As expected, the Lebanese Football Association cancelled the 2019-2020 season, which saw only three rounds played in late September and early October 2019. The political unrest which started in mid-October and then the COVID-19 pandemic in March hampered any attempts to a restart.
However, the Lebanese Football Association has managed to prepare the start of the 2020-2021 season, with the agreement of all the clubs involved.
The first competition to kick-off will be the joint Elite and Challenge Cup, on the 29th of July. Because there was no league in 2019-2020, all the 12 Premier League teams will initially participate to a qualifying tournament, consisting of three groups of four teams each, playing against each other in a single round robin tournament. The first two classified of each group will qualify for the Elite Cup, while the last two classified will play in the Challenge Cup.
The composition of the groups:
Group A: Al Ahed, Bourj FC, Shabab Al-Ghazieh, Tadamon Sour.
Group B: Al Ansar, Salam Zgharta, Al Ahly Akhaa Aley, AC Tripoli.
Group C: Nejmeh, Shabab El Bourj, Shabab Sahel, Safa.
Bourj FC will play the first game against champions Al Ahed, technically "away", but most likely on neutral ground. The second game will be against Shabab Al-Ghazieh ("home") and the third one against Tadamon Sour, "away".
Bourj FC have started the training sessions in June. Source: Bourj FC Facebook page (photo by Abdullah Mahfouz)
The Premier League will start on the 18th of September, and the first eleven rounds will be played until December, with several breaks in October and November, caused by the FIFA calendar, allowing for matches of the national teams, and possibly for matches in the AFC Cup or matches in the Lebanese Cup.
In the first round, Bourj FC will play also against champions Al Ahed, this time at "home". Hopefully, this year Bourj FC may play home matches in Beirut, and not in Aley or Sidon, as they did last year. This match is followed by six consecutive games "away", against Shabab Sahel, Safa, Salam Zgharta, Nejmeh, AC Tripoli and Shabab El Bourj. Except for Zgharta and Tripoli, the other matches should normally be played also in Beirut. This series of away matches would be followed by four consecutive matches at "home", against Al Ahly Akhaa Aley, Tadamon Sour, Al Ansar and Shabab Al-Ghazieh.
In this respect, the Lebanese League is somehow unique in the world, as there is no interest for the teams to play alternative home and away matches, and the schedule may be as such that a team might play many consecutive games at home or away. This is especially cruel for the fans - although this year it might not be the case, as the matches would be probably played without spectators. Another unique aspect is that the format of the league is a double round robin, but after the first half of the season, when all teams play against each other once (single round robin), the order of the games is completely different in the second half of the season, according to the classification at the end of the first half of the season.
The Lebanese Cup would also start this autumn. The first two rounds will involve only Second Division teams, and only four of them will qualify to the last 16 which will include the 12 Premier League teams and the 4 qualified Second Division teams. Bourj FC will play their first match "away" against the winner between Ahly Sidon and Ahly Nabatieh.
For all competitions, the Lebanese Football Association would provide a set of measures to avoid any health-related issues.
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