2023–24 Macedonian First Football League

Macedonian First League

Season	2023–24
Dates	6 August 2023 – 18 May 2024
Champions	Struga 2nd domestic title
Relegated	Makedonija G.P. Bregalnica
Champions League	Struga
Conference League	Shkendija Tikvesh
Matches played	198
Goals scored	446 (2.25 per match)
Top goalscorer	Aleksa Marušić (17 goals)
Longest winning run	4 games AP Brera Struga Shkendija Voska Sport
Longest unbeaten run	17 games Gostivar
Longest winless run	9 games AP Brera
Longest losing run	7 games Makedonija G.P.
← 2022–23 2024–25 → All statistics correct as of 10 March 2024.

The 2023–24 Macedonian First League was the 32nd season of the Macedonian First Football League, the highest football league of North Macedonia. It began on 6 August 2023 and ended on 18 May 2024. Struga were the defending champions, having won their first title in 2022–23.^[1][2]

The winners (Struga, their second consecutive title win) qualified for the Champions League first qualifying round. The second-placed team (Shkendija) and 2023–24 Macedonian Football Cup winners (Tikvesh) qualified for the Conference League first qualifying round. The tenth-placed team (Vardar) qualified for the Macedonian First Football League play-off. The bottom two teams (Bregalnica and Makedonija G.P.) were relegated to the 2024–25 Macedonian Second Football League.

Promotion and relegation

At the end of the 2022–23 season Promoted from 2022–23 Second League Voska Sport (winners, promoted for the first time in their history)[3][4] Gostivar (runners-up, promoted after a 10 season absence)[3][4] Vardar (Third placed; won play-off, promoted after a 2 season absence) Relegated to 2023–24 Second League Skopje (10th; lost play-off, relegated after a 2 seasons spell in top flight) Pobeda (11th, relegated after a single season spell in top flight)[1][2]

At the end of the 2023–24 season Promoted from 2023–24 Second League Besa (DD) (winners, promoted for the first time in their history)[5][6] Pelister (runners-up, promoted after a 2 season absence)[5][6] Relegated to 2024–25 Second League Makedonija G.P. (11th, relegated after a 6 seasons spell in top flight) Bregalnica (12th, relegated after a 3 seasons spell in top flight)

Participating teams

Bregalnica	AP Brera	Shkendija	Rabotnichki	Sileks
Gradski stadion Štip	Blagoj Istatov Stadium UEFA	Ecolog Arena	National Arena Toše Proeski UEFA	City Stadium Kratovo
Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 9,200	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 36,460	Capacity: 6,000
	|
Makedonija G.P.	Skopje Bregalnica AP Brera Gostivar Shkëndija Sileks Struga Tikvesh Voska Sport Skopje clubs: Makedonija Rabotnički Shkupi Vardar class=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2023–24 Macedonian First League			Struga
Gjorče Petrov Stadium				Gradska Plaža Stadium
Capacity: 3,000				Capacity: 3,000
Voska Sport	Tikvesh	Vardar	Shkupi	Gostivar
SRC Biljanini Izvori	Kavadarci City Stadium	Boris Trajkovski Stadium	Čair Stadium	Gostivar City Stadium
Capacity: 4,500	Capacity: 9,500	Capacity: 3,500	Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 2,500

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
AP Brera	Giovanni Valenti	Marko Alchevski	Sportika SA	Mozzart
Bregalnica	Goran Zdravkov	Halid Lwaliwa	Hummel	Superior
Gostivar	Murat Daban	Xhelil Abdulla	Nike
Makedonija G.P.	Goran Simov	Filip Mishevski	Joma	Zlatna Kopacka, Tesla
Rabotnički	Milan Ilievski	Egzon Belica	Joma
Shkendija	Jeton Beqiri	Ennur Totre	Macron	Ecolog
Shkupi	Mladen Žižović	Artan Iljazi	Reaction	Alagoz Holding
Sileks	Aleksandar Vasoski	Daniel Bozhinovski	Jako	Sileks
Struga	Shpetim Duro	Bunjamin Shabani	Macron	Trim & Lum
Tikvesh	Gjorgji Mojsov	Aleksandar Varelovski	Joma	Klimi.mk, Sinalco
Vardar	Gorazd Mihajlov	Darko Micevski	Joma
Voska Sport	Miljan Radović	Hadis Velii	Joma	Nefi Ik

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Struga (C)	33	20	4	9	56	33	+23	64[a]	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Shkëndija	33	18	10	5	55	27	+28	64[a]	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
3	Shkupi	33	17	11	5	42	23	+19	62
4	Tikvesh	33	12	8	13	41	40	+1	44	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round[b]
5	Sileks	33	10	13	10	36	40	−4	43
6	Gostivar	33	9	15	9	32	38	−6	42[c]
7	AP Brera	33	11	9	13	34	33	+1	42[c]
8	Rabotnički	33	12	6	15	29	34	−5	42[c]
9	Voska Sport	33	10	12	11	37	41	−4	42[c]
10	Vardar (O)	33	10	7	16	28	43	−15	37	Qualification for the Macedonian First Football League play-off
11	Makedonija G.P. (R)	33	8	5	20	29	44	−15	29	Relegation to the Macedonian Second Football League
12	Bregalnica (R)	33	6	10	17	27	50	−23	28

Source: MacedonianFootball.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw; 8) Play-off.^[7]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Head-to-head points: Struga 6, Shkëndija 3.
2. Tikvesh qualified for the Conference League first qualifying round by winning the 2023–24 Macedonian Football Cup.
3. Head-to-head points: Gostivar 15, AP Brera 12, Rabotnički 10, Voska Sport 8.

