Montenegrin Men's Handball First League

Prva Muška Liga

Founded	2006
No. of teams	8
Country	Montenegro
Confederation	EHF
Most recent champion(s)	Lovćen Cetinje
Most titles	Lovćen Cetinje (7)
Level on pyramid	1
International cup(s)	EHF Cup Winners' Cup EHF Cup EHF Challenge Cup
Official website	http://www.rscg.me

The Montenegrin First League of Men's Handball (in Montenegrin: Prva Muška Liga) is the top men's team handball league in Montenegro. It is organized by the Handball Federation of Montenegro.

History

Before independence

During the history, many Montenegrin clubs played in the SFR Yugoslavia / FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro First Handball League. Among them were RK Lovćen, RK Budućnost, RK Mornar, RK Rudar and RK Berane.
The only Montenegrin club who gained trophies in Yugoslav League was RK Lovćen. They gained two champion titles, with four finishes as a runner-up of championship.
Below is the list of Montenegrin clubs' champion titles in the First League of Yugoslavia.

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning Years
RK Lovćen Cetinje	2	4	1999-00, 2000–01

After independence

Soon after the Montenegrin independence referendum, Handball Federation of Montenegro founded its own competitions, with the First League as a top-tier competition. During the history, RK Lovćen was most successful side and participated three times on regional SEHA League.
In the league participate eight clubs, and the season have two parts. During the first part, there are 14 weekends, after which are forming two groups - TOP4 (league for the champion) and LAST4 (league for relegation).
First League is one of three men's handball competitions in Montenegro. Other high level competition is Montenegrin Cup.

Period 2006-2015

First title holder in independent Montenegro was RK Lovćen, who won the trophy on season 2006-07. Their biggest opponent at the time was RK Berane, who won the champions' battle during the next season.
Next two years saw the domination of RK Budućnost from Podgorica, who won two consecutive titles. Big incidents on the games were occurred during the both seasons. Match RK Budućnost - RK Lovćen, which decided about national champion, played on May 17, 2009, was the most attended game in the history of Montenegrin First League (4,000 spectators). Budućnost won 28:26 (18:14) and held the first title in the club history. Match ended with incidents in Sports center 'Morača', with the clash of supporters, but the players Goran Đukanović (Budućnost) and Igor Marković (Lovćen) too. Big crowd disturbances previously happened on the game RK Berane - RK Lovćen.
RK Budućnost was dissolved during the summer 2010. During the season 2010-11, RK Mojkovac gained their first-ever trophy, after title race with RK Lovćen.
From 2011 to 2015, RK Lovćen won four consecutive titles. At that time, team from Cetinje played three seasons in SEHA League, while RK Sutjeska participated once.

Period 2016-

With poor performances of RK Lovćen and following earlier relegations of many notable teams as RK Berane or RK Sutjeska, title holder on season 2015-16 was RK Budvanska Rivijera. Next season, the trophy won RK Partizan from Tivat.
New time of RK Lovćen domination started in 2017. Team from Cetinje won two consecutive trophies in seasons 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Champions

From the inaugural season (2006–07), five different clubs won the champion title in Montenegrin First League.

Titles by season

Season	Champions	Runners-up	Third
2006–07	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Berane	RK Sutjeska Nikšić
2007–08	RK Berane	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Sutjeska Nikšić
2008–09	RK Budućnost Podgorica	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Sutjeska Nikšić
2009–10	RK Budućnost Podgorica	RK Sutjeska Nikšić	RK Lovćen Cetinje
2010–11	RK Mojkovac	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Sutjeska Nikšić
2011–12	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Mojkovac	RK Sutjeska Nikšić
2012–13	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Mojkovac	RK Budvanska rivijera
2013–14	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Budvanska rivijera	RK Partizan Tivat
2014–15	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Budvanska Rivijera	RK Berane
2015–16	RK Budvanska rivijera	RK Partizan Tivat	RK Lovćen Cetinje
2016–17	RK Partizan Tivat	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Mojkovac
2017–18	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Partizan Tivat	RK Jedinstvo Bijelo Polje
2018–19	RK Lovćen Cetinje	RK Komovi Andrijevica	RK Partizan Tivat

Titles by Club

Montenegrin League

Since 2006, five different clubs won the trophy of Montenegrin handball champion.
Most successful were RK Lovćen Cetinje with 6 titles and now dissolved RK Budućnost Podgorica (2 trophies). With 2 titles from FR Yugoslavia Championship (2000, 2001), two trophies of FRY Cup Winner (2002, 2003) and 5 wins in Montenegrin Cup, RK Lovćen is the most successful participant of Montenegrin First League.
Clubs which have one champions trophy are RK Mojkovac, RK Berane, RK Partizan Tivat and RK Budvanska Rivijera.

