The

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

is run by the Fédération Tahitienne de Football. The association administers the national football team. With 146 association football clubs and over 11,200 registered players, football is the most popular sport among the inhabitants on the island of Tahiti.

League system

The

league system A league system is a hierarchy of sports league, leagues in a sport. They are often called pyramids, due to their tendency to split into an increasing number of regional divisions further down the system. League systems of some sort are used in ma ...

is divided into 4 tiers/divisions. The premier division is the Ligue 1 Vini in which 13 clubs currently compete for the championship. The champions of this league also qualify for the

OFC Champions League The OFC Men's Champions League is the premier men's club football competition in Oceania. It is organised by the OFC, Oceania's football governing body. Beginning as the Oceania Club Championship (1987–2006), it has been organised since 2007 ...

qualifier stage. The bottom seven teams in this league play in a

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

to decide which two clubs get relegated to the

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

. In Ligue 2, the bottom clubs either get relegated to the

Ligue 2 Moorea The Ligue 2 Moorea is the regional league for association football of the island of Moorea, in French Polynesia. It is considered to be a third-tier league. Teams from this league are promoted directly to the Tahiti Ligue 2. Teams in this league ...

or Ligue 2 Raiatea as required. Ligue 2 also contains 8 reserve teams from Ligue 1 Vini. Clubs from the Ligue 2 Moorea and Ligue 2 Raiatea are often relegated to Ligue 3 where there are only 3

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

clubs and 6 reserve teams from Ligue 2 and Ligue 1 Vini.

French Polynesia football venues

References

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