2017–18 Macedonian First Football League

The 2017–18 Macedonian First League was the 26th season of the Macedonian First Football League, the highest football league of Macedonia. The fixtures were announced on 25 July 2017.^[1] It began on 12 August 2017 and ended on 20 May 2018. Each team will play the other sides four times on home-away basis, for a total of 36 matches. Vardar are the defending champions, having won their tenth title in 2016–17.

Macedonian First League

Season	2017–18
Dates	12 August 2017 – 20 May 2018
Champions	Shkëndija 2nd domestic title
Relegated	Skopje Pelister
Champions League	Shkëndija
Europa League	Vardar Rabotnički Shkupi
Matches played	180
Goals scored	461 (2.56 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ferhan Hasani Besart Ibraimi (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Shkendija 5–0 Sileks (20 September 2017) Shkendija 5–0 Renova (7 April 2018)
Biggest away win	Pelister 0–6 Shkëndija (15 April 2018)
Highest scoring	Rabotnički 2–6 Shkëndija (17 September 2017)
Longest winning run	6 games Shkëndija
Longest unbeaten run	16 games Shkëndija
Longest winless run	14 games Akademija Pandev
Longest losing run	4 games Akademija Pandev Renova Sileks
← 2016–17 2018–19 → All statistics correct as of 20 May 2018.

Promotion and relegation

At the start of the 2017–18 season Promoted from 2016–17 Second League Akademija Pandev (winners) Skopje (runners-up) Relegated to 2017–18 Second League Bregalnica Shtip (9th) Makedonija G.P. (10th)

At the end of the 2017–18 season Promoted from 2017–18 Second League Belasica (Winners; East) Makedonija G.P. (Winners; West) Relegated to 2018–19 Second League Skopje (9th) Pelister (10th)

Participating teams

Skopje

A. Pandev

Pobeda

Renova

Pelister

Shkëndija

Sileks

Skopje clubs:

Rabotnički
Shkupi
Skopje
Vardar

Location of teams in 2017–18 Macedonian First League

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
Akademija Pandev	Strumica	Stadion Mladost Stadion Kukush	9,200 1,500
Pelister	Bitola	Stadion Tumbe Kafe	8,000
Pobeda	Prilep	Stadion Goce Delchev	15,000
Rabotnički	Skopje	Philip II Arena	36,460
Renova	Djepchishte	City Stadium Tetovo	15,000
Shkëndija	Tetovo	City Stadium Tetovo	15,000
Shkupi	Skopje	Chair Stadium	6,000
Sileks	Kratovo	Stadion Sileks	1,800
Skopje	Skopje	Stadion Zhelezarnica	3,000
Vardar	Skopje	Philip II Arena	36,460

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	Risto Panov	Sashko Pandev	Givova
Pelister	Nexhat Husein	Goce Todorovski	Givova	ZK Pelagonija
Pobeda	Toni Meglenski	Darko Tofiloski	Jako	Krali Marko & Vitaminka
Rabotnički	Gjore Jovanovski	Dushko Trajchevski	Joma
Renova	Agron Memedi & Kushtrim Abdulahu	Fisnik Nuhi	Jako	Renova
Shkëndija	Qatip Osmani	Ferhan Hasani	Macron	Ecolog
Shkupi	Zekirija Ramadani	Suat Zendeli	Nike	V:KO
Sileks	Zhikica Tasevski	Gligor Gligorov	Legea
Skopje	Ljupcho Markovski	Filip Petkovski	Givova
Vardar	Boban Babunski	Boban Grncharov	Hummel	BetCity

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shkëndija (C)	36	29	4	3	101	27	+74	91	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Vardar	36	16	8	12	53	41	+12	56	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Rabotnički	36	14	10	12	50	43	+7	52
4	Shkupi	36	13	12	11	51	46	+5	51
5	Sileks	36	13	11	12	30	37	−7	50
6	Akademija Pandev	36	10	12	14	43	47	−4	42
7	Renova	36	10	11	15	36	53	−17	41
8	Pobeda (O)	36	10	8	18	36	56	−20	38	Qualification for the relegation play-off final
9	Skopje (R)	36	7	14	15	24	43	−19	35	Relegation to the Macedonian Second League
10	Pelister (R)	36	8	10	18	37	68	−31	34

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).^{[citation needed]}
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Results

Each team played home-and-away against every other team in the league twice, for a total of 36 matches each.