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Years Won
RK Lovćen Cetinje	7	4	2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019
RK Budućnost Podgorica	2	-	2009, 2010
RK Budvanska rivijera Budva	1	2	2016
RK Berane	1	1	2008
RK Mojkovac	1	2	2011
RK Partizan Tivat	1	2	2017

Overall

Below is an overall list, with titles won in both leagues - Montenegrin League and FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro Championship.

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Years Won
RK Lovćen Cetinje	9	8	2000, 2001, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019
RK Budućnost Podgorica	2	-	2009, 2010
RK Budvanska rivijera Budva	1	2	2016
RK Berane	1	1	2008
RK Mojkovac	1	2	2011
RK Partizan Tivat	1	2	2017

Performances by clubs

Seasons

During the past, in Montenegrin First League participated 17 different teams. Only one club competed in the all seasons - Lovćen.

Club	Participations	Seasons
RK Lovćen Cetinje	13	2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
RK Mojkovac	11	2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
RK Berane	9	2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016
RK Budvanska rivijera Budva	9	2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019
RK Sutjeska Nikšić	8	2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
RK Rudar Pljevlja	8	2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017
RK Partizan Tivat	8	2007, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
RK Mornar Bar	6	2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013
RK Budućnost Podgorica	3	2008, 2009, 2010
RK Ulcinj	3	2013, 2014, 2015
RK Komovi Andrijevica	3	2016, 2018, 2019
RK Mornar 7 Bar	3	2017, 2018, 2019
RK Danilovgrad	2	2010, 2014
RK Cepelin Cetinje	2	2007, 2012
RK Jedinstvo Bijelo Polje	2	2018, 2019
RK Ivangrad Berane	2	2017, 2019
RK Sedmerac Bar	1	2012

Final placements

Below is the list of participants of the First League with their placements during the every single season.

Club	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
RK Berane	2	1	4	7	6	8	7	-	3	4	-	-	-
RK Partizan	7	7	-	-	-	-	-	3	5	2	1	2	3
RK Budućnost	-	5	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
RK Budvanska rivijera	-	-	5	6	5	4	3	2	2	1	-	-	5
RK Cepelin	8	-	-	-	-	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
RK Danilovgrad	-	-	-	8	-	-	-	7	-	-	-	-	-
RK Ivangrad	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	-	7
RK Jedinstvo	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	4
RK Komovi	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	7	-	4	2
RK Lovćen	1	2	2	3	2	1	1	1	1	3	2	1	1
RK Mojkovac	5	6	6	-	1	2	2	5	6	5	3	5	-
RK Mornar	4	4	8	7	7	-	6	-	-	-	-	-	-
RK Mornar 7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	6	6
RK Rudar	6	-	7	4	5	5	-	-	4	6	4	-	-
RK Sedmerac	-	-	-	-	-	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
RK Sutjeska	3	3	3	2	3	3	4	4	-	-	-	-	-
RK Ulcinj	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	6	7	-	-	-	-

All-time table

All-time Montenegrin First League table is a ranking of all Montenegrin handball clubs based on their performance in top tier. In this ranking 2 points are awarded for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. Highlighted clubs played in the First League in the 2018/19 season.

Rank	Club	Seasons	Games	W	D	L	Pts
1	RK Lovćen	13	244	199	10	35	408
2	RK Budvanska Rivijera	9	172	85	15	72	185
3	RK Mojkovac	11	194	83	14	95	180
4	RK Sutjeska	8	160	81	11	68	173
5	RK Berane	9	172	72	12	88	156
6	RK Partizan	8	136	67	9	60	143
7	RK Rudar	8	152	51	10	91	112
8	RK Budućnost	3	64	52	1	11	105
9	RK Mornar	6	112	34	8	70	76
10	RK Komovi	3	46	16	4	26	36
11	RK Jedinstvo	2	34	16	3	15	35
12	RK Ulcinj	3	48	12	4	32	28
13	RK Mornar 7	3	42	10	1	31	21
14	RK Cepelin	2	34	5	2	27	12
15	RK Ivangrad	2	30	4	2	24	10
16	RK Sedmerac	1	18	4	1	13	9
17	RK Danilovgrad	2	36	3	0	33	6

