Akhaa Ahli Aley Football Club (), commonly referred to as Akhaa Ahli Aley, Akhaa Ahli or simply Akhaa, is a

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 ...

club based in

Aley Aley ( ar, عاليه) is a major city in Lebanon. It is the capital of the Aley District and fourth largest city in Lebanon. The city is located on Mount Lebanon, 15 km uphill from Beirut on the freeway to Damascus. Aley has the nick ...

, Lebanon, that competes in the . Akhaa have played in the

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, ...

since 2010–11 season, after gaining promotion from the

Lebanese Second Division The Lebanese Second Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الثانية) is the second division of Lebanese football. Established in 1933, it is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 12 teams that participate ...

. They won the

Lebanese Challenge Cup The Lebanese Challenge Cup () is a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the teams placed between 7th and 10th in the previous season of the Lebanese Premier League and the two newly promoted teams from the Lebanese Second Divisio ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

. The club is supported by the Lebanese MP Arkram Chehayeb, who was the key person to ratify the merging of the two clubs Ahli and Akhaa in the city of

History

Origins: Akhaa and Ahli

Akhaa was first founded in 1962 by Adel Baz, who led the club till the early 1980s amid the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

. The club obtained its license in 1966 and was close to promotion in 1971, failing to reach the Lebanese Premier League in the last match. The club halted its activities in 1982 during the Lebanese war and resumed in 1989. Ahli Club was established in the 1970s by Ahmad Radwan, an educator and the owner of a school in

. Ahli Club obtained its license later and joined the

Lebanese Third Division The Lebanese Third Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الثالثة) is the third division of Lebanese football, and is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 24 teams are divided into four groups of seven ...

in 1987. Various players who would go on to play in the

played for Ahli Club, such as Walid Zeineddine, Fouad Sayegh, Riad Al Halabi, Yazeed Halimi and others. Ahli Club was ranked first in the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

Football Cup twice in a row, in 1987 and 1988.

Formation of Akhaa Ahli

In 1990, Bahij Abou Hamzeh, the president of Akhaa, realized that promotion to the

would be difficult, so he decided to merge with Ahli Club. The merger added extra value to Akhaa Club as Ahli's team was full of young players of Aley, such as Zaher Andary, who represented the Lebanon national football from 1994 to 2001, Said Abu Muna and Raji Abi Said, who was elected captain of Ahkaa Ahli. Ahli's management found the merger to be of mutual interest as they needed physical and logistical support to get promoted to the

Promotion and stay in the Premier League

Akhaa won the

in 1992–93. The team managed to hit excellent results during its stay in the

, especially in its first appearance. It returned to the first division in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, staying there ever since. On 21 August 2022, after defeating rivals Safa 1–0 in the final, Akhaa were crowned

2022 Lebanese Challenge Cup The 2022 Lebanese Challenge Cup was the 9th edition of the Lebanese Challenge Cup. The competition included the teams placed between 7th and 10th in the 2021–22 Lebanese Premier League, and the two newly promoted teams from the 2021–22 Leba ...

champions.

Club rivalries

Akhaa plays the Mountain derby with Safa.

Players

Current squad

Notable players

Retired numbers

In 2020, Akhaa Ahli Aley retired the squad number 20 for two seasons, in memory of

Mohamed Atwi Mohamad Ahmad Atwi ( ar, محمد أحمد عطوي; 10 January 1987 – 18 September 2020) was a Lebanese footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Atwi started his career at Olympic Beirut in 2004, remaining there in 2005 when they ch ...

who died on 18 September 2020 from a stray

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...

to the head. * 20

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

(2018–2020) – posthumous honour (2020–2022)

Honours

**Winners (1):

**Winners (2): 1992–93, 2002–03

References

External links

Akhaa Ahli Aley FC
at LebanonFG {{Lebanese Premier League Football clubs in Lebanon 1962 establishments in Lebanon