The Football Superleague of Kosovo (Albanian: Superliga e Futbollit të Kosovës), also known as the ALBI MALL Superleague of Kosovo (Albanian: ALBI MALL Superliga e Kosovës) for sponsorship reasons with Albi Mall, is the top level of the Kosovar football league system. The Superleague is organized by the Football Federation of Kosovo and the division currently has a 10-team format. The clubs play each other four times during the season for a 36-match schedule. At the end of the season, the bottom two teams in the division are relegated to the second tier, First Football League of Kosovo.
The Superleague ran outside FIFA and UEFA until Kosovo was admitted to both organizations, on 3 May 2016.[1]
History
Prior to World War II, within Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kosovan clubs competed in the provincial leagues of the Belgrade Football Subassociation. During World War II, between 1941 and 1944, when most of the region became part of the Albanian Kingdom, numerous Kosovan clubs played in the Albanian league system. In 1945, Kosovo was reincorporated to Serbia, and subsequently, into the SFR Yugoslavia. The league has its origins in 1945 when it became one of the subdivisions of the 5th level in the Yugoslav football league system. It gathered the best clubs from the SAP Kosovo except for those clubs competing in higher levels. In 1991, an unrecognised parallel league gathering ethnic Albanian pro-independence clubs was set, and was run till 1999. In the meantime, the best clubs competed in the leagues of FR Yugoslavia. In 1999, after the Kosovo War, a separate Kosovar league system was formed. It included most clubs from Kosovo except those from Serbian-dominated North Kosovo which remained in the Serbian football league system. Since 2000, the competition has been running continuously, and by 2017, after Kosovo gained membership in FIFA and UEFA, began acting as the national league of Kosovo, providing clubs for international tournaments.
The leаgue consisted of ten teams – the top seven teаms from the previous season and three teams promoted from the 2022–23 Kosovo First League. Ballkani entered the season as the defending champions.
The two directly promoted teаms were Feronikeli and Fushë Kosova, winners of the 2022–23 Kosovo First League groups A and B, respectively. They replaced the 2022–23 Kosovo Superleague bottom two teams, Drenica and Trepça '89.[7] The First League Group A runners-up, Liria Prizren, won the Kosovo Superleague play-off to also earn promotion, defeating eighth-placed Superleague team Ferizaj to take their place in the league.
^ abIt was one of the leagues forming the 4th level of the Yugoslav football league system. The champion would gain promotion to Yugoslav Inter-Republic League East, one of Yugoslav 3rd tiers.
^Unrecognised competition parallel to Serbian league system.
^ abDrita and Gjilan use this stadium together and have named the stadium with different names. Drita and their fans named the stadium as Selami Osmani-Bezi Stadium, while Gjilan and their fans named the stadium as Agim Ramadani Stadium, but officially the stadium is named Gjilan City Stadium.[9]
There are 35 teams that have taken part in the Football Superleague of Kosovo since 1999. Prishtina is the only team that has played in every season since 1999. As of 2023/24 season; teams in bold are part of current season.
^Beginning in the 2024–25 season, 1 additional team from each of the 2 associations with the highest 1-year association coefficient will be awarded a berth in the Champions League group stage.
Kosovo
