premier League
at Kooora
Lebanese Premier League
at Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebanese Premier League 1 1934 establishments in Lebanon Sports leagues in Lebanon Sports leagues established in 1934

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...