Kosovo Superliga

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. Some phantom clubs like FK Crvena Zvezda Gnjilane, Trepča, Priština or FK Kosovo Polje, which were formed by Serbs in 1992 as a result of the cultural oppression of the ethnic Albanian population, continued to play in the leagues of FR Yugoslavia. On the contrary side the Albanian clubs like Gjilani, Trepça, Prishtina or Fushë Kosova played in the Independent League of Kosovo as successors of the Yugoslav clubs. In 1999, after the Kosovo War, a separate Kosovar league system was formed and the majority of the Serbian phantom clubs were dissolved. The Kosovar league system 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.