First League of the Republika Srpska

First League of the Republika Srpska (Serbian: Прва лига Републике Српске / Prva liga Republike Srpske) is a second level football competition in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since there were three different football championships in country, organized on ethnic principles, the "First League of the Republika Srpska" was the top flight in Republika Srpska before 2002. However, the champions of this League were not recognized by UEFA. In 2002, the top clubs from Republika Srpska joined Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the First League was kept as one of two second level divisions. It is still run by the Football Association of Republika Srpska, and has ended its boycott of Bosnian football on a federal level.

Contents

• Member clubs for 201617
• League champions
• References

The league changes from 2014–15 and has been split into two stages, regular season and playoffs. Each of the 12 competitors in the First League hosts every other team once in the regular season, for a total of 22 matches. A playoff phase is then played from April to May. The point system in the championship playoff is the same as during the regular season, except that each team starts with half of the points they won in the regular season, rounded up to the nearest integer. The points gained by rounding are deducted in the case of a tie. Similar systems are also used in the Belgian Pro League and the Polish Ekstraklasa. The top sixth teams from the regular season enter the championship playoff, with the first-placed team winning the First League and teams ranked 7 to 12 after the regular season enter the relegation playoffs. Each team plays their opponents once. The League champion is promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season, and the bottom clubs are relegated to lower leagues. The number of relegated teams depends on how many clubs are entering the league. That will be the winners of 2 third level leagues, the winner of relegation play-off, and Republika Srpska clubs relegated from the Premier League. So, sometimes two clubs will be relegated, and sometimes three or four.