June 12,
2020
History
In
Montenegrin, the name of their country is Crne Gore, which translates into
English as Black Mountain. Both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets enjoy equal status
under the constitution of Montenegro, although the Government prefers the use
of Latin script. Of the 10 sides in the Montenegro First League, the badges of
4 sides are in Cyrillic.
The Montenegro First League was created in 2006 following Montenegro’s independence from Serbia. Between 1947 to 1991, the league in Montenegro operated as part of the regional structure of Yugoslavia below the Yugoslav First and Second Leagues. FK Buducnost were founder members of the Yugoslav First League and played in every season bar 4. FK Sutjeska managed 4 seasons in the Yugoslav top flight giving Montenegro two representatives in the mid 1980s.
With the break-up of Yugoslavia, between 1992 to 2006 Montenegrin teams participated with teams from Serbia in what was still called the Yugoslav First League. Six other clubs in addition to FK Buducnost and FK Sutjeska had spells in this is league, with FK Zeta being the most notable, with their 3rd place finish in 2004/05 being the best ever performance by a side from Montenegro.
FK Sutjeska have won the most Montenegro First League titles ( 4 ), followed by FK Buducnost with three. Other winners of the title have been FK Rudar and Mogren with 2 each, whilst FK Zeta and OFK Titograd have won the title once.
The National Side
The Montenegro
national side are currently ranked 64in the FIFA world rankings, having dropped
down the rankings following a disastrous Euro 2020 qualifying campaign in which
they only managed three draws and five defeats, including their worst ever
result in the last group match when they lost 0-7 to England at Wembley in
November. However, for much of the campaign they were handicapped by the
absence through injury of two of their leading players, Stevan Jovetic and
Stefan Savic.
The squad for the match against England featured only 5 players playing their football in the Montenegro, four of whom were from Sutjeska.
Montenegro’s highest ranking was in 2012 when they reached 16 in the world, in what has been seen as the “golden era”. They finished in second place in their Euro 2012 qualifying group after two draws with England ( the 2-2 draw in Montenegro being mostly remembered for the red card to Wayne Rooney ) and wins over Switzerland, Wales and Bulgaria. In the play-offs though, Montenegro were eliminated by Czech Republic 0-3 on aggregate. The 2014 World Cup qualifiers saw another draw with England and a win in Ukraine, and the 2018 qualifiers saw victories over Denmark and Romania.
The most famous current Montenegrin footballer is probably Stevan Jovetic, who is currently playing for Monaco, having also played for Manchester City, Inter, Fiorentina and Sevilla. With 54 caps, Jovetic is the highest ever scorer for Montenegro with 24 goals, seven clear of Mirko Vucinic who has scored 17 times. Former Milan & Red Star player and Yugoslav International Dejan Savicevic is the current Head of the Montenegro FA.
League Structure
The
2019/20 Montenegro First League season started in August with 10 sides playing
each other four times for a 36 game season. For sponsorship reasons the leagues is also referred to as Telekom 1.CFL. The Champions enter the First
Qualifying Round of the Champions League, with the runners-up, the third placed
side and the winners of the Montenegrin Cup entering the First Qualifying Round
of the Europa League. Should the winners of the Cup have already qualified for
Europe, the additional place is awarded to the fourth placed side.
The side finishing bottom of the table is automatically relegated with the sides in 8th and 9th places playing off against 3rd and 2nd place in the Second League.
Four of the 10 clubs in the Premier League are from the capital Podgorica. Three other sides are in the central region, two sides are on the coastal plain, with FK Rudar from the north of the country.
The Montenegrin Second League consists of 10 sides, who also play a 36 game season.
Last Season
The
2018/19 Champions were FK Sutjeska, who finished 9 points ahead of FK Buducnost
to defend the title they won the previous year. With Sutjeska also winning the
Montenegrin Cup, the other qualifiers for the Europa League were FK Zeta and
OFK Titograd.
In the Champions League Sutjeska eliminated Slovan Bratislava in a penalty shoot-out before losing to APOEL Nicosia. In the Europa League Sutjeska were then knocked out by Linfield.
In the Europa League, Buducnost got past Narva Trans of Estonia before losing both matches to Zorya Luhansk. Zeta lost their only tie, which included a 1-5 home loss to Fehervar from Hungary, whilst OFK Titograd lost 0-4 to CSKA Sofia.
Attendances
The average
attendance in the 2018/19 First League was 346, with Buducnost being the best
supported team with an average of 733. Matches since the resumption of football
after the Covid-19 pandemic were initially without spectators, but a limit of
200 has been permitted for the most recent games.
How To Watch
Starting
with Round 27, to enable fans to watch matches as only 200 spectators are
permitted into stadiums, the matches not being shown live on the Montenegro
State TV channel are being streamed live on the Montenegro FA website ( www.fscg.me ). This arrangement is until the end
of the season.
Live coverage of Sutjeska and Buducnost matches can also usually be found on the club’s YouTube channels ie Sutjeska have live streamed three of their matches since the resumption and have also posted highlights for every game. Buducnost have live streamed all 4 of their matches so far and some goal clips.
