Montenegrin First League


The Montenegrin First League, referred to as the Meridianbet 1. CFL for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football league in Montenegro. Founded in 2006, the competition is headed by the Football Association of Montenegro. 10 teams participate in this league. The winner of the Montenegrin First League enter the qualifications for the UEFA Champions League from the first round. The second and third placed teams and Montenegrin Cup winner play in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Conference League. The last placed team is directly relegated to the Montenegrin Second League, and the two next lowest ranked teams play in Montenegrin First League playoffs.

History

Before independence

As a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Montenegrin clubs played in the Montenegrin Football Championship which was formed in 1922. Despite the presence of the nationwide Yugoslav Football Championship, Montenegrin teams did not partake in it. Montenegrin Football Championship played until the beginning of World War II.
The most successful teams at that period were SK Crnogorac Cetinje, GSK Balšić Podgorica, FK Lovćen Cetinje, FK Budućnost Podgorica and FK Arsenal Tivat. While SK Crnogorac and GSK Balšić played all the seasons, work of FK Budućnost and FK Lovćen was forbidden in 1935, as they were recognized as workers' clubs by Kingdom of Yugoslavia government and forbidden.
After World War II and the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the top league became the Yugoslav First League. Montenegrin teams were allowed to partake in the nationwide league structure, with a Montenegrin Republic League acting as a lower-tier division with promotion and relegation between the Yugoslav league system. The most prominent clubs from Montenegro in this period were FK Budućnost and FK Sutjeska.
FK Budućnost was among the founders of Yugoslav First League and a member of its inaugural season. During the most of SFRY era, FK Budućnost played in First League, while another team from Montenegro in top-tier was FK Sutjeska. Other teams played in Yugoslav Second League or lower ranks. Among them, most successful was FK Lovćen, who played twice in First League qualifiers, but without success at the end of campaigns.
Below is the list of performances of Montenegrin teams in Yugoslav First League from 1946 to 1992, with final placements on every single season.
Club474950565758596063656772737677
Budućnost 106101191091114----159
Sutjeska ---------15151618--

In 1992 when SFR Yugoslavia dissolved the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. Serbian and Montenegrin teams played in its national league, although it was still named Yugoslav First League. In 2003, FR Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro and the football league was renamed. Montenegrin clubs played in the First League with Serbian clubs from 1992 to 2006. In that period, representatives of Montenegro in the Yugoslav/Serbia and Montenegro First League were FK Budućnost, FK Sutjeska, FK Rudar, FK Mogren, FK Zeta, FK Kom and FK Jedinstvo.
Below is the list of performances of Montenegrin teams in FR Yugoslavia First League from 1992 to 2006, with final placements on every single season.
Club9394959697989900010203040506
Budućnost 1061114108141215---614
Sutjeska 161819-2021-57114815-
Mogren 1320----1519--16---
Rudar -1320--20---717---
Zeta --------13581135
Kom -----------16--
Jedinstvo -------------16

For 2004–05, restructuring of the Serbo-Montenegrin football league system saw the dissolution of the national second league, instead being replaced by two regional divisions for both republics of the union with promotion to the still-united First League.
Montenegrin teams which played in European competitions during Yugoslav era were FK Budućnost, FK Sutjeska and FK Zeta.

After independence

In 2006, after the Independence referendum, Montenegro split from Serbia. Following that, Montenegrin First League is founded as top-tier national competition. On inaugural season, members of League became three teams from former First League of Serbia and Montenegro, seven from Second League, and two from Montenegrin Republic League.
Between 2006 and 2017, the league consisted on 12 clubs, which played 33 matches during the season. From the 2017-18 season the number of participants in the Montenegrin First League was reduced to 10, with a 36 week-long competition.
20 clubs have participated in the Montenegrin First League. The most successful are FK Sutjeska with five titles and FK Budućnost five national titles too. FK Rudar and FK Mogren won two titles. Other winners were FK Zeta and OFK Titograd with one title.

