The Lebanese Flying Disc Association (LFDA) organized an international ultimate tournament at Sandy Beach in Chekka last weekend. The discipline, which is not professional in Lebanon, still has neither a federation nor a national championship, as it suffers from a lack of funding and state support.
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Ultimate, originally known as ultimate frisbee, is a mixed team sport (boys and girls play together on the same team) that first appeared around the world in 1967. It was developed by students at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, USA. The aim was to create a new sport based on the original values of Olympism. In practice, there are no referees: each player is responsible for ensuring that the rules are respected. Physical contact is not permitted.
Ultimate pits 2 teams of 7 players against each other using either a disc or Frisbee. To score points, players must advance across the field in successive passes toward the opponent’s end zone, much like in rugby. The most common version of this sport (7 vs. 7), known as “classic”, is played outdoors on a grass pitch. But it can also be played on an indoor handball court or on the beach (2 teams of 5 players). Depending on the variant – beach or indoor – the size of the pitch can change, thus slightly modifying the rules of the game.
Ultimate has several categories of play: the Open division, often equated with the men’s category – which does not, however, officially exist; the women’s division and the mixed division (4 men/3 women or 4 women/3 men per team). And, as in all sports, there are age categories: Junior, Adult, Master and Grand Master. There’s also a wheelchair-friendly version: wheelchair ultimate. A game lasts 100 minutes. However, the first team to reach 15 points wins, even before the end of regulation time. There are also 13-point variants, depending on the type of competition or category. If at the end of regulation time no team has scored 15 points, the score to be reached is the highest +1 point: this is known as the “cap à un”, within the 15-point limit.
Since 2015 in Lebanon
This discipline was introduced in Lebanon in March 2015, imported by expatriates. Since then, it has seen very little development despite the interest and enthusiasm it generates – particularly among young people – remaining at the amateur stage, given the difficult conditions in Lebanon between political crisis and economic stagnation. Although officially registered as a sport with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, ultimate is not federated in Lebanon, as there are no clubs that integrate the discipline into their activities.
However, in 2015, the American University of Beirut (AUB) created a team with the help of expatriates who introduced the sport to Lebanon. Other teams followed, albeit too few in number, notably at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Balamand (ALBA) and the Lebanese American University (LAU). In an attempt to channel and promote ultimate in the country, the Lebanese Flying Disc Association (LFDA) came into being in 2017, immediately affiliating with the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF).
Since then, the LFDA – which is not a federation, just an association – headed by Roudy Mallah (president) and Rayan Saadeh (vice president), has worked tirelessly to develop its discipline. Without much success, however, as it receives no financial support from the State or the relevant authorities. “The financing of players and teams (to buy equipment and training materials) is done on a personal basis, with everyone paying for themselves,” Saadeh explained. “We don’t receive any help from the Ministry of Youth and Sports.” However, “in 2022, teams from Kuwait were kind enough to send us material aid,” LFDA vice president said.
Credit video: Yara Abou Chedid
Only four teams
“There are four teams in Lebanon competing in international tournaments: two university teams and two non-university teams,” Saadeh explained. However, new teams have just been formed by friends who are passionate about ultimate, such as the Mawj Riders, who play the sport as a hobby until they can take part in international tournaments. The four teams mentioned by Rayan Saadé each have around 20 players in their ranks, making a total of 80 players. More generally, however, there are around 200 players (boys and girls combined) in Lebanon, with boys generally outnumbering girls.
“As there are no officially registered clubs, these teams train on their own to take part in international tournaments,” says Rayan Saadé, adding: “Consequently, without clubs, we don’t have pitches dedicated to training players. This makes our preparations very difficult. Even if any soccer pitch will do, access is not free and we can’t always afford it.”
With no federation or league to speak of, there is no Lebanese Ultimate Championship, or even team rankings. “Given the small number of teams (four), we don’t have the opportunity to create a Lebanese championship or have an official ranking based on results,” Saadeh explained. “But that doesn’t stop us from organizing friendly tournaments – twice a week – and international tournaments,” he adds. International tournaments like the one organized by the Lebanese Flying Disc Association on Saturday, June 10 and Sunday, June 11 at Sandy Beach, in Chekka, in the North of Lebanon. The competition was won by the Cypriot team Elia, and the final ranking was as follows:
1. Elia (Cyprus)
2. Surfing Cedars
3. Floppy Disc (Jordan)
4. Sandy Cedars
5. AUB 1
6. Beirut Blitz
7. Bobcats
8. LAU
9. AUB 2
10. Mawj Riders.
“Tournaments in Lebanon are non-professional competitions, played on an amateur basis. Just like the last Chekka tournament,” Rayan Saadeh said.
“We also have a winter and a spring tournament every year,” he added.
“We don’t represent the country”
The four Lebanese teams taking part in international tournaments, including the Beirut Blitz and the Flying Cedars, are particularly involved in the MENA Tournament – the championship for Middle Eastern and North African countries. They have yet to take part in a World Championship and participate only in regional tournaments such as the MENA or in Europe. What’s more, they don’t represent Lebanon but play as a single team. “We don’t represent the country, we don’t have a national team or a coach. We play in foreign national championships as independent teams – Flying Cedars, Beirut Blitz or AUB,” Saadeh insisted.
In an ultimate competition, there are two types of victory: winning the match itself and the trophy for best sportsmanship. At the end of a tournament, the teams vote for each other, and the team with the most votes is awarded the sportsmanship trophy. “Lebanese teams have twice won the Sportsmanship Trophy in regional tournaments: the first in 2019 in Egypt, and the second in 2023, also in Egypt,” Saadeh said.
As for match victories, “given that we don’t have enough teams and knowing the difficulties we encounter in training due to a lack of continuity and follow-up, we find it difficult when we play against better-trained teams who train more regularly (two or three times a week) thanks to their federation and their country, which support them. Our best rankings are 5th/10th or 7th/14th in most of the tournaments we take part in, so we’re generally in the middle of the table,” LFDA vice president concluded.
