| Football in Lebanon | |
|---|---|
.png) TheCamille Chamoun Sports City Stadium during theBeirut derby in 2018 | |
| Country | Lebanon |
| Governing body | Lebanon Football Association (LFA) |
| National team | Lebanon |
| First played | 1933 |
| Clubs | 213 (as of2022–23) |
| National competitions | |
| Club competitions | |
| International competitions | |
Football is the most popular sport inLebanon.[1][2][3] It was introduced to Lebanon in the late-19th century, becoming particularly popular among teachers and studentsChristian schools. TheLebanese Football Association (LFA) was formed in 1933 as one of the earliest administrative bodies for association football in the Middle East. TheLebanon national team made its unofficial debut in 1935 against Romanian clubCA Timișoara (T.A.C.), while theirfirst official FIFA game was in 1940 againstMandatory Palestine.
Armenian clubs, namelyHomenetmen andHomenmen, led the early football scene between the 1940s and the 1960s; thecivil war between 1975 and 1990 made it impossible to practice football in Lebanon.Ansar became the dominating force in the country between the 1990s and the early-2000s, winning 11 consecutive league titles. In the 21st century, Ansar,Nejmeh, andAhed (the latter in particular starting from the 2010s) formed a Lebanese "Big Three", winning the majority of the titles. Indeed, historically, the country's most-supported clubs are Ansar and Nejmeh,[4] with Ahed gaining popularity in recent years.[5]
While the Lebanon national team has never won a major title internationally, Ahed became the first Lebanese club to win theAFC Cup in2019. Thenational under-18 team was the first Lebanon men's national team to play in a final, finishing as runners-up in the2021 WAFF U-18 Championship.
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Football in Lebanon was introduced by the educated class in Lebanon.[6] First played by foreign teachers at theAmerican University of Beirut (AUB) in the late-1800s, football quickly grew in popularity with the immigration ofArmenians to Lebanon during theFrench Mandate.[6] Football was seen as an elite activity, and was mainly played inChristian schools.[6]
In 1931Khalil Hilmi, a member ofRiyadi, attempted to form a Federation.[7] However, the proposal failed asNahda opposed the formation.[7] On 22 March 1933, representatives of thirteen football clubs gathered in the Minet El Hosn district inBeirut to form theLebanese Football Association (LFA).[8] Hussein Sejaan was the LFA's first president.[9] Lebanon was one of the first nations in the Middle East to establish an administrative body for association football.[a][10] TheLebanese Premier League began in May 1934, withNahda winning the first title.[11] The LFA joinedFIFA in 1936.[12]
The first activity of theLebanese national team began in 1935. Beirut XI, representing Lebanon, played againstCA Timișoara (T.A.C.) of Romania:[13][14] the game was considered the national team's first.[15] Thenational team's first official FIFA game was a 5–1 loss toMandatory Palestine on 27 April 1940,[16] withCamille Cordahi scoring Lebanon's first official international goal.[17]
Most clubs were born on the basis ofsectarianism, such asSagesse beingMaronite Christian,Nahda aGreek Orthodox team, andAnsar having a predominantlySunni Muslim fanbase.[6] A rivalry was established between Ansar and another Beirut club,Nejmeh: dubbed theBeirut derby, the match has been considered the biggest club football match in Lebanon.[18]
Between the 1940s and 1960s,[6] Armenian clubs, most notablyHomenetmen andHomenmen, were the most prominent in the early Lebanese footballing scene.[19] The two clubs shared 11 league titles in 16 seasons between 1943 and 1969.[11] In 1964 the LFA joined theAsian Football Confederation (AFC).[12]
Between the 1960s and 1975 Lebanese football was at its peak, with Nejmeh even beating USSR championsArarat Yerevan in 1974.[20] In 1975, one week before theLebanese Civil War, Brazilian playerPelé played a friendly game for Nejmeh against a team of Lebanese Premier League stars.[21] On the day of the game, 40,000 spectators were at the stadium from early morning to watch the match.[21] From 1975 to 1990, the civil war made it impossible to practice football.[22]
Following the civil war, players from lower-income families began to join football clubs, specifically from impoverished Sunni andShia areas.[18] Ansar set aGuinness World Record by winning 11 consecutive national titles between 1988 and 1999.[23]
