Today’s match in Kavadarci opens the 35th season of the best Macedonian football league. Ten clubs will compete, including one debutant.
Tikvesh and Arsimi will open the 2026/2027 season in the first league with a kick-off at 17:00 CET. This season only 10 teams will compete, and in a system of each team playing each other 4 times, twice at home and twice away. Will this bring greater uncertainty, as the FFM claims, or monotony from too many of the same duels, we will see.
On Saturday, current champion Vardar will host Bregalnica, who is returning to the elite. For the duel with the team from Shtip, the Vardar management decided on a popular move: there are no tickets, the doors of the National Arena Todor Proeski will be open to all interested football fans.
On the same day in Struga, the home team of the same name will welcome the only debutant this season, Shkëndija 77 from Arachinovo, the team that eliminated Pelister in the play-offs.
The round will close on Sunday, first with the duel between Sileks and Bashkimi in Kratovo, while in the evening at 19.00 CET Shkëndija will play against Skopje, another returnee. Due to the renovation of the stadium in Tetovo, this match will be played at FFM’s Petar Miloshevski Training Center in Novo Lisiche. However, without the presence of spectators due to the punishment that Shkëndija must serve for the incidents in the Macedonian Cup final.
Since the transfer window is still active, it is too early to make predictions. However, Vardar and Shkendija are expected to fight for the title, and according to the current transfer performance, the most serious candidate for relegation is Bashkimi from Kumanovo.
Vardar is the most trophy-winning team with 12 titles, followed by Shkëndija with 5, Rabotnichki and Shkupi with 4, Sileks with 3, Pobeda and Struga with 2 each, and Makedonija GjP and Renova with one each.
This will be the first season in 28 years without Rabotnichki in the top flight. The favorite of the Debarmaalo fans debuted in the elite in the 1998/1999 season, but the disastrous management of the new board saw them relegated from the league last season.
Round 1 matches:
Friday
Kavadarci: Tikvesh – Arsimi at 17:00 CET
Saturday
Struga: Struga – Shkëndija 77 at 17:00 CET
Skopje: Vardar – Bregalnica at 17:00 CET
Sunday
Kratovo: Sileks – Bashkimi at 17:00 CET
Skopje: Shkëndija – Skopje at 19:00 CET