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 the second place team in Dinamo Zagreb who would win the following season in a smaller league.

Heading into the 1950s, the league was switched from a winter schedule to a summer schedule and the Croatians teams would take out the following three seasons before it switched back to a winter schedule with Hajduk Split (twice) and Dinamo Zagreb getting the titles while it was a summer league. The league also expanded during that time with it being expanded to twelve teams. With the league heading back to a winter schedule in 1952-53, Hajduk Split became the first team in the new country to defend their title with Red Star finishing 2nd for the third time in a row.

After Partizan took out the 1953-54 by a single point over Dinamo Zagreb, the 1954-55 season became the first one with a qualification to the European Cup that was going to be held in the following year. The tile though went to a familiar name with Hajduk Split winning their fourth league and they're seventh overall. Hajduk would have a shocker in the following season with their main keeper in Vladimir Beara heading over to rivals Red Star and they would pounce by taking out the next two titles in a row and just falling short of a three-peak in 1957-58. They also claimed the European Cup