Emeraudian League of Arucian Football
Current season, competition or edition: 2023 Emeraudian League of Arucian Football season | |
 | |
| Formerly | National League |
|---|---|
| Sport | Arucian football |
| Founded | 1951 (as the National League) 1955 (as the Emeraudian League of Arucian Football) |
| Inaugural season | 1951 (as the National League) 1955 (as the LÉFA) 1962 (as a member of the AAF |
| Owner(s) | Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Entertainment of Île d'Émeraude (majority shareholder since 1973) |
| President | Daniel Deshommes |
| Commissioner | Henry Alcius |
| Divisions | 2 |
| No. of teams | 14 |
| Country |  Île d'Émeraude |
| Confederation | Arucian Football Association (Arucian) |
| Most recent champion(s) | Saint-Clair Sailors (2023) |
| Most titles | Port-au-Grégoire Pumas (15 time Coupe Dubois winners) |
| Domestic cup(s) | Coupe Dubois |
| International cup(s) | Arucian Cup |
The Emeraudian League of Arucian Football (Gaullican: Ligue Émeraudienne de Football Arucien), commonly known as simply the Emeraudian League (Gaullican: Ligue Émeraudienne) or the LÉFA, is the premier professional Arucian football league in Île d'Émeraude. Established in 1951 as the National League and transforming into its modern form in 1955, it has been a member league of the Arucian Football Association since 1962. The league is made up of 14 teams, which are split into 2 divisions; recently, however, the league has been exploring the option of adding two new expansion teams.
Arucian football was first introduced to Île d'Émeraude during the 1880's, having developed in the West Arucian in previous decades. Over time, it would progressively become more popular, especially among the lower and middle classes of the island. By 1910, it had become popular enough for numerous semi-professional and amateur teams to pop up all over the island, though these teams played on a largely unorganized basis due to team owners being unwilling to shoulder the costs of full professionalization and generally low ticket sale income. An attempt was made to establish a professional league, the original National League, in 1912. However, financial challenges exacerbated by the Great Collapse in 1915 caused the league to fold after only playing 4 seasons. Following the Great War, sports in Île d'Émeraude experienced a postwar renaissance as they would experience a general rise in popularity. Through the late 1930's and the 1940's, sports would continue to grow into a cultural force to be reckoned with, and demand for the creation of professional sports leagues skyrocketed. in response to this, discussion for the creation of a professional Arucian football league began in 1949, and it resulted in the original 8 teams agreeing to form a league in 1950; the league would be officially established as the National League and would play its first season in 1951.
Early in it's history, the new National League functioned as a loose confederation of autonomous teams, and the central authority was not given much power outside of setting the rules and schedule. As a result, teams were able to get away with a plethora of things, most notably exploiting the players by forcing them to compete on subpar fields, use poor quality uniforms, and accept the literal bare minimum in salary. This would cause mass dissatisfaction among the players, which would grow over the next coupple of seasons. By 1954, the players had been seriously considering unionizing and had even threatened to go on strike. At that point the central authority stepped in and recommended revisiting the league constitution. After a convention in 1955, the National League would end up adopting an entirely new constitution that established a more powerful central authority that protected the players and enforced higher standards of professional equipment and fields. This new constitution also reorganized the National League into the Emeraudian League of Arucian Football, which played its first season that summer. The league would go on to join the Arucian Football Association in 1962 after mutual interest from both parties. The league was the first from outside the former United Provinces to join the AAF.
The league experienced rapid growth in the 1970's, with the league adding 4 new teams by 1980. The Sugar Crash and associated economic hardships limited growth in the 1980's, but the league would rebound, expanding to the current 14 team format in 1996. With a recent increase in popularity through the 2010's, the league would announce that it was considering expanding to 16 sometime in the 2020's.