LIGA ALEF

'Liga Alef' (Hebrew: 'ליגה א) is the fourth tier of the Israeli football league system. Its name translates as ''A League''.

Contents

History

Structure

Current members

Liga Alef North

Liga Alef South

Previous Seasons

Northern Division

Southern Division

History

League football started in Israel in 1949-50, a year after independence. However, the financial and security crises gripping the young nation caused the 1950-1 season to be abandoned before it had started. When football resumed in 1951-2, the new top division went by the name of Liga Alef. The 1952-3 season was also not played, and Liga Alef resumed in 1953-4.
The following season, Liga Leumit came into existence as the new top division, with Liga Alef becoming the second division. In the summer of 1974, restructuring saw the creation of Liga Artzit as a new second tier, and the second demotion of Liga Alef, as it became the third division. Further restructuring to create Ligat Ha'Al in the summer of 1999 saw Liga Alef demoted again, this time to the fourth tier, the position it holds today.

Structure

Today, Liga Alef is split into two regional divisions on a north-south basis. Due to the fact that Israel's northern half is much more densely populated than the desert south, the dividing line between the northern and southern divisions is somewhere between Haifa and Tel Aviv, meaning that the southern "half" covers about three-quarters of the country. Although this inequality is partially offset by the fact that there are so few clubs south of Beersheba (Arad, Dimona, Yeroham, Mitzpe Ramon and Eilat are the only sizable towns south of the city, and currently only Hapoel Arad are in Liga Alef), the northern clubs tend to be clustered in the Galilee region, making travel to away matches much less of a chore.
Each division has fourteen clubs, who play each other home and away to make a 26-game season. The club finishing top of each regional division is promoted to Liga Artzit. The bottom two from each division are relegated to Liga Bet, the fifth tier. Coming into Liga Alef are the two clubs relegated from Liga Artzit and the four clubs promoted from Liga Bet (the winner of each of the four regional divisions). The clubs are then pooled and assigned to the most geographically appropriate of the two divisions.

Current members

Liga Alef North

★ Ahua Haifa

★ Beitar Haifa

★ Beitar Safed

★ Hapoel Afula

★ Hapoel Asi Gilboa

★ Hapoel Bnei Jadida

★ Hapoel Kfar Kana

★ Hapoel Kfar Mesia

★ Hapoel Makar

★ Hapoel Reina

★ Hapoel Umm Al Fahm

★ Maccabi Ma'alot

★ Maccabi Shlomi/Naharia

★ Maccabi Tzur Shalom

Liga Alef South

★ A.S. Jaffa

★ Hapoel Arad

★ Hapoel Kfar Shelem

★ Hapoel Katamon

★ Hapoel Nahlat Yehuda

★ Ironi Bat Yam

★ Ironi Ofakim

★ Ironi Ramla

★ Maxim Lod

★ Maccabi Amishav Petah Tikva

★ Maccabi Kiryat Gat

★ Maccabi Yavne

★ Kiryat Gat/Kiryat Malachi

★ Tzafririm Holon

Previous Seasons

Northern Division

Season	Winner	Relegated
2000-1	Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Maccabi Ospia, Hapoel Iksal
2001-2	Kfar Semia	Tzairi Nakhaf, Hapoel Horfish
2002-3	Hapoel Herzliya	Hapoel Hadera, Hapoel Taibe
2003-4	Maccabi Hadera¹	Ironi Shlomi, Migdal HaEmek
2004-5	Maccabi Tzur Shalom	Hapoel Tuva, Maccabi Tura'an
2005-6	Hapoel Bnei Tamra	Hapoel Beit She'an, Maccabi Shafra'am
2006-7	Hapoel Bnei Jadida	Hapoel Reina, Maccabi Ma'alot

¹ Maccabi Hadera folded in the summer of 2004. Maccabi Tirat Carmel (who had finished in second place) were promoted in their place.

Southern Division

Season	Winner	Relegated
2000-1	Maccabi Yavne	Tzairi Jaffa, Sektzia Nes Tziona
2001-2	Maccabi Ramat Amidar	Hapoel Lod, Ma'aleh Adumim
2002-3	Hapoel Tira	Beitar Kiryat Gat, AS Ramat Eliahu
2003-4	Maccabi Beersheba	Hapoel Bat Yam, Mevaserret Tzion
2004-5	Hapoel Bnei Lod	Hapoel Kalanswa'a, Hapoel Jaljulia
2005-6	Sektzia Nes Tziona	Maccabi Kfar Kassem, Beitar Givat Ze'ev
2006-7	Maxim Lod	AS Jaffa, Hapoel Arad