The Lebanese football league system (), also known as the Lebanese football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues 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 in

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 ...

. The system has a hierarchical format with

promotion and 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 ...

between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. There are five individual leagues, containing 30 groups. The exact number of clubs varies from year to year as clubs join and leave leagues, fold or merge altogether, but an estimated average of 7 clubs per group implies that about 200 clubs are members of a league in the Lebanese men's football league system.

Structure

Men

The Lebanese football pyramid is composed of five leagues, all governed by the

Lebanese Football Association The Lebanese Football Association (LFA; ; ) is the governing body of association football in Lebanon. Formed in 1933, it is a member of both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, AFC. It is also one of the founding members of the West Asian ...

, which operate on a system of

. The first tier of Lebanese football is the

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division (), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. Established in 1934 and organized by the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), the Lebanese Premier Leagu ...

, which is made up of 12 teams. Next is the

Lebanese Second Division The Lebanese Second Division () is the second division of Lebanese football. Established in 1933, it is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 12 teams that participate in the league play each other twice, once at home and once awa ...

, which also has 12 teams. Both of these leagues cover the whole of Lebanon. The first two leagues participate in the

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic Lebanese football. In the first FA Cup final, held on 26 June 1938, Nahda beat Hilmi-Sport 3–2 in the replay (after drawing 1� ...

, the national domestic cup competition. The third tier is the

Lebanese Third Division The Lebanese Third Division () is the third division of Lebanese football, and is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 23 teams are divided into four groups of six teams each (one group has 5 teams); the first two teams of each ...

, one division split into four groups. At the fourth tier is the

Lebanese Fourth Division The Lebanese football league system (), also known as the Lebanese football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in Lebanon. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between ...

, a league of five parallel divisions each split into further groups. Finally, at the end of the pyramid is the Lebanese Fifth Division, also composed of five divisions split into further groups. The five divisions of both the Fourth and Fifth Division are named "

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 ...

", "

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

", "

North Lebanon North Lebanon () is the northern region of Lebanon comprising the North Governorate and Akkar Governorate. On 16 July 2003, the two entities were divided from the same province by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The division was known as Law ...

", "

South Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost distr ...

" and " Beqaa".

If teams are level on points, tie-breakers are applied in the following order: # Head-to-head points; # Goal difference; # Goals scored; # Decisive match; in case of a draw, a penalty-shootout determines the winner.

Women

The women's system is divided into only one level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebanon Football League System Football league systems in Asia

Structure

Men

Women

See also

References