The Kategoria Superiore, officially known as Abissnet Superiore for sponsorship reasons, is a professional league for men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

clubs. At the top of the Albanian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 10 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the

Kategoria e Parë Kategoria e Parë is the second level of professional football in Albania, behind the Kategoria Superiore and above the Kategoria e Dytë. Format Kategoria e Parë was founded in 1930. It is made up of 14 teams. The 2 best ranked teams gain promo ...

. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 36 matches each (playing each team in the league four times, twice at home and twice away). The competition was founded in 1930 as the Albanian National Championship during the reign of

King Zog King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the t ...

, shortly after the creation of the

Albanian Football Association The Albanian Football Association ( sq, Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit; FSHF) is the governing body of football in Albania. The association is based in Tirana, Albania. It organises the national football leagues of the Albanian Superliga, the F ...

. Since 1930, 45 clubs have competed in recognised competitions, while only nine clubs have won the title:

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

(26),

Dinamo Tirana Futboll Club Dinamo Tirana is an Albanian professional football club based in the country's capital Tirana. They play in the Kategoria e Parë, the second tier of Albanian football, in the 2022–23 season. Founded in 1950 during the communist r ...

(18), Partizani (16), Vllaznia (9),

Skënderbeu , reign = 28 November 1443 – 17 January 1468 , predecessor = Gjon Kastrioti , successor = Gjon Kastrioti II , spouse = Donika Arianiti , issue = Gjon Kastrioti II , royal house = Kastrioti , father ...

(8), Elbasani (2),

Teuta Teuta ( Illyrian: *''Teutana'', 'mistress of the people, queen'; grc, Τεύτα; lat, Teuta) was the queen regent of the Ardiaei tribe in Illyria, who reigned approximately from 231 BC to 228/227 BC. Following the death of her spouse Agr ...

(2), Flamurtari (1), and Kukësi (1). The current champions are

, who won their 26th title in 2021–22.

History

Early history

Football was first introduced to Albania by an English-Maltese priest named Gut Ruter, who visited the Saverian college in

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra) is the fifth-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. The city sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Shko ...

in 1908. The first football club in Albania was Indipendenca, founded in Shkodër in 1912 by Palokë Nika. The first 90-minute game to be played with two 45 minute halves took place in October 1913 between Indipendenca Shkodër and the occupying Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy. The game is considered to be the first international game to be played in Albania, and it ended in a 2–1 loss for Indipendenca, with the captain and founder of the club Palokë Nika scoring the only goal for the Albanians.

World War II championships

Albania was invaded by Italy in April 1939 and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

soon broke out, meaning the

, much like the other organisations in the country, ceased operating. Despite the war, three championships were held between 1939 and 1942, with

winning the championships in

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

and

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in w ...

and Shkodra winning in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

. Despite calls to recognise these championships, the

maintains the position that the championships were not organised by them and cannot be formally recognised.

Names

Records

Most points in a season 84 points. KF Tirana (2004–05) Most points without winning the league title 79 points. KF Elbasani (2004–05) First Albanian team to qualify for a European competition. KF Skenderbeu (2017–18) Europa League First Albanian team to qualify for The Champions League. KF Vllaznia Women (2022–23)

Competition format

Since the 2014–15 Kategoria Superiore, the league consists of 10 clubs, who face each other four times in a conventional

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...

for a total of 36 matches. At the end of the season, the two lowest-placed teams are

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

to the

, while two highest-placed teams of the Kategoria e Parë are promoted in their place. The 8th ranked team qualifies to the play-off round, which they play against the Kategoria e Parë play-off winner. Teams are ranked by total points, then head-to-head record, then goal difference, and then goals scored.

Clubs (2022–2023)

Current members

The following teams are competing in the Kategoria Superiore during the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season.

List of champions

Since 1930, the competition has not been played a total of 9 times: 1935, 1938–44, 1949, 1962. Furthermore, the champion award was not given during the 1968–69 season.

Performance by club

* Tirana and Vllaznia would have accordingly 28 and 10 titles, if the three seasons played during WW2 are officially recognised from

AFA Afa or AFA may refer to: Mythology and religion *Afa (mythology), in the Polynesian mythology of Samoa * Afá, a West African religion, also known as Ifá in some languages Governmental * Agence française anticorruption, the French Anti-Corrupti ...

All time table

The all-time table of football clubs that have participated in the Kategoria Superiore, prior to the 2021–2022 season. The ranking is based on the total accumulated points by each club. Teams in bold are part of the 2022–23 season.Shifrat e 79 Kampionateve

UEFA rankings

Current rankings (2022–23)

UEFA Country Ranking for league participation in 2022–23 European football season (Previous year rank in italics). * 37

(''42'')

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Premier Division ( ga, Príomhroinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is the top level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland ...

* 38

(''39'')

Macedonian First Football League The Macedonian First Football League ( mk, Прва македонска фудбалска лига, ''Prva Мakedonska Fudbalska Liga''), also called Macedonian First League, 1. MFL, and Prva Liga, is the highest professional football competitio ...

* 39

(''36'')

Armenian Premier League The Armenian Premier League ( hy, VBET Հայաստանի Պրեմիեր Լիգա, known as the VBET Armenian Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is the top football competition in Armenia. From 1936 to 1991, the competition was held as a re ...

* 40

(''37'')

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is O ...

* 41

(''38'') Kategoria Superiore * 42

(''48'')

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the North ...

* 43

(''44'')

Erovnuli Liga The Erovnuli Liga ( ka, ეროვნული ლიგა - lit. National League) is the top division of professional football in Georgia. Since 1990, it has been organized by the Professional Football League of Georgia and Georgian Football ...

* 44

(''43'')

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

* 45

(''41'')

Moldovan National Division The Moldovan Super Liga is an association football league that is currently the top division of Moldovan football league system. The competition was established in 1992, when the country became independent from the Soviet Union. It was formed in ...

References

Notes Citations {{UEFA leagues 1

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...