Yugoslav First League

The Yugoslav First League is the premier football league for SR Yugoslavia.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia
This was the first club competition on a national level for clubs from Kingdom of Yugoslavia (named the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until 1930). The league started out in 1923 and the first four seasons had a cup tournament format. In 1927, the league went into a league competition with Hajduk Split winning the first league competition. During that season, it was also a qualifier for the Mitropa Cup which lasted until 1992.

The league competition would be the main part of the league going from 1927 all the way up until the second World War. During the 30s it was all about BSK Belgrade who stay in the top 4 all through the 1930s with a title in 1931 and 1936 and the last three titles before World War II started around Yugoslavia.

SFR Yugoslavia
After the Second World War ended, football restarted in 1945 with a post-war tournament being hastily organised with eight teams entering the competition, six of them being from the federal units and two special teams in the league that represent different parts of the country. In the week-long tournament, it was Serbia that would take it as they defeated the JNA by a score of 1-0.

League play came back in 1947 with fourteen teams being entered into the league from all of the six republics as well as Circolo Sportivo Ponziana 1912 who was part of Trieste. In the first season, it would be the Serbian team of Partizan who would take out the first title in the newly reformed league as they won it by five points over second place Dinamo Zagreb who would win the following season in a smaller league.