2006–16

The first game in Prva CFL was played on 11 August 2006 in Pljevlja. In front of 5,000 spectators, a game between the home side FK Rudar and FK Budućnost, finished with a victory of the away team. In the fifth minute of that match, Ivan Čarapić scored the first goal in the history of Prva CFL.
The first champion of the top-tier CFL was Zeta, who won the trophy on the championship's final weekend, after a hard struggle with neighbouring Budućnost. Game between FK Berane and FK Budućnost was not even finished, after the crowd disturbances during the second half. A third derby between Budućnost and Zeta in Podgorica was attended by 10,000 spectators, which is a record-high attendance in the history of CFL. During the season, many games were disrupted by crowd disturbances and a match between Zeta and Budućnost in Golubovci was not played, after the decision was made by the home team not to open their stadium following discussion with Football Association of Montenegro.
Next season started with incidents during the Montenegrin Derby in Nikšić. Budućnost won the title, with the same number of points as Zeta and Mogren. But, Budućnost had the best score against two opponents from the top of the table. This marked the first trophy for the team from Podgorica. Their manager at that time Branko Babić became the first foreign coach to win the Prva CFL title. With an average attendance of 4,250 for their home games, Budućnost made a Montenegrin First League all-time record.
The title winners for season 2008–09 became Mogren, the first-ever club from the coastal Montenegro to win the title. The race for the champions' trophy lasted until the final week, when Mogren won an away game against Jedinstvo. At the end of season, they had four points more than second-placed Budućnost and 11 more than the third-place team - Sutjeska.
A year later Rudar won the first title in their club's history. They won the trophy after dramatic struggle with Budućnost, and only two points decided the championship race. During that year, Ivan Bošković from Grbalj scored 28 goals, which is the all-time record for one single season. During the last week of season, his team made another record, with the highest victory ever in Montenegrin First League, against Kom '. During that game, Bošković scored four goals - which is another Prva CFL record, shared with FK Zeta's player Miljan Vlaisavljević and OFK Titograd's player Zoran Petrović.
Mogren became first club to win a second champion trophy in Prva CFL. The team from Budva won the title on season 2010–11, but with equal number of points as second-placed Budućnost: '. In the end, head-to-head scores compared, Mogren were victorious over Budućnost '.
Budućnost won their second trophy in season 2011–12, whilst also setting records for highest number of points in CFL by single season ' and highest number of scored goals by season '. But, the team from Podgorica didn't win the trophy easily - they were followed by Rudar, who trailed by three points at the end of season. Additionally, Budućnost failed to beat Rudar during the season '
Sutjeska became the first club to win two consecutive titles of CFL champion - both times with Dragan Radojičić as head coach. The team from Nikšić won the title for seasons 2012–13 and 2013–14. Sutjeska headed to their first title with five points more than Budućnost, but secured the trophy on last week of the season. During that season, Sutjeska for the first time in the First League played city derbies against Čelik ', who placed third at the end of competition. Second trophy, Sutjeska won after the dramatic spring half-season and struggle with Lovćen. The title winner was decided a week before the end of season, after a draw between Sutjeska and Lovćen. That was the first season on which Budućnost didn't finish in first or second position.
At the end of season 2014–15, Rudar won the second title in the club's history. The team from Pljevlja won the race against title holders Sutjeska, who finished second. The team at the bottom of the table - Berane at the end of season had only 13 points with 78 goals conceded, which were negative records of Prva CFL at that time. After the relegation playoffs, Mogren were relegated to the Second League. This was the first time in history of Prva CFL that former champions were relegated.
The tenth edition of Prva CFL finished with a shock, as OFK Titograd from Podgorica won their first-ever national title. During this era, OFK Titograd played under the name Mladost Podgorica. They won the champions' race against city rivals from Budućnost and during the season, OFK Titograd won all three games against them '. After the last week, OFK Titograd had four points more than the second-placed team.
In the period from 2006 to 2016, FK Budućnost, FK Sutjeska, FK Rudar and FK Mogren won two champion titles, and FK Zeta and OFK Titograd one. During that time, 19 clubs participated in Prva CFL.