Lebanon hosted the2000 AFC Asian Cup, with the national team finishing last in the group with only two points.[24] In 2001, the LFA joined theWest Asian Football Federation (WAFF) as one of its founding members.[25] From 2000, Nejmeh were the dominating force in Lebanon, winning five out of nineleague titles until 2009. In2005 they reached the final of theAFC Cup, becoming the first Lebanese side to do so.[26] However they lost toAl-Faisaly 4–2 on aggregate.[27] During the 2010sAhed, who had only won one league title prior, won six league titles. In the 2010–11 season Ahed won the league,cup,Super Cup andElite Cup, becoming the first team in Lebanon to accomplish both atreble and aquadruple.[28]
After winning the2018–19 Lebanese Premier League Ahed became the three-time defending champions, a feat accomplished only one other time, byAnsar in 1992.[29] In 2018 the national team qualified for their first ever major tournament: the2019 AFC Asian Cup. They won their first game in the tournament on 17 January 2019, againstNorth Korea 4–1 in the group stage; however, they narrowly missed out on the knock-out stage on the fair play rule.[30] On 4 November 2019, Ahed became the first Lebanese side to win the AFC Cup after defeatingApril 25 in the2019 final.[31] The2019–20 season was cancelled due to financial reasons amid the then-impendingcoronavirus pandemic.[32][33]
| Level | Divisions (as of2022–23) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lebanese Premier League (One national division, 12 clubs) | ||||||
| 2 | Lebanese Second Division (One national division, 12 clubs) | ||||||
| 3 | Lebanese Third Division (4groups, 5–6 clubs per group) | ||||||
| 4 | Lebanese Fourth Division Beirut (1 group, 9 clubs) | Lebanese Fourth Division Mount Lebanon (5 groups, 7 clubs per group) | Lebanese Fourth Division North (4 groups, 7–8 clubs per group) | Lebanese Fourth Division South (3 groups, 7–8 clubs per group) | Lebanese Fourth Division Beqaa (2 groups, 7 clubs per group) | ||
| 5 | Lebanese Fifth Division Beirut (1 group, 8 clubs) | Lebanese Fifth Division Mount Lebanon (2 groups, 7 clubs per group) | Lebanese Fifth Division North (2 groups, 4–5 clubs per group) | Lebanese Fifth Division South (2 groups, 7–8 clubs per group) | Lebanese Fifth Division Beqaa (2 groups, 5–6 clubs per group) | ||
TheLebanon national team played its first (unofficial) international game in 1935, against Romanian sideCA Timișoara (TAC).[35] Theirfirst FIFA-ratified game came in 1940, in a 5–1 defeat toMandatory Palestine.[36]
Lebanon hosted the2000 AFC Asian Cup and were eliminated from the group stage.[2] They participated in the2019 AFC Asian Cup, their first through regularqualification,[37] winning their first game in the competition againstNorth Korea in the group stage. However, Lebanon narrowly missed out on the knock-out stages by the fair-play rule.[30]
At youth level, theU20 team took part in theAFC U-20 Asian Cup twice, reaching the quarter-finals in the1973 edition.[38] TheU18 team made history as the first Lebanon men's national team to play in a final, finishing as runners-up in the2021 WAFF U-18 Championship after losing to hostsIraq onpenalty shoot-outs.[39] A year later, theU16 team reached the final of the2022 WAFF U-16 Championship, where they lost to hostsJordan 1–0.[40]
Women's football in Lebanon, while initially not very popular due to thesocial stigma attached to it,[41][42] has seen a rise in popularity in the late-2010s.[43] It is mainly played in the affluent areas of the country.[44] TheLebanese Women's Football League was founded in 2008, withSadaka winning the first title.[45] Safa became the first Lebanese women's team to win an international competition, after winning the2022 edition of theWAFF Women's Clubs Championship.[46]
Thewomen's national team came runners-up in theWAFF Women's Championship in2022,[47] and in third place in2007 and in2019.[48][49] In 2015, thewomen's under-17 team became the first Lebanese national football team to win a title, after being crowned2015 Arab U-17 Women's Cup champions.[50] In 2019, Lebanon won both theWAFF U-15 Girls Championship and theWAFF U-18 Girls Championship,[50][51] while in 2022 they won theWAFF U-18 Girls Championship for the second time.[52]
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