A highlights round-up of matches can be found in the sports section of the state broadcaster’s website ( www.rtcg.me )
The Season So Far
Four
rounds of matches were played in February and March after the winter break before
the season was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The season resumed on
May 30th.
Round 27
FK Sutjeska Niksic 4-1 FK Grbalj Radanovici
Sutjeska
went to their match against bottom of the table Grbalj 18 points adrift of
leaders Buducnost. The week before, they lost 0-2 at their rivals, with
Buducnost playing the second half with 10 men and clinching victory with a shot
from close to the halfway line in the last minute. This result probably
extinguished any lingering hopes Sutjeska had of retaining their title but the
team from Niksic comfortably recorded their first win since the resumption
thanks to three goals in 6 minutes midway through the second half, after Grbalj
had equalised just before half-time with a goal-line tap-in. Bozo Markovic
scored twice to move to 8 goals for the season whilst Marko Cetkovic also scored
to become joint-top scorer in the league with 9 goals. Grbalj are now 6 points
adrift at the bottom and look to be desperately missing top scorer Boban
Dordevic, who left in March to join Kazakh side Aktobe.
FK Rudar Pljevlja 0-2 OFK Petrovac
Without top scorer Velizar Janketic, Rudar slipped to a disappointing home defeat to Petrovac, with both goals coming in the first half, the second being a 30 yard left-footed screamer from Raznatovic.
Rudar had chances in the second half to get back ino the game but failed to score due to a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping. Rudar have now only gathered one point since the resumption, whilst Petrovac are now unbeaten in 5 matches and moved 5 points clear of the relegation play-offs. They might now even be thinking of snatching 4th place, being 8 points behind Zeta with 9 matches to play.
OFK Titograd stayed in the relegation play-off zone after a 0-0 draw with Zeta, and have now gone 10 games without a win. Titograd play at the Mladost Stadium in the Stari Aerodrom suburb on the outskirts of Podgorica. The name of the area comes from a disused military base, and the complex that houses the stadium also includes the training grounds and offices of the Montenegrin FA and FK Buducnost. Zeta are unusual in that they have some African players in their squad, foreign players in Montenegro tend to either come from other Balkan nations, or from Japan ! In this match Cameroonian Alphonse Denis Seppo and Elom Kodji from Togo started, and Ghanian Alex Yamoah came off the bench. The match was best described as tough, with lots of running, and very few chances. The attendance was given as only 150, below the maximum 200.
FK Podgorica 1-1 FK Kom Podgorica
Podgorica and Kom played out a 1-1 draw at the DG Arena which still leaves Kom in trouble in 9th place and 6 points from safety. They were thankful for a 90th minute equaliser from substitute Vlahovic's free-kick to take a point, but the Podgorica keeper really ought to have saved it. The unusual aspect to this match was both sides fielded a player from Japan.
Podgorica and Kom played out a 1-1 draw at the DG Arena which still leaves Kom in trouble in 9th place and 6 points from safety. They were thankful for a 90th minute equaliser from substitute Vlahovic's free-kick to take a point, but the Podgorica keeper really ought to have saved it. The unusual aspect to this match was both sides fielded a player from Japan.
FK Iskra Danilovgrad 4-1 FK Buducnost Podgorica
Iskra’s 1-4 defeat the previous week at Petrovac, in which defending seemed to be an optional extra for their back 4, put a mild dent in their European hopes. Although still in third place, the gap between them and Zeta was down to just 4 points before this match, and with Petrovac and FK Podgorica in the Cup Semi-Finals, 4th place might not be good enough for Europa League qualification. However, with Japanese midfielder Kohei Kato to the fore, they bounced back with a surprise demolition of FK Buducnost, giving the leaders their first defeat in 12 matches. Losing 2-0, Buducnost pulled a goal back, perhaps controversially, when they played on with an Iskra player down injured, to make it 2-1 with 12 minutes to play. A breakaway goal in the 89th and another goal in injury time put a gloss to the scoreline. At the final whistle, tempers flared on both sides with a lot of finger pointing, pushing and players queuing up to complain to the referee !
Table
P W D L F A PTS
FK
Buducnost 27 20 3 4 56 25 63
FC Sutjeska 27 13 9 5 52 29 48
Iskra
Danilovgrad 27 12 8 7 36 29 44
FK Zeta 27 9 11 7 26 25 38
FK Podgorica 27 7 14 6 31 25 35
FK Rudar
Pljevlja 27 10 4 13 37 49 34
OFK
Petrovac 27 8 7 12 26 43 31
OFK
Titograd 27 6 8 13 25 33 26
FK Kom
Podgorica 27 5 10 12 34 42 25
Grbalj
Radanovici 27 3 10 14 21 44 19
Top Goalscorers :
Drasko
Bozovic Buducnost 9
Boban
Dordevic Grbalj 9
Velizar
Janketic Rudar 9
Marko
Cetkovic Sutjeska 9
Round 28
The next round of matches are scheduled for Tuesday, 16th
June :
Zeta vs Kom
FK Podgorica vs OFK Petrovac
Rudar vs FK Buducnost
Iskar vs Grbalj
Sutjeska vs OFK Titograd
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