2018–19 Libyan Premier League Explained

Competition:Libyan Premier League
Winners:None (Cancelled)
Relegated:None (Cancelled)
Continentalcup1:2019–20 CAF Champions League
Continentalcup2:2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup
Matches:88
Total Goals:151
League Topscorer:Autemar
Moataz Al-Mehdi
(4 goals)
Longest Wins:4 matches
Al-Akhdar
Asswehly
Longest Unbeaten:8 matches
Al-Ahly Benghazi
Al-Madina
Longest Winless:8 matches
Al-Mahalla
Aschat
Khaleej Sirte
Rafik
Longest Losses:7 matches
Al-Anwar
Prevseason:2017–18
Nextseason:2019–20
Updated:3 March 2019
Season:2018–19

The 2018–19 Libyan Premier League season was an abandoned season that was supposed to be the 48th since its establishment. The season has started on 28 November 2018. Fixtures of the 2018–19 were announced on 30 October 2018.[1]

Al-Nasr were the defending champions. Al-Sadaqa and Abu Salem joined as the promoted clubs from the 2017–18 Libyan First Division. They replaced Qurdabia, Al-Andalus, Ascharara, Abi al Ashhar, Al-Tarsana and Annajma who were relegated to the 2018–19 Libyan First Division.

Summary

Before the start of the season many disagreements took place which led to the postponement of the start of the season several times. The Competition Organising Committee in the Libyan Football Federation had chosen 14 September to be the date of starting the new season but, there were 4 clubs who demanded the postponement of the season. These clubs were Al-Nasr, Al-Ahly Benghazi, Al-Ahly Tripoli, Al-Madina. The reason behind this was that these clubs wanted to hold a meeting for the general assembly for discussing the problems that the previous season has faced and how to avoid them and solve the current . As a result of the clubs demands and the security situations, The Competition Committee delayed the start of the new season until 2 October but didn't hold the general assembly meeting. However, On 12 October the eastern group clubs were hosted in the headquarters of Darnes Club. The clubs made an agreement to refuse the start of the season until they get their demands from the Football Federation. Their demands were:

  1. To delay the start of the season for at least 10 November
  2. To get financial support from the Football Federation
  3. To reduce the number of relegated clubs from each group from 3 to 2
  4. To approve Derna Stadium as a match holding stadium in the next season

The Football Federation had accepted their demands except the 2nd point.On the other hand, All the western clubs (except Al-Ahly Tripoli and Al-Ittihad) also held a meeting in Al-Madina Club and they also have refused the start of the season until they get their demands which were to get financial support from the Football Federation but the last didn't approve their demands and delayed the season again due to problems and this time until 26 October.However, another club meeting was held between all the western clubs (except Al-Ittihad and Al-Ittihad Misurata) in Abu Salem Club headquarters where they agreed to not start the season until the removal of the president of the Libyan Football Federation Jamal Aljaafari.Meanwhile, the Competition Committee has held the draw of the league without the knowledge of the clubs and without any representative from them in the draw ceremonies and the draw wasn't held in the headquarters of the Football Federation in Tripoli but it was held in Misurata instead. The Competition Committee has also chosen 9 November as a date of starting the new season. However, because of the long postponement of the season which will have a negative effect on the club's especially those who will compete on continental level and will also affect the national team, the clubs Rafik and Asswehly have agreed to start the new season without any demands. The Competition Committee as usual delayed the season until 21 November to solve some problems. On the other hand the refusing clubs of the East and West which were:Abu Salem, Aschat, Al-Ahly Tripoli Al-Wahda, Al-Madina, Al-Hilal, Al-Mahalla, Shabaab al Jabal, Darnes and Al Ta'awon have organised a competition for the necessity of keeping their players in the form of games. The competition was under the name of Activator Competition for Libyan Premier League Clubs or Libya Tajma'ona (Libya brings us together). However, some refusing clubs like Al-Ahly Benghazi and Al-Nasr didn't participate in the competition because of their preparation for CAF Champions League preliminary round games as they were camping in Egypt. On 21 November the refusing clubs made a statement indicating their demand for holding the General Assembly meeting and their need for financial support. However, the league has already started and the first game was between Al-Ittihad and Aschat which saw the withdrawal of the latter because of their refusal to start the league before getting what they demanded in the statement. On 24 November, the Executive Office held a meeting to decide whether to keep or withdraw the trust from the LFF president Jamal Aljaafari by the majority of vote. The majority decided to withdraw trust from Jamal Aljaafari and he will be removed from his position temporarily until the New General Assembly meeting which was scheduled to be held on 8 December in Sirte until it was delayed to 20 December in Marj. However, The league will continue on its scheduled date. The executive office has appointed the former referee and vice president Abdulhakim Alshilmani as the new president for the Libyan Football Federation. 85 clubs representatives have attended the meeting with 82 clubs voting against Jamal Aljaafari, 2 clubs voting for him and 1 club refusing to vote. As a result, Jamal Aljaafari was removed permanently from his position as a president of the Libyan Football Federation.

