Chad Premier League (, also known as LINAFOOT) is a Chadian league for men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

clubs. At the top of the Chadian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 12 clubs, it is organized under the play-off formula. Unlike the 1st LINAFOOT edition (in 2015) organised as a full national championship and won by Gazelle FC, the last four editions were organized under the play-off formula. Since the inception of the Chad Premier League in 1988, eight clubs have won the title:

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

(7), Elect-Sport (7),

Tourbillon In horology, a tourbillion () or tourbillon (; " whirlwind") is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement to increase accuracy. Conceived by the British watchmaker and inventor John Arnold, it was developed by his friend the Swiss-Fr ...

(5),

Gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . There are also seven species included in two further genera; '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third former subgenus, ' ...

(4),

Foullah Edifice Foullah Edifice Football Club is a football club based in N'Djamena, Chad. They had a few Chadian national team players, like Mbaya Brice, Massama Asselmo, Ferdinand Gassina and Hassan Hissein. The club's colours are sky blue and white. His ...

(3),

AS CotonTchad Association Sportive CotonTchad is a football club from Chad based in N'Djamena. History ASCOT won national championship 2 times; in 1996 and 1998. The club also won national cup three times; in 1995, 1999 and 2009. ASCOT represented Chad in ...

(2),

Postel 2000 Postel 2000 FC is a football (soccer) club from Chad based in N'Djamena. The club was national ligue champion 2 times, in 1993 and 1995. Achievements *Chad Premier League : 2 :: 1993, 1995. * Chad Cup: 1 :: 1991. *Coupe de Ligue de N'Djaména: ...

(2), Renaissance (Abéché) (2). The current champions are Elect-Sport, who won the title in 2022.

History

Chadian football has always been followed by the financial difficulties, making it hard to organise the competitions. For years, the main resource was the aid of one million dollars every four years by the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

. This aid was completely being engulfed in the organization of national and regional competitions. The national championship was being played in two stages. The first stage was the regional championship with teams from the same prefecture. The second stage was national championship, a sort of tournament between the 14 champions of the 14 prefectures. The format of competition and a number of teams, however, was being changed from time to time. From season 2010 to 2014 the first division consisted of clubs from N'Djamena only. Championship is being played over a short time, usually within a week and held alongside the national cup. The leagues run over a whole year.

2010-2014

The season

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

was the first one (out of five) to include the teams from N'Djamena only. The league was called ''Ligue de N'Djamena'', too. The participating teams were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Elect-sport, Foullah, Gazelle, Postel 2000, RFC, Toumai, Tourbillon and USM. Tourbillon FC were the champions with 38 points, 4 more than league runners-up Gazelle FC. The last placed team (USM) was relegated to D2, while the 9th team (Postel 2000) played relegation playoff. Postel 2000 played against D2 runner-up, Saccoger, and won 1–0, so both teams remained at previous level. Season

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

was the second one to include teams from N'Djamena only. The participating teams were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Elect-sport, Foullah, Gazelle, Geyser, Postel 2000, RFC, Toumai and Tourbillon. Foullah Edifice were the champions with 43 points, 8 more than league runners-up Tourbillon. The last placed team (Geyser) was relegated to D2, while the 9th team (Toumai) played relegation playoff. Toumai stayed in the league, however they did not enter the 2012 season, so the next league edition had 9 teams only.

LINAFOOT

From season 2015, national league system went through many changes. LINAFOOT started operating the league. The new system of 12 clubs from all over the country was introduced as well. Clubs that played in the first division were: AS Lycod Doba, AS Mirim Mongo, AS Wadi Fira,

ASCOT Moundou Ascot, Ascott or Askot may refer to: Places Australia * Ascot, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane * Ascot, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a locality * Ascot Park, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide * Ascot (Ballarat), town near Ballarat in Victo ...

Elect-Sport FC Elect-Sport FC () is a football (soccer) club from Chad based in N'Djamena. It plays its home matches on Stade Omnisports Idriss Mahamat Ouya in N'Djamena. The club's colours are traditionally yellow and black. History The club has won nation ...

FC Kebbi FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

Foullah Edifice FC Foullah Edifice Football Club is a football club based in N'Djamena, Chad. They had a few Chadian national team players, like Mbaya Brice, Massama Asselmo, Ferdinand Gassina and Hassan Hissein. The club's colours are sky blue and white. His ...

Gazelle FC Gazelle FC is a football club from Chad based in N'Djamena. The club currently plays in the Chad Premier League, the top flight of Chadian football. Gazelle FC was founded on May 16, 1972, in the capital city of N'Djamena. The club has won fo ...

Renaissance FC Renaissance FC or RFC is a Chadian professional football club based in N'Djamena. The club won Chad Premier League 7 times, last time in 2007. Recently, it produced a few Chad national football team players, such as Mondésir Alladjim, Yaya Ke ...

