al-Ittihad (Tripoli)

al-Ittihad
	al-Ittihad
Basic data
Surname	al-Ittihad Tripoli
Seat	Tripoli
founding	1944
president	Abdul Majeed Salah
First soccer team
Head coach	Baltemar Brito
Venue	June 11th Stadium
Places	67,000
league	Premier League
2016	4th group stage
home	Away

al-Ittihad ( Arabic الاتحاد الليبي, DMG al-Ittiḥād al-Lībī 'the Libyan Union') is the largest Libyan sports club . The club colors are red and white.

Departments

The club has a volleyball , handball and basketball department , the teams of which are all in the top division. In addition, smaller sports are practiced in the club. But since football has the highest priority in Libya , the football team is also most strongly represented in this club. Ittihad also has one of the largest football fan communities in Libya, which is very European-oriented.

history

The association from the Libyan capital is officially founded in 1944, making it one of the oldest associations in the North African Mediterranean state.

The soccer team celebrated 16 championships and five national cup victories in the First Libyan Soccer League, which has existed since 1963 . The club was also able to attract attention internationally in the 1980s in the African and Arab Champions League with a good performance, making it the most successful Libyan football club internationally. The club is well known in the Arab world of sports and in Italy. al-Ittihad Tripoli maintains close contacts, for example, with the Italian clubs Lazio Rome , AC Milan and Juventus Turin . However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s there were problems with being represented internationally (political isolation of Libya). With the reintegration of Libya into the world community at the end of the 1990s, the association was able to attack again internationally in the new millennium.

In the 2006/07 season, the club reached the round of 16 in the Arab Champions League, where they failed on penalties (1: 0, 1: 0) against the strong Egyptian representative Zamalek Cairo . In the 2007 season al-Ittihad was in the semi-finals of the African Champions League .

Status

The club is very polarizing and controversial in Libya. One part of Libyan football fans despises Ittihad and the other part adores the club. The association was under the strong influence of the former (de facto) President of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi . His son Saadi , who himself played for Perugia Calcio in Italy and has good contacts with Silvio Berlusconi (owner of AC Milan and Prime Minister of Italy), sat on the board of al-Ittihad Tripoli, which also meant that Ittihad for a while from the referees in the league was given an advantage. There is a great rivalry between the club and the smaller city club Al-Ahly Tripoli .

Traditionally, al-Ittihad provides the framework of players for the Libyan national team . However, there are also players from Brazil and other African countries under contract with Ittihad.

Stadion

The soccer team plays their home games in the stadium “ Stadion des 11 Juni ”, which can hold around 67,000 spectators . However, a new stadium based on the model of modern European, multifunctional arenas is under construction.

successes

National successes

Libyan Masters ( 16 ): 1965, 1966, 1969, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Libyan Cup :
- Winner ( 6 ): 1992, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009
- Finalist ( 2 ): 1988, 1994
Libyan Supercup winners ( 10 ): 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010