The 2019–20 Lebanese Premier League was intended to be the 59th season of the

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division (), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. Established in 1934 and organized by the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), the Lebanese Premier Leagu ...

, 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, since its establishment in 1934. Ahed were the three-time defending champions. Bourj and Shabab Bourj joined as the promoted clubs from the 2018–19 Lebanese Premier League. They replaced Bekaa and

Racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

, who were relegated to the 2019–20 Lebanese Second Division. On 21 January 2020, the LFA decided to suspend all football leagues until further notice, and cancelled the three match days that were previously played (the last one being on 17 October 2019), due to the ongoing

economic crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and ma ...

and the impending arrival of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The season was officially cancelled on 28 May 2020.

Summary

Starting from the 2019–20 season, all teams in the Lebanese Premier League and

Lebanese Second Division The Lebanese Second Division () is the second division of Lebanese football. Established in 1933, it is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 12 teams that participate in the league play each other twice, once at home and once awa ...

had to involve a certain number of under-22 players in both the league and the

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic Lebanese football. In the first FA Cup final, held on 26 June 1938, Nahda beat Hilmi-Sport 3–2 in the replay (after drawing 1� ...

, with a minimum of 1,000 minutes for one player, a minimum of 1,500 aggregate minutes for two players and a minimum of 2,000 aggregate minutes for three players. In case a club were to not meet the required number of minutes at the end of the season, they would have had three points deducted from their total in the league. On 30 July 2019, 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 ...

announced a three-year deal with German sportswear company

Jako Jako AG is a German sportswear company based in the Hollenbach district of Mulfingen, Baden-Württemberg. The company was founded by Rudi Sprügel in 1989 in Stachenhausen. Jako provides kits for teams playing association football, handball, ...

for €120,000, with the Jako Match 2.0 becoming the league's official match ball starting from the 2019–20 season. Due to political and financial issues in the country, the LFA decided to suspend all football leagues until further notice on 21 January 2020, and cancelled the three match days that were previously played (the last one being on 17 October 2019). With the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

also stopping sporting activities globally, the season was officially cancelled on 28 May 2020.

Teams

Twelve teams were due to compete in the league – the top ten teams from the previous season and the two teams promoted from the Second Division. The promoted teams were Bourj (returning to the top flight after a 16-year absence) and Shabab Bourj (promoted for the first time in their history). They replaced Bekaa and

, ending their top flight spells of five and eleven years respectively.

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. :''Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.''

Personnel and kits

Foreign players

Lebanese clubs are allowed to have three foreign players at their disposal at any time, as well as one extra

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

player born in Lebanon. Moreover, each club competing in an AFC competition is allowed to field one extra foreign player, to be only played in continental matches, as the AFC allows four foreign players to play in the starting eleven (one of whom from an AFC country). * Players in bold have been registered during the mid-season transfer window. * Players in ''italics'' have left the club during the mid-season transfer window,.

League table at abandonment

Notes

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:2019-20 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 ...