The Macedonian First Football League (), also called Macedonian First League, 1. MFL, and Prva Liga, is the highest professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition in Macedonia. It is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Macedonian football league system and has been operating since the 1992–93 season. It is organized by the

Football Federation of Macedonia The Football Federation of Macedonia – FFM () or Football Federation of North Macedonia is the governing body of football in North Macedonia, based in Skopje. History FFM was officially formed as part of the Football Association of Yugoslavia ...

Format

Throughout the 1. MFL history, the number of clubs competing at the top level has been gradually decreased until the 2020–21 season. Below is a complete record of how many teams played in each season throughout the league's history:

The league has 12 teams, and each team plays the other sides three times, for a total of 33 matches each. Due to the UEFA ranking coefficients ranking (shown below), the winners of the league enter the 1st qualifying round of the Champions League, while the second and third placed teams enter the 1st qualifying round of the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

alongside the winner of the

Macedonian Football Cup The Cup of Macedonia (, ''Kup na Makedonija'') is the top knockout tournament and the second most important football competition in North Macedonia after the Macedonian First Football League, Macedonian First League championship. The cup was esta ...

. At the end of the season, the bottom 2 teams are relegated to the Macedonian Second League while the eighth placed team enter a play-off with the winner of the tie between second placed teams of the two groups in the Macedonian Second League.

UEFA rankings

UEFA country ranking for league participation in 2021–22 European football season (Previous year rank in italics) * 52 (''52'') Besta-deild karla * 53 (''48'') Macedonian First League * 54 (''53'')

Montenegrin First League The Montenegrin First League (Montenegrin language, Montenegrin: ''Prva crnogorska fudbalska liga'' — ''Prva CFL'' — ''1. CFL''; ), referred to as the Meridianbet 1. CFL for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional Association football, ...

* 55 (''55'')

Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio (English translation: Sammarinese Football Championship) is the highest competition for Association football, football clubs located at the only level of the San Marino, Sammarinese Football in San Marino, footb ...

Current teams (2024–25)

History

In 1923, the first national Yugoslav Football Championship was held, and regional championships were also played. The clubs of the

Vardar Banovina The Vardar Banovina, or Vardar Banate ( Macedonian and ; ), was a province ( banate) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. History It was located in the southernmost part of the country, encompassing the whole of today's North Mace ...

, territorially similar to present day Macedonia, played within the

Belgrade Football Subassociation The Belgrade Football Subassociation, commonly known by its initials, BLP ( Serbo-Croato-Slovenian: ''Beogradski loptački podsavez'' / Београдски лоптачки подсавез - БЛП) was one of the regional football governing bodie ...

league until 1927, when a separate Skoplje Football Subassociation league was formed. The champions of the subassociation leagues were granted a place in the qualifiers to the Yugoslav Championship. Gragjanski Skopje became the only Macedonian club to participate in the national league, first in 1935–36 when the championship was played in a cup format, and then in 1938–39, when it was played in a normal league system with Gragjanski finishing 10th out of 12 teams. In 1939, the Yugoslav league system was changed, with the creation of separate Serbian and Croato-Slovenian leagues which served as qualifying leagues for the final phase of the Yugoslav Championship. The clubs from the Skopje Subassociation aimed to qualify to the

Serbian League The Serbian League () is the third level football league in Serbia. It consists of four groups, namely Belgrade, East, Vojvodina, and West. The winner of each group earns promotion to the Serbian First League. History 1992–1995 In the summer o ...

, however only Gragjanski managed to participate, in 1939–40 (5th place) and 1940–41 (8th place).

List of seasons

Most titles

The titles won by clubs since independence are shown in the following table:

References

External links

Macedonian First League season standings and results
at

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

.com
Tables of the previous seasons
at MacedonianFootball.com
Football Federation of Macedonia
* {{UEFA leagues Sports leagues established in 1992 1992 establishments in the Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...