Home \ Away	AKA	PEL	POB	RAB	REN	SKË	SKU	SIL	SKO	VAR	AKA	PEL	POB	RAB	REN	SKË	SKU	SIL	SKO	VAR
Akademija Pandev	—	2–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	3–2	2–0	0–1	2–0	0–2	—	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–2	1–2	1–2	0–0	1–1
Pelister	3–4	—	2–1	1–1	2–1	1–3	2–2	1–2	0–0	0–1	1–3	—	1–1	3–2	3–2	0–6	0–2	2–1	0–0	0–0
Pobeda	2–2	1–2	—	2–4	1–1	0–2	2–1	0–2	4–2	1–0	0–0	1–1	—	2–0	1–0	2–1	3–3	1–0	0–1	2–0
Rabotnički	1–2	2–0	4–0	—	0–0	2–6	1–0	0–0	3–0	3–1	1–1	4–0	4–2	—	0–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	3–2	2–1
Renova	3–1	1–0	0–0	3–1	—	1–6	0–0	0–3	5–1	2–5	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	—	0–3	3–1	0–0	2–0	1–1
Shkëndija	2–1	3–0	3–3	2–1	2–0	—	4–1	5–0	4–0	2–0	1–0	4–0	3–0	3–0	5–0	—	2–0	1–0	3–1	1–1
Shkupi	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	4–1	0–3	—	0–1	1–0	2–0	5–2	5–2	3–1	1–1	3–0	0–3	—	1–1	0–2	4–1
Sileks	1–0	1–4	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–2	0–1	—	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–3	1–1	—	0–1	0–2
Skopje	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–0	1–1	—	1–1	0–2	4–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	—	0–0
Vardar	3–1	1–0	4–0	1–0	2–1	4–2	1–0	3–1	3–0	—	3–2	2–3	3–0	0–1	1–0	2–3	1–1	2–3	0–1	—

Source: MacedonianFootball.com
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	34	35	36
Shkëndija	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	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Vardar	10	5	6	4	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Rabotnički	6	6	4	6	7	6	7	7	6	7	5	7	6	6	5	5	5	5	6	6	4	4	5	6	5	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3
Shkupi	5	7	10	7	5	4	4	4	5	6	8	5	7	9	7	6	6	6	4	5	5	5	4	5	6	5	5	4	5	5	5	5	6	5	4	4
Sileks	3	2	3	5	6	7	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	5	5
Akademija Pandev	4	3	5	3	3	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	3	4	4	5	4	6	6	6	4	4	6	6	7	6	7	7	7	5	6	6	6
Renova	7	8	8	10	8	8	8	9	9	8	9	6	5	5	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	6	6	6	7	7	7	7
Pobeda	8	10	7	8	9	9	9	8	8	9	7	9	9	8	9	9	7	7	7	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	8
Skopje	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	9	9	9	10	8	9
Pelister	2	4	2	2	2	5	6	6	7	5	6	8	8	7	8	8	9	9	9	7	7	7	8	9	9	9	9	9	10	9	10	10	10	9	10	10

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

Source: macedonianfootball.com

Relegation play-offs

Semi-final

28 May 2018

16:30 CEST

Gostivar	0–0	Borec
	Report
Penalties
Ademi Bexheti Esati Grozdanoski Osmani	4–5	Kocev Risteski Acevski Kudijan Gjorgjev

Training Centre Petar Miloshevski, Skopje

Referee: Marjan Markovski (Ohrid)

Final

2 June 2018

16:30 CEST

Pobeda	2–1	Borec
Ivanović 8' Velkoski 29'	Report	Kudijan 56'

Stadion Mladost, Strumica

Referee: Dejan Jakimovski (Skopje)

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 20 May 2018

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ferhan Hasani	Shkëndija	22
	Besart Ibraimi	Shkëndija
3	Zoran Baldovaliev	Akademija Pandev	14
4	Blazhe Ilijoski	Pelister & Shkupi	13
	Alen Jasharoski	Shkupi
6	Chinedu Charles Geoffrey	Rabotnički	11
	Stênio Júnior	Shkëndija
	Kire Markoski	Rabotnički
9	Tigran Barseghyan	Vardar	9
	Marjan Radeski	Shkëndija

See also

• 2017–18 Macedonian Football Cup
• 2017–18 Macedonian Second Football League
• 2017–18 Macedonian Third Football League