The 2019 THB Champions League is the 53rd season of the

THB Champions League The Pro League Championnat de Football National Division 1 (known as Orange Pro League Madagascar for sponsorship reasons) is the premier football (soccer), football league in Madagascar. Prior to 2019, it was known as the Three Horses Beer-sponso ...

, the top-tier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. The season started on 8 March 2019 and ended on 16 June 2019.Madagascar 2019
RSSSF.com

Qualification

All teams in Madagascar played it's regional leagues. The champions of all regional leagues and the runner-ups of

Itasy Itasy is a region in central Madagascar. It borders Analamanga region in northeast, Vakinankaratra in south and Bongolava in northwest. The capital of the region is Miarinarivo, and the population was 897,962 in 2018. It is the smallest of all the ...

who provided the 2018 winners and

Analamanga Analamanga is a region in central Madagascar, containing the capital Antananarivo and its surrounding metropolitan area. The region has an area of , and had a population of 3,618,128 in 2018. Administrative divisions Analamanga Region is divided in ...

who provided the 2018 cup winners qualified to the tournament. The runner-ups of the leagues are COSFA (Analamanga) and AS JET Mada (Itasy). 3FB Betsiboka (

Betsiboka Betsiboka is a Regions of Madagascar, region of Madagascar. It borders Boeny Region in north, Sofia Region, Sofia in northeast, Alaotra-Mangoro in east, Analamanga and Bongolava in south and Melaky in west. The capital of the region is Maevatanana. ...

) and AJSM (

Melaky Melaky is a region in northwestern Madagascar. It borders Boeny Region in northeast, Betsiboka in east, Bongolava in southeast and Menabe in south. The capital of the region is Maintirano. The population was estimated to be 309,805 in 2018 within ...

) were the only teams that withdrew in the First phase. Without the 2 teams that withdrew, 22 teams qualified to the tournament.

Format

First phase

In the First phase, 24 teams would be separated in 4 groups of 6 teams. In the groups, all teams played against each other once, then the first 2 teams qualify to the Ligue des Champions 1st Division, next 3 teams qualify to Ligue des Champions 2nd Division and the last place gets eliminated from both divisions.

Withdrawal

3FB Betsiboka and AJSM withdrew. That means Group A and B would have 5 teams, while the remaining has 6. That also means that the league was played with 22 teams, 2 less teams than in the format.

Division 1

The first and second team from each group in the First phase qualify to the Ligue des Champions first division. 8 teams participate in the division. All teams play against each other once, then the team with the most points becomes the champion of Madagascar.

Division 2

The third, fourth and fiveth team from each group in the First phase qualify to the second division. 12 teams participate in the division. The 12 teams would be separated in 2 groups of 6 teams. In the groups, all teams played against each other once, then the first 2 teams on the group qualify to the Poule des As. In the Poule des As, all teams would play against each other twice (home and away), then the team with the most points becomes champions of the second division of Madagascar and gets promoted to the Ligue des Champions First Division in the 2019/20 season.

First phase

* M = Matches * W = Wins * D = Draws * L = Loses * FG = Favor goals * OG = Own goals * GD = Goal difference * P = Points

Group A

Group B

Group C

This was the only group without draws.

Group D

Division 1

Division 2

First Stage

Group A

It is unclear why Club M entered Poule des As instead of

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; possibly their match on Apr 14 was later awarded to Club M

Group B

Poule des As

Eventually Club Mananara and COSFA were also promoted, along with Elgeco Plus (

Antananarivo Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

)

Stadiums

References

{{2018–19 in African football (CAF)

Football leagues in Madagascar

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...