The Jamaica Premier League (formerly the National Premier League), commonly abbreviated as JPL and officially known as the Wray and Nephew Jamaica Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is sanctioned by the Jamaican Football Federation as the top division for men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. Contested between 14 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the JFF Championship. Most games are played on Sunday afternoons and Monday evenings ''(Monday Night Football)''.

History

The Jamaica Premier League was formed in 1973 to serve as the top tier of Jamaican professional club football. The league's inaugural season kicked off on September 22, 1973 as the ''Craven A National Club League Championships'', and finished with Santos as the first title winners. 14 clubs have been crowned champions of Jamaica.

Portmore United Portmore United Football Club is a Jamaican professional football team in the top flight Jamaica Premier League. With 7 Jamaica Premier League titles, 5 JFF Champions Cup and 2 Caribbean Club Championships, Portmore United is the most decorat ...

is the most successful team with 7 top flight titles. The 2019–20 season was ruled null and void on March 12, 2020 due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Later in 2020, Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) began managing the league with its focus being the commercialization and marketing of professional football in the country. In May 2021, the Jamaican Football Federation announced that the league would resume, playing a shortened season between June and September, competed by the 12 teams from the previous season. In June 2021, UWI FC announced it would withdraw ahead of the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

due to the modified schedule conflicting with other player commitments; leaving 11 teams in the competition. Montego Bay United was promoted to the league at the start of the

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

season, restoring the league to 12 teams. Also in 2022, the league entered an agreement with

Admiral Sportswear Admiral is an English sportswear brand, with a manufacturing emphasis on clothing for association football. Founded in 1914 in Leicester, Admiral is one of the oldest sports brands in the UK and was originally an undergarment brand but switche ...

to supply kits to all teams in the league. The league was expanded to 14 teams for the 2022–23 season.

Competition format

The Jamaica Premier League's regular season typically runs from late August to May the following year. The competition is divided into two stages; the single table

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

and the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. The regular season is contested in a round robin format with three rounds for a total of 39 matches for each team. The top six clubs contend for the championship in the playoffs, the first and second place regular season finishers advance directly to the semifinals and the third to sixth place teams advance to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals and semifinals are played in a two legged, home and away, format with the winner decided on aggregate. The finals and third place matches are contested as a single leg match. The bottom two regular season finishers are relegated and replaced the next season by the top two finishers of the JFF Championship.

Clubs

2024–25 clubs

All-time table

The following is the historical table of the Jamaica Premier League from the professional era in the 2001-02 season up to the concluded 2023-24 season. Table does not include matches played in the playoff stages.

Champions

By season

Since the inaugural 1973-74 season, 14 teams have claimed the Jamaica Premier League title. As of 2024–25 season,

Cavalier The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...

successfully defended their title, making this their fourth league title overall.

By club

Portmore United is the league’s most successful club having won 7 league titles and finishing runners-up 5 times.

By parish

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

and

St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

are the most successful parishes with 30 top flight titles won by 7 clubs from Kingston’s metropolitan area. No club from rural St. Andrew has won the league. St. James is the next best parish with 8 league titles won by 3 clubs. Two of their title winners, Violet Kickers and Wadadah, have since fell from grace and compete in the lower divisions.

Hazard United Portmore United Football Club is a Jamaican professional football team in the top flight Jamaica Premier League. With 7 Jamaica Premier League titles, 5 JFF Champions Cup and 2 Caribbean Club Championships, Portmore United is the most decorat ...

won 2 league titles while based in Clarendon before the club relocated to St. Catherine and rebranded as Portmore United. No club from the parishes of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

, St. Elizabeth,

St. Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, St. Thomas nor Trelawny have won the league.

Statistics

Top scorers

All-time goalscorers

Hat-tricks

Records

Players

;Most goals by a player in a single season * 25 goals ** Christopher Nicholas ( 2004–05) ;Most goals by a player in a single game * 10 goals ** Devon Hodges ( Rivoli United) 15–0 against Invaders United, 29 May 2005. Source
JPL Statistics

Clubs

Longest winning run * 12 consecutive wins ** Mount Pleasant ( 2024–25)

Regional competitions

The top two finishers in a given season qualify for the

CONCACAF Caribbean Cup The CONCACAF Caribbean Cup is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top regional tournament for clubs from the Caribbean. Beginning with the inaugural edition in 2023, the new competition serves as a quali ...

, the top tier regional club tournament held each fall. The third place team qualify for the CFU Caribbean Club Shield, the second tier regional club tournament held each summer. A top-three finish in the CONCACAF Caribbean Cup is the only route for Jamaican teams to enter the

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

. The league has produced two Caribbean Club Champions, each with two titles;

(

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

) and Harbour View (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

). The

Caribbean Club Championship The Caribbean Club Championship, also known as the CFU Club Championship or CFU Club Champions' Cup, was an annual international football competition held amongst association football clubs that are members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). T ...

was replaced with the

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

as a part of CONCACAF's new club football ecosystem.

(

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

) became the first Jamaican club to be victorious in the newly rebranded competition by winning the second edition. By virtue of winning the 2024 CONCACAF Caribbean Cup,

(

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

) received a bye to the

round of 16 and became the first team from the league to feature past the first round. The league was more successful in the discontinued

CONCACAF League The CONCACAF League was an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its secondary continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It was announced on 8 May 2017. The compet ...

competition with both

(

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

) and Waterhouse (

) making it to the quarterfinals.

Sponsorship

During the 1970s to 1990s, the league received sponsorship from

Craven A Craven A ''(stylized as'' Craven "A"'')'' is a British brand of cigarette, cigarettes, currently manufactured by British American Tobacco. Originally founded and produced by the Carreras Tobacco Company in 1921 until merging with Rothmans Internat ...

, a subsidiary of

Carreras Tobacco Company The House of Carreras was a tobacco business established in London in the nineteenth century by Don José Carreras Ferrer, a nobleman from Spain. It remained an independent company until merging with Rothmans of Pall Mall in November 1958. In ...

, throughout its initial two decades. However, in 2002, the pressure from various lobbyists, notably the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''. History The society w ...

, led to the termination of the cigarette company’s sponsorship of both the premier league and local horse racing, marking the end of direct associations between tobacco companies and sporting events. Wray and Nephew assumed sponsorship of the league in 2002 and subsequently extended the contract until 2012. However, their arrangement abruptly concluded in 2007 when Wray and Nephew released the Jamaica Football Federation from the contract without penalties. Subsequently, the league entered into an agreement with investment company Cash Plus in 2007, despite uncertainties arising in early 2008 about Cash Plus’s commitment. In April 2008, the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) ceased their association with Cash Plus Limited as league sponsors and initiated plans for legal action against the investment firm.

Digicel Digicel is a Jamaican-based Caribbean mobile phone network and home entertainment provider operating in 25 markets worldwide. Digicel has operated in several countries, including Guyana, Fiji, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa, St. Lucia, Surinam ...

signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the league that remained active until 2011.

Red Stripe Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica and the Netherlands. Since 2015 Red Stripe has also been brewed in the United Kingdom by Heineken under licence from Desnoes & Geddes. It was first introduced in 1928 fr ...

assumed the title sponsorship of the league starting from the 2011-12 season, a contract that concluded after the league was abandoned in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digicel commenced a second three-year sponsorship spell from 2020 to 2023. After a 16-year hiatus, Wray and Nephew returned as title sponsors in 2023.

Notes

References

External links

Jamaica Premier League Official Website
RSSSF.com
Premier League summary
SOCCERWAY) {{CONCACAF Leagues 1

1973 establishments in Jamaica Sports leagues established in 1973