Football in Algeria (soccer) is the country's most popular sport.^[1] Approximately half of the people in Algeria are interested in football.^[2]

The country's top domestic league is organised into two national divisions, theAlgerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 and theAlgerian Ligue Professionnelle 2, overseen by theAlgerian Football Federation.

On 11 April 1882, during theFrench occupation of Algeria era, the first Algerian club was formed inOran. L'Oranaise Club was founded by European settlers, it's one of the first clubs in allAfrica continent.^[3] On 5 February 1894,Club des Joyeusetés d'Oran, was founded in the neighborhood El-Derb of Oran. It was followed in the same year by theClub Athlétique Liberté d'Oran (CAL Oran), formed in 1897 by European settlers too in the neighborhood Saint-Antoine of Oran under the nameClub Athlétique d'Oran. These are the first clubs in the country and theMaghreb.^[4] Other clubs will follow later, and will be created in various cities including Oran.

In 1898 was created the first Muslim club,CS Constantine was born inConstantine under the name ofIKBAL Emancipation.^[5]

In 1911 theFrench Football Federation creates aNorth African Championship representing the third French division (honor league), which became an official competition in 1921 after creation in 1920 of the three regional leagues inOran,Algiers andConstantine, the winner of each league qualify to a North African Championship.

TheAlgerian Football Federation was founded in 1963 in order to organise national competitions and international matches. The first national championship and the cup started immediately after independence in 1962.

Below is a list of football clubs in Algeria before independence. It contains all clubs that have played in differentFrench Algerian leagues divisions before 1962, the independence year ofAlgeria. Most of the clubs that were founded by the European settlers were dissolved in 1962.

Below is a list offootball clubs in Algeria. It contains all clubs that have played in different Algerian leagues divisions since 1962, the independence year ofAlgeria. However most of teams were founded before this year.

The 1982 African Super Cup is a match which took place on January 25, 1982 during theTournament of Fraternity inAbidjan,Ivory Coast. JS Kabylie won this trophy against theCameroonians ofUnion Douala.^[6] The newspaperFrance Football commented on this event of the birth of the brand new African Super Cup.^[7]

Legends

In 1958, a representative selection of Algeria's National Team (FLN football team) is secretly created by theNational Liberation Front (FLN) to serve the cause of Algeria.^[8] it is composed essentially of professional players who play in the French league suchRachid Mekhloufi. The team played its first international game in a group test before its creation in 1957 inTunis againstTunisia. Its played several friendly matches with high level national teams and clubs.

After independence in 1962,Algeria's national team replace theFLN football team. This team saw its period of greatest success in the 1980s with great players suchLakhdar Belloumi,Rabah Madjer,Salah Assad. Algeria qualified for theFIFA World Cup in1982 and1986,2010 and2014 and qualified to second round in 2014 World Cup after defeating 4-2South Korea and 1-1 drawing withRussia. The team was eliminated byGermany, crowned as champions by a 2–1 score at extra time.

During the 1982 tournament, Algeria managed a surprise defeat ofWest Germany in their first ever World Cup game and thus became the first African team to defeat European opposition at the World Cup, but were eliminated after the so-called"Shame of Gijón".^[9][10]

Due to Algeria's historic ties withFrance, there have been a number of Algerian players playing professionally in the French leagues, while theFrance national team has included players ofAlgerian heritage, most notablyZinedine Zidane,Karim Benzema andSamir Nasri.^[11]

Twitter research from 2015 found that the most popularEnglish Premier League club in Algeria was by farArsenal, with 43% of Algerian Premier League fans following the club, followed byChelsea (19%) andManchester City (11%).^[12]

• List of football stadiums in Algeria

• FAF official website
• LFP official website

• Football in Algeria

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata