The Lebanese Football Association (LFA; ; ) is the governing body of

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 ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. Formed in 1933, it is a member of both

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 ...

and the AFC. It is also one of the founding members of the WAFF, joining in its inception in 2001.

History

In 1931

Khalil Hilmi Khalil Hilmi (; 1909 – 17 July 2004) was a Lebanese sports shooter. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics and 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly kn ...

, a member of Riyadi Beirut, attempted to form a federation. However, the proposal failed as

Nahda The Nahda (, meaning 'the Awakening'), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Arab Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabs, Arab-populated regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia, ...

opposed its formation. On 22 March 1933, representatives of thirteen football clubs gathered in the Minet El Hosn district in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

to form the Lebanese Football Association (LFA). Hussein Sejaan was the LFA's first president. Lebanon was one of the first nations in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

to establish an administrative body for

. The LFA joined

in 1936 and the AFC in 1964. In 2001, the LFA joined the WAFF as one of its founding members. In 1985, in the midst of the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

, the LFA was divided into two administrations: Western, headed by Nabil Al Raei, and Eastern, headed by Hamid Khoury. FIFA froze Lebanon's membership until 5 February 1987, when FIFA president

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

sent a

telex Telex is a telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communica ...

letter to the LFA recognizing the elections of 2 May 1985, which had elected Al Raei as the LFA president.

Principals

Board of directors

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

*
Lebanon
at FIFA.com (archived 2 February 2019)

at the-AFC.com
Lebanon
at the-WAFF.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebanese Football Association 1933 establishments in Lebanon Futsal in Lebanon Sports organizations established in 1933

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 ...

Member associations of the West Asian Football Federation Members of the Union of Arab Football Associations