The 2018–19 Lebanese Premier League season began on 21 September 2018 and concluded on 21 April 2019. 2018–19 was the 58th season of the Lebanese Premier League, the top Lebanese professional league for

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 the country, established in 1934. Ahed were the defending champions. Shabab Sahel and Chabab Ghazieh joined as the promoted clubs from the

2017–18 Lebanese Second Division The Lebanese Second Division () is the second division of Football in Lebanon, Lebanese football. It is controlled by the Federation Libanaise de Football Association. The top two teams qualify for the Lebanese Premier League and replace the relega ...

. They replaced Shabab Arabi and

Islah Islah or Al-Islah (الإصلاح ,إصلاح, ') is an Arabic word, usually translated as "reform", in the sense of "to improve, to better, to put something into a better position, correction, correcting something and removing vice, reworking, ...

who were relegated to the

2018–19 Lebanese Second Division The Lebanese Second Division () is the second division of Lebanese football. It is controlled by the Federation Libanaise de Football Association. The top two teams qualify for the Lebanese Premier League and replace the relegated teams, while th ...

. Ahed won their third consecutive Lebanese Premier League title, and seventh overall, with two games to spare.

Summary

Issues

The 2018–19 season was one of the worst for Lebanese football since 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 ...

for various issues. The first issue was the poor preparation and management of most clubs.

Nejmeh Nejmeh Sporting Club () is a football club based in Manara, a neighbourhood in Ras Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the . The club was established in Beirut in 1945, and received its license in 1947. Nejmeh have won nine Lebanese Pre ...

had changed their head coach twice and bought five of ten summer signings only in the last week of the transfer window. Ansar changed their coach a week before the season began and signed two players in the last days of the transfer window. The league's smaller clubs had other problems.

Tadamon Sour Tadamon Sporting Club Sour (), known as Tadamon Sour or simply Tadamon, is a football club based in Tyre, Lebanon, that competes in the , and is primarily supported by the Shia Muslim community. They play their home matches at the Tyre Muni ...

found themselves without a head coach or president at the start of the season.

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

also began the season without a head coach, as well as having not signed any new players. Nabi Chit SC changed their name to

Bekaa SC Shabab Baalbek Sport Club () is a football club based in Baalbek, Lebanon, that competes in the Founded in 1986 as Nabi Chit Sport Club (), the club was known as Bekaa Sport Club () between 2018 and 2020, and is primarily supported by the Sh ...

in a failed attempt to attract more investors. Overall, only five of twelve teams kept their manager from the previous season, and most summer acquisitions were concluded in the final days of the signing window. The second issue concerned the tensions between 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 ...

(LFA) and the clubs, with the referees' performances being the hot topic. Clubs like Ansar and Nejmeh protested to the Federation, threatening to leave the league if no improvements were to be made. These tensions culminated with the resignation of Semaan Douaihy, a member of the Executive Committee of the LFA.

Salam Zgharta FC Salam Zgharta Football Club (), known as Salam Zgharta or simply Salam, is a association football, football club based in Zgharta, Lebanon, that competes in the . Founded in 1933 as Salam Achrafieh, the club was renamed Salam Zgharta in 1971; ...

and

Racing Beirut Racing Club (), known as Racing Beirut or simply Racing, is a football club based in Achrafieh, a district in Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the . They play their home matches at the Fouad Chehab Stadium and are primarily supported by the ...

announcing their withdrawal from all LFA-managed competitions. The final issue the league faced was the re-emergence of match-fixing. While the LFA proved its existence, it made no effort to punish the parties involved or to cancel the results of the implicated teams.

League summary

Al Ahed FC Al Ahed Football Club () is a football club based in Ouzai, a district in Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the Lebanese Premier League, the top flight of Lebanese football. The club was founded in 1964 as Al Ahed Al Jadeed, initially startin ...

won their third consecutive title with a ten-point margin. The battle for second place went down to the wire, with Ansar claiming an

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

spot from

in the last matchday of the league. The relegation battle was also determined on the last matchday, with eight of the 12 teams all candidates for relegation. The

Beirut Municipal Stadium Beirut Municipal Stadium () is an 18,000-capacity multi-purpose stadium in Beirut, Lebanon. It is currently mostly used for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football ...

and the

Fouad Chehab Stadium Fouad Chehab Stadium (), also known as Jounieh Municipal Stadium (), is a multi-use stadium in Jounieh, Lebanon. It is currently used mostly for football matches, and has a capacity of 5,000. In 1959, president Fouad Chehab Fouad Abdallah C ...

returned to host Lebanese Premier League matches.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Prior to the start of each season, every team chooses two stadiums as their home venues. In case both stadiums are unavailable for a certain matchday, another venue is used.

League table

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 Lebanese Premier League 2018–19 Lebanese Premier League Lebanese Premier League seasons

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 ...