Renaissance FC (Abéché) Renaissance FC or RFC is a Chadian professional football (soccer), football club based in N'Djamena. The club won Chad Premier League 7 times, last time in 2007. Recently, it produced a few Chad national football team players, such as Mondésir ...

, AS Kokaga. Gazelle FC won the championship. This edition of LINAFOOT was marked by many controversies, which led to proclaiming

league champion, and then later giving Gazelle FC champion title back. In season 2016 championship was interrupted after only 5 rounds, and no Chadian clubs represented the country in continental competitions. Following financial difficulties and the lack of sponsors, FTFA decided to implement the new format of the national championship, which would lower the costs. In 2017

proposed to FTFA a new championship format, which FTFA accepted. The new formula of the national football championship took place in two phases. The first phase, called a zonal phase, consistsed of three zones. Zone 1 consisted of six clubs from

N'Djamena N'Djamena ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Chad, largest city of Chad. It is also a Provinces of Chad, special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements'', similar to the city of Paris. Originally calle ...

(RFC, Gazelle, Tourbillon, Elect-Sport, Foullah Ediffice and Ascot), Zone 2 consisted of the clubs from

Sarh Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive dete ...

Koumra Koumra (Arabic: قمرة, ''Qumra'') is a town in southern Chad. It is the capital of the region of Mandoul and of the department of Mandoul Oriental Mandoul Oriental is one of three departments in Mandoul, a region of Chad. Its capital is Ko ...

, Doba,

Moundou Moundou () is the second-largest city in Chad and is the capital of the region of Logone Occidental. The city lies on the Mbéré River (a tributary of the Western Logone) some 475 kilometres south of the capital N'Djamena. It is the main ci ...

Pala Pala may refer to: Places Chad *Pala, Chad, the capital of the region of Mayo-Kebbi Ouest Estonia * Pala, Kose Parish, village in Kose Parish, Harju County * Pala, Kuusalu Parish, village in Kuusalu Parish, Harju County * Pala, Järva County, ...

and

Bongor Bongor () is a city in Chad, the capital of the regions of Chad, region of Mayo-Kebbi Est. It is located on the eastern bank of the Logone River. During the rainy season (May–September), the Logone is navigable between Bongor and N'Djamena, Chad' ...

, Zone 3 included the clubs of Moussoro, Ati, Biltine, Mongo,

Salamat Salamat may refer to: Music * Salamat (album), ''Salamat'' (album), a 2007 album by Yeng Constantino ** Salamat (Yeng Constantino song), "Salamat" (Yeng Constantino song), its title track * Salamat (The Dawn song), "Salamat" (The Dawn song) * Sala ...

and

Abéché Abéché (, ''Absha'') is a city in Chad and the capital of the Ouaddaï Region. It is one of the List of cities in Chad, largest cities in the country and has within it the remnants of the ancient capital, including palaces, mosques, and the tom ...

. At the end of the zonal confrontations, three clubs in Zone 2 and Zone 3 have joined the 4 qualifiers in Zone 1 for the second phase of the championship. The 5th and 6th of the final ranking should have been officially relegated to lower division. The 2018 LINAFOOT was the 2nd season of the LINAFOOT. The season started on 15 September 2018 and concluded on 7 October 2018. The twelve teams were divided into two groups of six teams. The matches were played at three stadiums: Stade d'Académie de Farcha,

Stade Omnisports Idriss Mahamat Ouya Stade National, also named Stade Omnisports Idriss Mahamat Ouya (Arabic: ملعب وطني), is a multi-use stadium in N'Djamena, Chad. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 20,000 people and it has artificial gras ...

and Stade de Paris-Congo. All matches were being played at 03:30 p.m. local time.

won their fifth Chadian title. Abou Deco (AS CotonTchad) was the league topscorer with 14 goals; Mbangousoum Éric was voted the best player;

Francis Oumar Belonga Francis Oumar Belonga (born 13 March 1978) is a retired Chadian footballer who is currently a coach of Elect-Sport FC Elect-Sport FC () is a football (soccer) club from Chad based in N'Djamena. It plays its home matches on Stade Omnisports Id ...

(Elect-Sport FC) was voted the best coach. The 2019 LINAFOOT was the 3rd season of the LINAFOOT.

won their sixth Chadian title. Goyam César (Avenir Sarh) was the league topscorer with 10 goals; Brahim Ngaroudal was voted the best player; Adoum Deffallah (Elect-Sport FC) was voted best goalkeeper;

(Elect-Sport FC) was voted the best coach. The 2020 LINAFOOT was the 4th season of the LINAFOOT. Delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the season started on 27 September 2020 and concluded on 8 October 2020.

won their fourth Chadian title. The 2022 LINAFOOT, was the 5th edition of the national football league. The tournament was held from July 3 to 17, 2022, and all matches were played in

N'Djaména N'Djamena ( ) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements'', similar to the city of Paris. Originally called Fort-Lamy, it was founded in 1900 by the French during ...

