The Ligue Elite is the top professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 inline hockey

Inline hockey

Inline hockey, often referred to as roller hockey in the United States, is a sport similar to ice hockey but played with inline skates. Like its parent sport, skaters on two teams use hockey sticks to direct a disk-shaped puck into the opponent's goal; however, various details of the game, such as...

 league

Sports league

League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The Championnat de France is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season

Season (sports)

In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an...

.

Game

Each Ligue Elite regulation game is an inline hockey game played between two teams and is 50 minutes long. The game is composed of two 25-minute halves with an intermission of ten minutes between halves. At the end of the 50-minute regulation time, the team with the most goals wins the game. If a game is tied after regulation time, the game ends in a tie.

Ties do not occur during the playoffs. In the Coupe de France, if a game is tied after regulation time, overtime ensues. Overtime is a five-minute, four-player on four-player sudden-death period, in which the first team to score a goal wins the game. If the game is still tied at the end of overtime, the game enters a shootout. Five players for each team in turn take a penalty shot. The team with the most goals during the five-round shootout wins the game. If the game is still tied after the five shootout rounds, the shootout continues but becomes sudden death. Whichever team ultimately wins the shootout is awarded a goal in the game score.

Inline hockey rink

Ligue Elite games are played on a rectangular inline hockey rink with rounded corners surrounded by walls. The rink can measure between 40 and 60 meters (131.23 and 196.85 ft) in length, and between 20 and 30 meters (65.62 and 98.43 ft) in width. The proportion between the length and width must comply with a ratio of two-to-one. The ideal size of the rink is 50 by 25 meters (164 by 82 ft). The center line divides the floor in half. Near the end of both ends of the rink, there is a thin red goal line spanning the width of the floor, which is used to judge goals.

Rules

The Ligue Elite follows the general rules of inline hockey

Inline hockey

Inline hockey, often referred to as roller hockey in the United States, is a sport similar to ice hockey but played with inline skates. Like its parent sport, skaters on two teams use hockey sticks to direct a disk-shaped puck into the opponent's goal; however, various details of the game, such as...

, although it differs slightly from those used in international games organized by the International Roller Sports Federation

International Roller Sports Federation

The International Roller Sports Federation or Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports is the world governing body for roller sports, including rink hockey, inline hockey, Inline speed skating and artistic roller skating...

 (FIRS) such as the World Championships

FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships

The FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships are an annual inline hockey tournament organized by the International Inline Roller Hockey Committee under the International Roller Sports Federation . First officially held at the 1995 World Championships, it is the sport's highest profile annual...

.

List of teams

Team	City/Area	Arena	Founded	Promoted	Head Coach	Captain
Écureuils d'Amiens	Amiens Amiens Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy... , Somme Somme Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....	Veillère
Hawks d'Angers	Angers Angers Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins.... , Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire is a department in west-central France, in the Pays de la Loire region.- History :Maine-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally it was called Mayenne-et-Loire, but its name was changed to Maine-et-Loire in 1791....
Artzak Anglet	Anglet Anglet Anglet is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in Aquitaine in south-western France. The town's name is pronounced [ãglet]; i.e... , Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques is a department in the southwest of France which takes its name from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.- History :...	Salle du Pignada			Olivier Dimet
Conquérants de Caen	Caen Caen Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel.... , Calvados Calvados The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...	La Halle des granges
Yeti's Grenoble	Grenoble Grenoble Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère... , Isère Isère Isère is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France named after the river Isère.- History :Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné...
Anges Nice	Nice Nice Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of... , Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes is a department in the extreme southeast corner of France.- History : was created by Octavian as a Roman military district in 14 BC, and became a full Roman province in the middle of the 1st century with its capital first at Cemenelum and subsequently at Embrun...
Diables de Rethel	Rethel, Ardennes	Salle André Chausson
Spiders de Rouen	Rouen Rouen Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages... , Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime is a French department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre...	MJC MJC MJC is a short form which may refer to:*Modesto Junior College, in Modesto, California, USA*Meridian Junior College, in Singapore*Muslim Judicial Council, in South Africa...			Yohann Labreux
Hockline Toulouse	Tournefeuille Tournefeuille Tournefeuille is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Toulouse, and is adjacent to it on the west side. It is a member of the Grand Toulouse.-Population:-Sport:... , Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. Its main city is Toulouse.-History:Haute-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.The...
Fous du Bitume Villeneuve	Villeneuve-la-Garenne Villeneuve-la-Garenne Villeneuve-la-Garenne is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris in the Hauts-de-Seine department in the Île-de-France region.-History:... , Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine is designated number 92 of the 101 départements in France. It is part of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris...

Season structure

The Ligue Elite season is divided into a regular season (from mid September through mid April) and a postseason (the Championnat de France). During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. The Championnat de France, which goes from end of April to the middle of June, is an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a best-of-three series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the Champions de France.

In the regular season, each team plays 18 games; nine games at home and nine on the road. Each team plays each other team in the Ligue Elite twice (one game at home and one on the road). Points are awarded for each game, where three points are awarded for a win, one point for a tie, and zero points for a loss.

At the end of the regular season, six teams with the highest number of points qualify for the playoff

Playoff

The playoffs, postseason, or finals of a sports league are a game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, usually but not always with a single-elimination system, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade.In the U.S...

s. Teams are seeded one through six based on their records. The Championnat de France playoffs is an elimination tournament

Tournament

A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...

, where two teams battle to win a best-of-three series in order to advance to the next round. The first and second seeded teams receive first round byes to the second round. The first round of the playoffs, or quarterfinals, consists of the third seed playing the sixth seed, and the fourth playing the fifth. In the second round, or semifinals, the first seed plays against the winner of the third and sixth place series, and the second seed playing the winner of the fourth and fifth place series. In the third round, or Championnat de France, the two remaining teams play each other for the championship.

In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-floor advantage

Home team

In team sports, the term home advantage describes the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans...

. Two of the three games are played at this team's home venue—the second and, when necessary, the third games—with the first game played at the lower-ranked team's home venue.

See also

• Coupe de France (inline hockey)
• Coupe d'Europe
• Nationale 1
• Nationale 2
• Nationale 3
• Ligue Nationale Féminine