2021–22 Macedonian First Football League

Macedonian First League
Season	2021–22
Dates	10 August 2021 – 15 May 2022
Champions	Shkupi; 1st domestic title
Relegated	Borec; Pelister
Champions League	Shkupi
Europa Conference League	Akademija Pandev; Shkëndija; Makedonija G.P.
Matches played	198
Goals scored	469 (2.37 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sunday Adetunji; (20 goals)
Biggest home win	Shkupi 5–0 Pelister; (21 November 2021); Akademija Pandev 5–0 Skopje; (20 February 2022); Akademija Pandev 5–0 Borec; (9 March 2022); Tikvesh 5–0 Borec; (23 April 2022)
Biggest away win	Pelister 0–3 Bregalnica; (24 October 2021); Borec 1–4 Renova; (21 November 2021)
Highest scoring	Renova 5–2 Bregalnica; (26 September 2021)
Longest winning run	6 games; Makedonija G.P.; Shkupi
Longest unbeaten run	16 games; Shkupi
Longest winless run	23 games; Pelister
Longest losing run	5 games; Borec; Pelister
	← 2020–21 2022–23 → All statistics correct as of 21 May 2022.

The 2021–22 Macedonian First League was the 30th season of the Macedonian First Football League, the highest football league of North Macedonia. It began on 8 August 2021 and ended on 15 May 2022. Shkëndija are the defending champions, having won their fourth title in 2020–21.

Promotion and relegation

At the end of the 2020–21 season

Promoted from 2020–21 Second League

Bregalnica Shtip (First placed; East)^[1]
Skopje (First placed; West)^[2]
Tikvesh (Second placed; East; won play-off)

Relegated to 2021–22 Second League

Sileks (9th; lost play-off)
Vardar (11th)
Belasica (12th)

At the end of the 2021–22 season

Promoted from 2021–22 Second League

Pobeda (First placed; East)^[3]^[4]
Sileks (First placed; West)^[5]^[6]

Relegated to 2022–23 Second League

Borec (11th)
Pelister (12th)
Renova (5th)¹

1 Renova withdrew from the First League due to financial reasons.^[7]

Participating teams

Skopje

Skopje clubs:

Makedonija
Rabotnički
Shkupi
Skopje

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Location of teams in 2021–22 Macedonian First League

Akademija Pandev	Borec	Bregalnica	Makedonija G.P.	Pelister	Rabotnički
Blagoj Istatov Stadium UEFA	Zoran Paunov Stadium	City Stadium Štip	Gjorče Petrov Stadium	Petar Miloševski Stadium	Toše Proeski Arena UEFA
Capacity: 9,200	Capacity: 2,000	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 3,000	Capacity: 9,100	Capacity: 36,460

Renova Shkëndija	Shkupi	Skopje	Struga	Tikvesh
Tetovo Stadium	Čair Stadium Skopje	Železarnica Stadium	Gradska Plaža Stadium	City Stadium Kavadarci
Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 3,000	Capacity: 2,500	Capacity: 7,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Akademija Pandev	Vacant	Tomislav Iliev	Sportika SA	Strumka, JOXX, Elenica
Borec	Borche Hristov	Gjorgji Gjorgjiev	Legea	Brako
Bregalnica	Ilčo Gjorgioski	Daniel Mojsov	Puma	Gogov Hotel
Makedonija G.P.	Aleksandar Tanevski	Bobi Bozhinovski	Givova	betinasia, Tesla
Pelister	Marjan Sekulovski	Borche Manevski	Legea	SN Broker
Rabotnički	Aleksandar Vlaho	Kristijan Stojkoski	Joma	Seavus
Renova	Qatip Osmani	Argjent Gafuri	Jako	Renova
Shkëndija	Bruno Akrapović	Egzon Bejtulai	Macron	Ecolog
Shkupi	Goce Sedloski	Fati Ismaili	Sunrise	–
Skopje	Ljupcho Markovski	Hristijan Kirovski	Givova	bet2day
Struga	Srgjan Zaharievski	Bunjamin Shabani	Macron	Trim & Lum
Tikvesh	Vlatko Kostov	Aleksandar Varelovski	Joma	Klimi.mk, Sinalco

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shkupi (C)	33	23	7	3	66	21	+45	76	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Akademija Pandev	33	19	7	7	55	32	+23	64	Qualification to Europa Conference League first qualifying round
3	Shkëndija	33	16	13	4	49	25	+24	61
4	Makedonija G.P.	33	17	6	10	46	44	+2	57	Qualification to Europa Conference League second qualifying round^[a]
5	Renova	33	12	12	9	42	29	+13	48
6	Struga	33	12	11	10	33	33	0	47
7	Bregalnica	33	12	9	12	45	47	−2	45
8	Rabotnički	33	13	4	16	29	35	−6	43
9	Skopje (O)	33	9	8	16	27	45	−18	35	Qualification to Relegation play-off
10	Tikvesh (O)	33	9	7	17	36	38	−2	34	Qualification to Relegation play-off
11	Borec (R)	33	5	6	22	25	66	−41	21	Relegation to Macedonian Second League
12	Pelister (R)	33	2	8	23	16	54	−38	14	Relegation to Macedonian Second League

Source: MacedonianFootball.com, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored (only if two teams); 7) Head-to-head goals scored; 8) Draw; 9) Play-off. (Note: Criteria 2, 3 and 8 is only used if not deciding Champion, teams for UEFA competitions or relegation).
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Makedonija G.P. qualified for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round by winning the 2021–22 Macedonian Football Cup.

