page_title: Football in Lebanon
section_title: New millennium (2000–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Football in Lebanon / History / New millennium (2000–present)
caption_attribution_description: Match scene of Lebanon vs Saudi Arabia (Asian Cup 2019)
context_page_description: Football is the most popular sport in Lebanon. It was introduced to Lebanon in the early-20th century, becoming particularly popular among French soldiers in the local Christian community. The Lebanese Football Association was formed in 1933 as one of the earliest administrative bodies for association football in the Middle East. The Lebanon national team made its unofficial debut in 1934 against Romanian club CA Timișoara, while their first official FIFA game was in 1940 against Mandatory Palestine.
  Armenian clubs such as Homenetmen and Homenmen led the early football scene between the 1940s and the 1960s; the civil war between 1975 and 1990 made it impossible to practice football in Lebanon. Ansar became the dominating force in the country between the 1990s and the early-2000s. In the 21st century, Ansar, Nejmeh, and Ahed formed a Lebanese "Big Three", winning the majority of the titles. Indeed, the country's most supported clubs are Ansar and Nejmeh, with Ahed gaining popularity in recent years.
  While the Lebanon national team haven't won a major title internationally, in 2019 Ahed became the first Lebanese club to win the AFC Cup.
context_section_description: Lebanon hosted the 2000 AFC Asian Cup, with the national team finishing last in the group with only two points. From 2000, Nejmeh were the dominating force in Lebanon, winning five out of nine league titles until 2009. In 2005 they reached the final of the AFC Cup, becoming the first Lebanese side to do so. However they lost to Al-Faisaly 4–2 on aggregate. During the 2010s Ahed, who had only won one league title prior, won six league titles. In the 2010–11 season Ahed won the league, cup, Super Cup and Elite Cup, becoming the first team in Lebanon to accomplish both a treble and a quadruple. 
  After winning the 2018–19 Lebanese Premier League Ahed became the three-time defending champions, a feat accomplished only one other time, by Ansar in 1992. In 2018 the national team qualified for their first ever major tournament: the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. They won their first game in the tournament on 17 January 2019, against North Korea 4–1 in the group stage; however, they narrowly missed out on the knock-out stage on the fair play rule. On 4 November 2019, Ahed became the first Lebanese side to win the AFC Cup after defeating April 25 in the 2019 final. The LFA suspended operations on 21 January 2020 due to financial reasons amid the then-impending coronavirus pandemic; this resulted in the indefinite suspension of all football matches in Lebanon. The season was officially cancelled on 28 May 2020.
caption: Lebanon during the 2019 Asian Cup game against Saudi Arabia
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