BFA Sporting (), or simply Sporting, 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

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Lebanon, that competes in the . The club was founded in 1963, and first competed in the

Lebanese football league system The Lebanese football league system (), also known as the Lebanese football pyramid, is a series of League system, interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in Lebanon. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and rele ...

in 1997. BFA Sporting first competed 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 ...

in 2021, having won the 2020–21 Lebanese Second Division. In 2023, they entered into a partnership with Beirut Football Academy.

History

Al Jihad SC

On 23 October 1963, Al Jihad SC (), based in Hay El Sellom, a district in

, was formally recognized as a non-profit sports and cultural organization. They played their first official season in 1997, in the Lebanese Fifth Division, which they won in 1999–2000. In 2007–08 they won 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 ...

, and were promoted to 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 ...

Al Khoyol FC

On 2 September 2009, the club relocated to

Ghobeiry Ghobeiry (; also spelled ''Ghbayreh'' or ''Ghabariyeh'') is a municipality in the Baabda District of Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. The inhabitants of Ghobeiry are predominantly Shia Muslims. In May 1988, following three weeks of intense ...

, and changed their name to Al Khoyol FC (). In 2009–10, Khoyol lost a decisive match for promotion to the

against Akhaa Ahli Aley. The following season, 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 ...

, Khoyol lost to Ahli Saida in another decisive promotion match. In both instances, Khoyol complained to 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) for supposed

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing (also known as game fixing, race fixing, throwing, rigging, hippodroming, or more generally sports fixing) is the act of playing or officiating a contest with the intention of achieving a predetermined result, v ...

. In 2014, Khoyol were relegated to the Third Division.

Sporting

On 24 April 2018, the club changed their name to AC Sporting () and moved to Beirut: they promptly gained promotion to the

in 2019, coming first in the

. Sporting won the 2020–21 Lebanese Second Division, and gained promotion to the

for the first time in their history. After finishing in last place, Sporting were relegated back to the Second Division. On 26 June 2023, the club issued a statement announcing that it had been acquired by Australian-Lebanese businessman Joseph Bacha, owner of Telford Civil. They also entered into a partnership with Beirut Football Academy, and renamed the club into BFA Sporting ().

Players

Current squad

Honours

** Winners (1):

2020–21 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 ...

** Winners (1): 2018–19 * Lebanese Fifth Division ** Winners (1): 1999–2000

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:BFA Sporting Sporting Football clubs in Lebanon 1963 establishments in Lebanon Association football clubs established in 1997