The second round of matches in the second group featured the first Tripoli Derby of the season, which Al-Ittihad won 2–1 at Misurata Stadium against Al-Ahly Tripoli. The result put Al-Ahly into 12th place temporarily. Other early pace-setters included Al-Akhdar and Shabaab al Jabal who are currently the top two teams in the first group as of mid-February, Asswehly, Al-Madina and Abu Salem who are the second, third and fourth placed teams in the second group respectively as of the first week of February. The third round of matches in the first group featured the first "Benghazi Derby" of the season, which Al-Ahly Benghazi won 1-0 at Benina Stadium against Al-Nasr.

The season suffered delays several times. It was first delayed in mid-February so that the national team could hold a training camp in Tunisia in preparation for an important match against South Africa. It was delayed again a month later for the same reason.

Early in the season, the LFF announced that the season would continue during Ramadan at night. However, due to the 2019 Western Libya offensive, the LFF decided to suspend the league. Sources inside the LFF indicated that the season was close to being cancelled. However, the LFF decided to postpone the season until 15 June (though at this stage, many foreign coaches had fled the country and foreign players terminated their contracts).

15 June passed, and there was no sign of the league continuing. The LFF later decided to cancel the season and announced that Al-Ittihad will play in the 2019-20 CAF Confederation Cup and Al-Nasr will play in the 2019-20 CAF Champions League.

Teams

Groups

Due to the continued security situation in Libya in 2018 and the difficulty in air-travel for most teams, the participating teams were grouped by their geographical location into two groups of twelve teams. Teams from each group were scheduled to play every team from their group in a home-and-away round robin format with 3 points given for a win and 1 point for a draw.

TeamLocation
Group 1Al-Ahly BenghaziBenghazi
Al AkhdarBayda
Al-AnwarAl-Abyar
Al-HilalBenghazi
Al-NasrBenghazi
Al SadaqaShahhat
Al Ta'awonAjdabiya
Al TahaddyBenghazi
Nojom AjdabiyaAjdabiya
DarnesDerna
Khaleej SirteSirte
Shabaab al JabalShahhat
Group 2Abu SalemTripoli
Al-Ahli TripoliTripoli
Al-IttihadTripoli
Al-Ittihad MisurataMisurata
Al-KhumsAl-Khums
Al-MadinaTripoli
Al-MahallaTripoli
Al-WahdaTripoli
AschatTripoli
AsswehlyMisurata
Olympic AzzaweyaZawiya
RafikSorman

