Chad Premier League (French: Ligue Nationale de Football, also known as LINAFOOT) is a Chadian league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Chadian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 12 clubs, it is organized under the play-off formula.
Unlike the 1st LINAFOOT edition (in 2015) organised as a full national championship and won by Gazelle FC, the last four editions were organized under the play-off formula.
Chadian football has always been followed by the financial difficulties, making it hard to organise the competitions. For years, the main resource was the aid of one million dollars every four years by the FIFA. This aid was completely being engulfed in the organization of national and regional competitions. The national championship was being played in two stages. The first stage was the regional championship with teams from the same prefecture. The second stage was national championship, a sort of tournament between the 14 champions of the 14 prefectures.[2] The format of competition and a number of teams, however, was being changed from time to time. From season 2010 to 2014 the first division consisted of clubs from N'Djamena only. Championship is being played over a short time, usually within a week and held alongside the national cup. The leagues run over a whole year.
2010-2014
The season 2010 was the first one (out of five) to include the teams from N'Djamena only. The league was called Ligue de N'Djamena, too. The participating teams were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Elect-sport, Foullah, Gazelle, Postel 2000, RFC, Toumai, Tourbillon and USM.
Tourbillon FC were the champions with 38 points, 4 more than league runners-up Gazelle FC.
The last placed team (USM) was relegated to D2, while the 9th team (Postel 2000) played relegation playoff. Postel 2000 played against D2 runner-up, Saccoger, and won 1–0, so both teams remained at previous level.
Season 2011 was the second one to include teams from N'Djamena only. The participating teams were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Elect-sport, Foullah, Gazelle, Geyser, Postel 2000, RFC, Toumai and Tourbillon.
Foullah Edifice were the champions with 43 points, 8 more than league runners-up Tourbillon.
The last placed team (Geyser) was relegated to D2, while the 9th team (Toumai) played relegation playoff. Toumai stayed in the league, however they did not enter the 2012 season, so the next league edition had 9 teams only.[3]
The participating teams in 2012 were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Elect-sport, Foullah, Gazelle, GGMIA, Postel 2000, RFC and Tourbillon.
Gazelle were league champions; GGMIA were relegated to D2.
The participating teams in 2013 were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Elect-sport, Farcha, Foullah, Gazelle, Postel 2000, RFC, Tourbillon and USM.
Foullah were 2013 league champions; USM were relegated to D2.
The participating teams in 2014 were: ASCOT, DGSSIE, Eglise 12, Elect-sport, Farcha, Foullah, Gazelle, Postel 2000, RFC and Tourbillon.
Foullah were 2014 league champions; DGSSIE, Eglise 12, Farcha, Postel 2000 and Tourbillon were relegated to D2.
In season 2016 championship was interrupted after only 5 rounds, and no Chadian clubs represented the country in continental competitions.
Following financial difficulties and the lack of sponsors, FTFA decided to implement the new format of the national championship, which would lower the costs. In 2017 FIFA proposed to FTFA a new championship format, which FTFA accepted. The new formula of the national football championship took place in two phases. The first phase, called a zonal phase, consistsed of three zones. Zone 1 consisted of six clubs from N'Djamena (RFC, Gazelle, Tourbillon, Elect-Sport, Foullah Ediffice and Ascot), Zone 2 consisted of the clubs from Sarh, Koumra, Doba, Moundou, Pala and Bongor, Zone 3 included the clubs of Moussoro, Ati, Biltine, Mongo, Salamat and Abéché. At the end of the zonal confrontations, three clubs in Zone 2 and Zone 3 have joined the 4 qualifiers in Zone 1 for the second phase of the championship.[1] The 5th and 6th of the final ranking should have been officially relegated to lower division.
The 2018 LINAFOOT was the 2nd season of the LINAFOOT. The season started on 15 September 2018 and concluded on 7 October 2018. The twelve teams were divided into two groups of six teams.[8][9][10] The matches were played at three stadiums: Stade d'Académie de Farcha, Stade Omnisports Idriss Mahamat Ouya and Stade de Paris-Congo.[11] All matches were being played at 03:30 p.m. local time. Elect-Sport FC won their fifth Chadian title. Abou Deco (AS CotonTchad) was the league topscorer with 14 goals; Mbangousoum Éric was voted the best player; Francis Oumar Belonga (Elect-Sport FC) was voted the best coach.
The 2019 LINAFOOT was the 3rd season of the LINAFOOT. Elect-Sport FC won their sixth Chadian title. Goyam César (Avenir Sarh) was the league topscorer with 10 goals; Brahim Ngaroudal was voted the best player; Adoum Deffallah (Elect-Sport FC) was voted best goalkeeper; Francis Oumar Belonga (Elect-Sport FC) was voted the best coach.[12]
The 2020 LINAFOOT was the 4th season of the LINAFOOT. Delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the season started on 27 September 2020 and concluded on 8 October 2020. Gazelle won their fourth Chadian title.
Since its formation, the league went through many changes in its system and number of participating clubs. The new formula of the national football championship takes place in two phases. The first phase is called a zonal phase, and consists of zones. At the end of the zonal confrontations, clubs start the second phase of the championship.[1] The tournament consists of a group stage and a final. The group stage is divided into two groups, A and B, with six teams each. First team from each group advances to the final. Winner of the final is crowned champion. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss.
CAF Champions League is open to the winners of all CAF-affiliated national leagues. From the 2004 competition the runner-up of the league of the 12 highest-ranked countries also entered the tournament creating a 64-team field. The 12 countries would be ranked on the performance of their clubs in the previous 5 years. As Chad is not among the best 12 countries, it has only one spot in this competition.
From the top twelve placed CAF member associations, the winner of the domestic cup and the third placed club in the domestic league of the considered associations, are eligible to participate in the CAF Confederation Cup, while only domestic cup winners from member associations ranked from 13 till 55 are eligible to participate in the competition. As Chad is not among the 12 best placed countries, it has only one spot in this competition.
Premier League clubs in international competition
Chadian clubs started to participate in African competitions in 1990, with RFC N'Djamena being the first Chadian club to enter the African Cup of Champions Clubs.
Chadian clubs have never won either Champions League or Confederations Cup. The best result they have achieved was first round of Champions League (RFC N'Djamena in 1990, Elect-Sport in 1991, POSTEL 2000 in 1996, ASCOT N'Djamena in 1997, Tourbillon in 1992, 1998 and 2002, Gazelle in 2010).
Sponsorship
In July 2014 it was announced that mobile operator Airtel signed a deal with FTFA and became its official sponsor. The goal was improving the football in Chad. Airtel has already signed deals with a lot of African football federations.[14]
Finances
Le Fonds National de Développement du Sport (FNDS) is the fond for the development of sports in Chad. It finances national football league among the others. For the season 2014, the FNDS marked off 300 million FCFA.[15] Chadian league faced many financial problems during the years. The national league was interrupted a few times because of this. Season 2015 was suspended for financial reasons,[16][17] but it resumed after 2 and a half months, after some amount of money was paid by Federation.[18]
