Dhivehi Premier League

Dhivehi Premier League

Country	Maldives
Confederation	AFC
Founded	22 December 2014
Number of teams	8
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Second Division
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup President's Cup Charity Shield POMIS Cup
International cup(s)	AFC Cup
Current champions	New Radiant (2015)
Most championships	New Radiant (1 title)
TV partners	Television Maldives (live matches)
2016 Dhivehi Premier League

Dhivehi Premier League is a Maldivian league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Maldives football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 8 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Second Division Football Tournament.

Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 14 matches each (playing each team in the league twice) totalling 56 matches in the season. It is currently sponsored by Ooredoo Maldives and thus officially known as the Ooredoo Dhivehi Premier League.

The competition formed as the Dhivehi Premier League on 22 December 2014 following the decision of The FAM normalisation committee formed by FIFA. It succeeds the Dhivehi League.

History

Season	Champions	Runners-up
2015	New Radiant	TC Sports Club

Competition format

Competition

There are 8 clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season each club plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), for a total of 14 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference, and then goals scored. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same position. If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for qualification to other competitions, a play-off match decides rank.

Qualification for Asian competitions

The top two teams in the Dhivehi Premier League qualify for the AFC Cup, with the champion directly entering the group stage. The second-placed team enters the AFC Cup at the play-off round for East Asia Zone and must win the match in order to enter the group stage.

Sponsorship

The Ooredoo Dhivehi Premier League sponsorship logo as used by media

The Dhivehi Premier League has been sponsored since its inaugural season 2015. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name.

2015–present: Ooredoo Maldives (Ooredoo Dhivehi Premier League)

Finances

The Football Association of Maldives (FAM) decided to give the responsibility of selling match tickets to stadium, for the clubs and the ticket income will be a profit for the club's finances. Each team in the Premier League, will receive an amount of MVR 1.6 million from the FAM before the season starts. The Champion team also receives a MVR 1 million cash prize.

On 18 April 2015, FAM introduces season tickets, so the clubs can increase their wage by each season.

Clubs

The following 8 clubs will compete in the Dhivehi Premier League during the 2016 season.

Club	Position in 2015	First season in Premier League	Seasons in Premier League	First season of current spell in Premier League
BG Sports Club^{a, b}	7th	2015	2	2015
Eagles^{a, b}	3rd	2015	2	2015
Maziya^{a, b}	4th	2015	2	2015
New Radiant^{a, b}	1st	2015	2	2015
TC Sports Club^{a, b}	2nd	2015	2	2015
United Victory	1st in the Second Division	2016	1	2016
Valencia^{a, b}	6th	2015	2	2015
Victory^{a, b}	5th	2015	2	2015

^a: Founding member of the Dhivehi Premier League
^b: Never been relegated from Dhivehi Premier League

Stadiums

Dhivehi Premier League football is played in 1 stadium; National Football Stadium with a capacity of 11,850 spectators.

Players

Foreign players

Until 2014 season, all Maldivian clubs can have maximum of three foreign players each. But the FAM normalisation committee formed by FIFA decided that each team can have four foreign players including one Asian player.

References

External links

South Asian Football Federation (SAFF)

International Competitions	SAFF Championship South Asian Games U-19 Championship U-16 Championship Club Championship (proposed) Women's Championship

National Teams	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

Domestic Leagues	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

Former National Team(s)	Afghanistan (left the federation after 2015 SAFF Championship)

Top level football leagues of Asia (AFC)

Afghanistan Australia Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China PR Chinese Taipei East Timor Guam Hong Kong India Indonesia Iran Iraq Japan Jordan Korea DPR Korea Republic Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Macau Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Northern Mariana Islands^† Oman Pakistan Palestine Gaza Strip West Bank Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

^† Provisional Associated Member

Football in the Maldives

Football Association of Maldives

National teams

men:	Men's U-23 U-20 U-17

women:	Women's U-20 U-17

League system

men:	Dhivehi League Second Division Third Division

women:	Women's League

Domestic cups

men:	National Cup (FA Cup) President's Cup Charity Shield Maldivian Supercup

women:	FAM Women's Football Championship

Youth Tournaments

men:	FAM Youth Championship

Awards

Lists

List of Maldivian international footballers
List of clubs
List of venues
Foreign players
All-time Table

Men's Clubs
Women's Clubs
Men's Players
Women's Players
Expatriate footballers
Managers
Referees
Venues
Records

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.