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, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Aley Aley () 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, 15km uphill from Beirut on the freeway to Damascus. Aley has the nickname "Bride of the Summ ...

, Lebanon, that competes in the , and is primarily supported by the Druze community. Akhaa have played in 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 ...

since 2010–11 season, after gaining promotion from the

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 ...

. They won the

Lebanese Challenge Cup The Lebanese Challenge Cup () was 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 Divis ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. 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 ( ) 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 ...

. 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 () is the third division of Lebanese football, and is controlled by the Lebanese Football Association. The 23 teams are divided into four groups of six teams each (one group has 5 teams); the first two teams of each ...

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; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

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

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. On 21 August 2022, after defeating rivals Safa 1–0 in the final, Akhaa were crowned 2022 Lebanese Challenge Cup champions. Akhaa were relegated to the Lebanese Second Division, after finishing last in

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Club rivalries

Akhaa plays the "Mountain derby" with Safa.

Players

Current squad

Notable players

Retired numbers

In 2020, Akhaa Ahli Aley

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

the squad number 20 for two seasons, in memory of

Mohamad Atwi Mohamad Ahmad Atwi (; 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 changed their name to AC Tripoli. ...

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. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constru ...

to the head. * 20

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

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

Honours

(''defunct'') **Winners (1):

**Winners (2): 1992–93, 2002–03 *

Lebanese Elite Cup The Lebanese Elite Cup () was a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the top six teams of the previous Lebanese Premier League season. Founded in 1996 as the Super League Cup, the first edition was played by the top five finisher ...

(''defunct'') ** ''Runners-up (1):''

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

References

External links

Akhaa Ahli Aley FC
at LebanonFG {{Lebanese Women's Football League Football clubs in Lebanon 1962 establishments in Lebanon Druze in Lebanon