Results

Every team will play three times against each other team for a total of 33 matches. The first 22 matchdays will consist of a regular double round-robin schedule. The league standings at this point will then be used to determine the games for the last 11 matchdays.

Home \ Away	AKA	BOR	BRE	MGP	PEL	RAB	REN	SKE	SKU	SKO	STR	TIK	AKA	BOR	BRE	MGP	PEL	RAB	REN	SKE	SKU	SKO	STR	TIK
Akademija Pandev	—	5–0	0–0	4–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–3	5–0	1–1	3–2	—	—	2–1	—	2–0	2–1	—	4–2	—	1–2	1–0	—
Borec	1–2	—	1–1	1–1	2–1	0–1	1–4	0–3	0–3	0–2	0–1	2–1	1–1	—	—	0–1	—	—	1–5	—	—	1–0	2–0	—
Bregalnica	3–2	2–1	—	4–1	2–1	1–2	1–2	3–3	0–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	—	3–0	—	—	—	0–3	2–2	0–0	4–1	—	—	1–0
Makedonija G.P.	4–1	3–2	2–1	—	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–2	2–1	5–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	—	1–1	—	2–0	1–0	—	—	—	1–1	1–3	—
Pelister	0–0	1–3	0–3	0–2	—	0–2	1–1	2–2	0–2	0–0	0–1	0–0	—	2–1	1–0	—	—	—	—	0–2	0–1	—	—	1–1
Rabotnički	0–3	1–0	2–0	1–2	1–1	—	0–0	2–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	2–1	—	2–1	—	—	2–1	—	—	—	—	0–1	1–3	1–0
Renova	1–2	2–0	5–2	0–1	2–0	1–1	—	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	—	—	0–1	0–0	2–1	—	—	—	2–0	1–1	—
Shkëndija	0–0	3–0	1–0	4–0	2–1	2–0	1–2	—	0–0	1–0	3–1	1–1	—	0–0	—	3–1	—	1–0	1–1	—	0–0	—	—	2–1
Shkupi	2–1	3–0	5–0	2–0	5–0	2–0	2–1	1–1	—	4–1	4–0	3–2	3–0	3–1	—	1–1	—	2–0	2–0	—	—	—	—	1–0
Skopje	0–0	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–2	1–3	—	1–0	2–1	—	—	4–1	—	4–2	—	—	0–2	0–0	—	—	1–2
Struga	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	4–2	1–0	—	0–0	—	—	1–0	—	4–0	—	—	1–1	1–3	1–0	—	—
Tikvesh	0–2	2–1	1–3	3–0	1–0	2–0	0–2	0–0	0–1	3–0	1–1	—	1–2	5–0	—	2–1	—	—	0–1	—	—	—	2–0	—

Source: MacedonianFootball.com, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33
Team ╲ Round
Shkupi	9	2	2	4	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Akademija Pandev	3	1	1	1	2	1	2	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	3	3	3	2	2	3	2	2	2
Shkëndija	8	10	9	7	8	7	6	6	5	6	5	5	5	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	3	3	2	3	3	3
Makedonija G.P.	1	6	4	6	4	6	8	8	8	9	9	9	8	7	7	7	6	6	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Renova	4	3	3	3	5	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	4	4	4	5	4	5	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	6	7	7	6	6	5
Struga	6	4	5	2	3	2	5	5	6	7	6	7	6	5	6	6	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	6	6	5	5	6
Bregalnica	7	9	7	9	7	8	7	7	7	4	4	4	4	6	5	5	5	4	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	7	7	7
Rabotnički	2	7	6	5	6	5	4	3	4	5	7	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	8	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	8
Skopje	5	8	10	8	9	10	10	9	9	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	9	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	9	9	9
Tikvesh	10	11	11	11	11	11	12	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	9	10	10	10
Borec	11	5	8	10	10	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11
Pelister	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

	Leader and qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
	Qualification for the Relegation play-off
	Relegation to the Macedonian Second League

Source: macedonianfootball.com, Soccerway

Relegation play-offs

22 May 2022

17:00 CEST

Skopje	2–1	Belasica
Janevski 33', 88'	Report	Trajkov 53'

Gradski stadion, Shtip

Referee: Stojanche Trpchevski (Kavadarci)

22 May 2022

17:00 CEST

Tikvesh	4–1	Voska Sport
Spahiu 13', 74' Ivanovski 17' Ljamchevski 68'	Report	Emini 43'

Stadion Blagoj Istatov, Strumica

Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (Skopje)

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 21 May 2022

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sunday Adetunji	Shkupi	20
2	Martin Mirčevski	Akademija Pandev	16
3	Remzifaik Selmani	Renova	15
4	Ermedin Adem	Makedonija G.P.	11
5	Marjan Altiparmakovski	Bregalnica	10
	Sindrit Guri	Shkëndija
	Ljupcho Doriev	Shkëndija
8	Milan Đokić	Bregalnica	9
8	Martin Stojanov	Bregalnica	9
10	Freddy Álvarez	Shkupi	8
	Anael Barga	Tikvesh
	Nemanja Bosančić	Struga
	Sefer Emini	Makedonija G.P.
	Arbi Vosha	Makedonija G.P.