Stadia and Locations

! Team !! Location !! Stadium !! Capacity
Abu SalemTripoliTripoli Stadium
Al-Ahly BenghaziBenghaziBenina Stadium
Al-Ahly TripoliTripoliTripoli Stadium
Al-AkhdarAl-BaydaSheikh Chadae Stadium
Al-AnwarAl-AbyarSheikh Chadae Stadium
Al-HilalBenghaziBenina Stadium
Al-IttihadTripoliTripoli Stadium
Al-Ittihad MisurataMisurataMisurata Stadium
Al-KhumsAl-KhumsAl-Khums Stadium
Al-MadinaTripoliTripoli Stadium
Al-MahallaTripoliTripoli Stadium
Al-NasrBenghaziBenina Stadium
Al-SadaqaShahhatShahhat Stadium
Al Ta'awonAjdabiyaBenina Stadium
Al-TahaddyBenghaziBenina Stadium
Al-WahdaTripoliTripoli Stadium
AschatTripoliTripoli Stadium
AsswehlyMisurataMisurata Stadium
DarnesDernaDerna Stadium
Khaleej SirteSirteSirte Stadium
Nojom AjdabiyaAjdabiyaBenina Stadium
Olympic AzzaweyaZawiyaZaawia Stadium
RafikSormanOm Al-Rabi Stadium
Shabaab al JabalShahhatShahhat Stadium

Stadiums

The following stadiums were chosen by the Competitions Committee to be available to host league games.

StadiumLocation
Misurata StadiumMisurata
Al-Khums StadiumAl-Khums
Zliten StadiumZliten
Janzour Academy StadiumTripoli
Zaawia StadiumZawiya
Tarhuna Municipal StadiumTarhuna
Sorman StadiumSorman
Zuwarah StadiumZuwarah
Riqdalin StadiumRiqdalin
Al-Jameel StadiumAl-Jameel
Zintan Stadium Zintan
Gharyan StadiumGharyan
Sabha StadiumSabha
Sirte Stadium Sirte
Marj StadiumMarj
Sheikh Chadae StadiumAl-Bayda
Shahhat Stadium Shahhat
Derna StadiumDerna
Tobruk Stadium Tobruk
Musaid StadiumMusaid
Tripoli Stadium1Tripoli
Martyrs of Benina Stadium1Benghazi (Benina)

1 As per the decision of the Stadiums Assessments Committee of the Libyan Football Federation on 30 October 2018 these stadiums will not host matches until they are repaired. [2] On 27 January, the Competition Committee announced the ability of these stadiums to host the league games again.

First stage

Group 1

Standings

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches.
In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Results

Group 2

Standings

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches.
In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Results

Season statistics

Scoring

Top goalscorers

RankPlayerClub Goals
1 AutemarAsswehly4
Moataz Al-MehdiAl-Nasr
3 Alshamakh GaddafiAl Ta'awon3
Jebrel MersalAl-Ahly Benghazi
Salem RomaAl-Ittihad
Elmutasem AbushnafAl-Madina
7 Ashour ShagloufAl-Sadaqa2
Ahmed Al-KadiriAl-Ittihad Misurata
Abdulraheem Al-AmariNojom Ajdabiya
Mohammed AlghanemeAl-Wahda
Naji ShweqiNojom Ajdabiya
Abdullah Al-EirfeAl-Ahly Benghazi

Hat-tricks

Note(H) – Home ; (A) – Away

Number of teams by City

Number of teamsCityTeam(s)
7TripoliAbu Salem, Al-Ahly Tripoli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Madina, Al-Mahalla,
Al-Wahda and Aschat
4BenghaziAl-Ahly Benghazi, Al-Hilal, Al-Nasr and Al-Tahaddy
2AjdabiyaAl Ta'awon and Nojom Ajdabiya
MisurataAsswehly and Al-Ittihad Misurata
ShahhatAl-Sadaqa and Shabaab al Jabal
1Al-AbyarAl-Anwar
Al-KhumsAl-Khums
BaydaAl-Akhdar
DernaDarnes
SirteKhaleej Sirte
SormanRafik
ZawiyaOlympic Azzaweya

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: 2018/19 Libyan Premier League draw and first fixture matches . 30 October 2018 . Al-Nabaa Sports . 30 October 2018.
  2. News: Tripoli and Benina Stadium are excluded from hosting matches before finishing maintenance processes . 30 October 2018 . The Libyan Observer . 30 October 2018.