at the Stade de Diguel, Stade de Paris-Congo, and Stade Académie de Farcha. A total of 12 teams participated in the tournament, from seven zones as follows: Espoir FC de Guéra (Zone 1), AS Santé (Abéché) (Zone 2), Olympique de Mao (Mao) (Zone 3), Boule d'Or (Pala) and Expérience FC (Bongor) (Zone 4), Gazelle FC (Sarh) and FC Amboko (Goré) (Zone 5), AS Santé (Amdjarass) (Zone 6), and

(N'Djaména), Tout Puissaint

(N'Djaména), AS PSI (N'Djaména), and

(N'Djaména) (Zone 7). The tournament consisted of a group stage and a final. The group stage was divided into two pools, A and B, with six teams each. First team from each pool advanced to the final. The final was held on July 17, 2022, between TP Elect-Sport FC and AS Santé (Abéché). TP Elect-Sport FC won 7-6 by penalties after the match finished 0-0.

Previous winners

Champions were:

Performance By Club

Competition format

Competition

Since its formation, the league went through many changes in its system and number of participating clubs. The new formula of the national football championship takes place in two phases. The first phase is called a zonal phase, and consists of zones. At the end of the zonal confrontations, clubs start the second phase of the championship. The tournament consists of a group stage and a final. The group stage is divided into two groups, A and B, with six teams each. First team from each group advances to the final. Winner of the final is crowned champion. 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 3 points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is draw ...

and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss.

Qualification for African competitions

The national champion enters the Champions League preliminary round, while cup winner enters Confederation Cup Preliminary round. CAF Champions League is open to the winners of all CAF-affiliated national leagues. From the 2004 competition the runner-up of the league of the 12 highest-ranked countries also entered the tournament creating a 64-team field. The 12 countries would be ranked on the performance of their clubs in the previous 5 years. As Chad is not among the best 12 countries, it has only one spot in this competition. From the top twelve placed CAF member associations, the winner of the domestic cup and the third placed club in the domestic league of the considered associations, are eligible to participate in the CAF Confederation Cup, while only domestic cup winners from member associations ranked from 13 till 55 are eligible to participate in the competition. As Chad is not among the 12 best placed countries, it has only one spot in this competition.

Premier League clubs in international competition

Chadian clubs started to participate in African competitions in 1990, with RFC N'Djamena being the first Chadian club to enter the

African Cup of Champions Clubs The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual club football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) a ...

. Chadian clubs have never won either Champions League or Confederations Cup. The best result they have achieved was first round of Champions League (RFC N'Djamena in 1990, Elect-Sport in 1991, POSTEL 2000 in 1996, ASCOT N'Djamena in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, Tourbillon in 1992,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, Gazelle in

Sponsorship

In July 2014 it was announced that mobile operator

Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and LTE Advanced ...

signed a deal with FTFA and became its official sponsor. The goal was improving the football in Chad. Airtel has already signed deals with a lot of African football federations.

Finances

''Le Fonds National de Développement du Sport (FNDS)'' is the fond for the development of sports in Chad. It finances national football league among the others. For the season 2014, the ''FNDS'' marked off 300 million FCFA. Chadian league faced many financial problems during the years. The national league was interrupted a few times because of this. Season 2015 was suspended for financial reasons, but it resumed after 2 and a half months, after some amount of money was paid by Federation.

Clubs

Stadiums

Five clubs (ASCOT, Elect, Foullah, Gazelle, RFC) play on the same stadium, ''

'', also named ''Stade Nacional'', located in

. The stadium holds 20,000 people, and has artificial grass. It is also the home ground of the

Chad national football team The Chad national football team (, ), nicknamed ''Les Sao'' (), represents Chad in international Association football, football and is controlled by the Chadian Football Federation, the governing body for football in the country. The team has qu ...

. It is named after former Chadian highjumper

Mahamat Idriss Mahamat Idriss (ne ''Koundja Ouya'', 17 July 1942 – 3 October 1987) was a Chadian high jumper. He was born in Fort-Lamy, Chad, French Equatorial Africa. Career Before the Chadian independency on 11 August 1960 he competed for France, winning t ...

(1942—1987). ASCOT Moundou plays its home games on '' Stade de Moundou''. The stadium holds 10,000 people. RFC Abéché plays its home games on ''

Stade de Abéché Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the west of Hamburg and b ...

'' (capacity 5,000), while Lycod de Doba plays its home games on '' Stade Omnisports de Doba'' (capacity 8,000; built in 2008). Mirim Mongo plays on '' Stade Idriss Miskine''. AS Kokaga Sarh plays on '' Stade Omnisport de Begou''.

Top goalscorers

2019 season

Group A standings: Group B standings:https://www.rsssf.org/tablest/tsja2019.html#ko

won the final against

1-0.

Attendances

References

External links

League at fifa.com
{{CAF Leagues Football leagues in Chad

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...