Results

For matches 1–22, each team plays every other team twice (home and away). For matches 23–33, each team plays every other team for the third time (either at home or away). The league standings after matches 22 are used to determine the games for the last 11 matchdays.

Home \ Away	APB	BRE	GOS	MGP	RAB	SKE	SKU	SIL	STR	TIK	VAR	VOS	APB	BRE	GOS	MGP	RAB	SKE	SKU	SIL	STR	TIK	VAR	VOS
AP Brera	—	1–1	0–1	3–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	—	1–1	—	5–3	2–1	—	—	—	—	—	2–0	1–0
Bregalnica	1–0	—	2–1	2–3	2–1	2–2	0–0	2–1	1–3	2–1	0–0	2–2	—	—	0–0	—	0–1	—	1–0	1–1	—	—	0–3	—
Gostivar	2–0	1–0	—	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–0	1–2	2–1	0–3	1–1	1–1	1–1	—	—	1–4	0–0	—	2–0	—	—	2–1	0–0	—
Makedonija G.P.	1–0	1–0	3–0	—	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–3	1–1	0–1	1–2	—	2–1	—	—	—	1–1	—	—	0–1	1–0	—	0–2
Rabotnički	1–0	2–0	0–0	1–0	—	1–2	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–1	2–0	—	—	—	1–1	—	0–2	—	—	1–2	3–1	2–0	—
Shkëndija	1–1	2–0	2–2	1–0	2–0	—	0–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–1	3–2	4–1	4–1	—	—	—	—	6–1	0–2	—	—	0–0
Shkupi	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	3–0	1–0	—	1–1	2–0	0–0	2–0	3–0	0–0	—	—	3–1	3–2	0–2	—	—	—	3–2	3–0	—
Sileks	0–1	0–0	1–1	2–2	2–0	2–1	2–1	—	0–0	1–0	3–2	4–2	2–1	—	0–0	1–0	0–1	—	0–0	—	—	—	1–1	—
Struga	1–2	2–1	2–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–2	2–0	—	3–1	4–0	1–0	3–1	2–2	1–0	—	—	—	1–2	2–3	—	—	—	3–1
Tikvesh	1–0	2–1	2–2	1–0	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–0	2–3	—	1–0	1–1	3–1	2–1	—	—	—	2–1	—	1–1	3–2	—	—	0–0
Vardar	1–0	2–0	0–2	2–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	2–2	1–3	2–0	—	1–2	—	—	—	1–0	—	1–1	—	—	1–0	2–2	—	0–1
Voska Sport	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	3–2	0–1	2–3	0–0	0–1	0–3	3–2	—	—	4–0	1–1	—	1–1	—	0–0	2–1	—	—	—	—

Source: MacedonianFootball.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Macedonian First Football League play-off

The tenth-placed club (Vardar) faced the third-placed club from the 2023–24 Macedonian Second Football League (Detonit Plachkovica) for the final place in the following season's Macedonian First Football League.

26 May 2024

17:00 CEST

Vardar	2–0	Detonit Plachkovica
Đurić 42' Šušnjara 45+1'

Blagoj Istatov Stadium, Strumica

Referee: Jovan Kachevski (Struga)

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 20 May 2024.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Aleksa Marušić	Voska Sport	17
2	Besart Ibraimi	Struga	15
	Marjan Radeski
4	Almir Aganspahić	Shkëndija	12
	Lanre Kehinde	Gostivar
6	Ediz Spahiu	Tikvesh & Gostivar	10
7	Marko Gjorgjievski	Sileks	9
	Antonio Kalanoski
9	Alen Jasharoski	Voska Sport	8
	Adenis Shala	Shkëndija

See also

• 2023–24 Macedonian Football Cup
• 2023–24 Macedonian Second Football League

References

1. "1.MFL 2022/23 Final Standings". MacedonianFootball.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
2. "First League - North Macedonia - 2022/2023". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
3. "2.MFL 2022/23 Final Standings". MacedonianFootball.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
4. "Second League - Macedonia - 2022/2023". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
5. "2.MFL 2023/24 Final Standings". MacedonianFootball.com. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
6. "Second League - Macedonia - 2023/2024". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
7. "Пропозиции за натпреварување во Втора МФЛ Исток и Втора МФЛ Запад" (PDF). FFM.mk. Retrieved 7 August 2017.

External links

• Football Federation of Macedonia (in Macedonian)
• MacedonianFootball.com (in Macedonian and English)