^a Including the season 2018/19

Attendances by season

Season	Avg	Overall	M	H	CH	CL
2006–07	570	45,600	80	3,000	Berane (1,160)	Boka (260)
2007–08	551	34,700	63	2,500	Berane (1,278)	Boka (150)
2008–09	651	72,900	112	4,000	Lovćen (875)	Budva (286)
2009–10	560	44,800	80	3,000	Budućnost (1,020)	Danilovgrad (240)
2010–11	557	33,400	60	1,500	Mojkovac (1,033)	Mornar (288)
2011–12	387	28,600	74	1,200	Lovćen (690)	Sedmerac (222)
2012–13	448	26,900	60	1,500	Mojkovac (778)	Berane (275)
2013–14	402	20,900	52	1,000	Lovćen (522)	Danilovgrad (188)
2014–15	434	25,150	58	1,500	Rudar (833)	RK Ulcinj (183)
2015–16	388	23,300	60	1,000	Budva (478)	Komovi (144)
2016–17	416	17,450	42	1,000	Lovćen (643)	Ivangrad (214)
2017–18	313	13,750	44	1,200	Lovćen (457)	Mornar 7 (183)
2018–19	331	19,850	60	1,500	Ivangrad (575)	Partizan (167)
2019–20	473	18,900	40	1,500	Rudar (1,000)	Partizan (100)

M = Number of matches (only matches with spectators counted); H = Highest attendance on one match; CH = Club with highest average attendance; CL = Club with lowest average attendance

Current season

At the first part of competition, seven teams play a two-round robin competition. In second phase, four best-placed teams are playing six-weeks long League for champion, while all the others are participating in playout.
The following clubs compete in the First League during the 2019–20 season.

Team	City	Arena	Capacity
Budvanska Rivijera	Budva	Mediterranean SC	1,500
Danilovgrad	Danilovgrad	City Hall	1,000
Jedinstvo	Bijelo Polje	SC Nikoljac	3,000
Komovi	Andrijevica	Gradska dvorana Berane	2,200
Lovćen	Cetinje	SRC Lovćen	1,500
Mornar 7	Bar	Topolica	3,000
Partizan	Tivat	Župa	1,500
Rudar	Pljevlja	SC Ada	3,000

Montenegrin handball clubs in SEHA League

Southeastern European Handball Association League, or SEHA League is founded at 2011, and Montenegrin clubs were part of it since first season. Most successful Montenegrin representative in regional league was RK Lovćen.
Below is list of participation of Montenegrin clubs by every season of SEHA League.

Season	Club	Pos	G	W	D	L
2011–12	RK Lovćen Cetinje	6	21	12	0	9
	RK Sutjeska Nikšić	10	21	3	1	17
2012–13	RK Lovćen Cetinje	6	18	9	2	7
2013–14	RK Lovćen Cetinje	9	18	3	2	13

Montenegrin handball clubs in European competitions

Main article: Montenegrin handball clubs in European competitions

Montenegrin men's handball clubs are participating in the EHF competitions since the season 1995–96.
First team which ever competed at the European cups was Mornar Bar and most successful Montenegrin represent in the European competitions is Lovćen Cetinje. The other Montenegrin clubs which competed at the EHF competitions are Berane, Rudar Pljevlja, Budućnost Podgorica, Sutjeska Nikšić, Mojkovac and Budvanska rivijera Budva.
The greatest result in the European cups made RK Lovćen during the season 2000–01. As a champion of FR Yugoslavia, Lovćen won fifth place in the EHF Champions League.
Below is a list of Montenegrin teams which played in the European competitions.

Club	S	G	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Lovćen Cetinje	19	71	27	4	40	1808:1905	56
Berane	4	16	10	0	6	459:453	20
Budućnost Podgorica	2	16	9	2	5	483:450	20
Sutjeska Nikšić	5	14	3	2	9	323:372	11
Mornar Bar	4	10	4	0	6	282:280	8
Mojkovac	4	10	3	0	7	200:274	6
Partizan Tivat	3	8	1	3	4	187:231	5
Rudar Pljevlja	1	4	2	0	2	97:114	4
Budvanska rivijera Budva	3	6	0	0	6	135:171	0
Jedinstvo Bijelo Polje	1	2	0	0	2	46:73	0
10 TEAMS		157	59	11	87	4020:4323	129

S - seasons; G - games; W - wins; D - draws; L - losses; GD - goal difference; Pts - points (win = 2pts; draw = 1)

See also

• Montenegrin handball clubs in European competitions
• Montenegrin Second League of Men's Handball
• Montenegrin Men's Handball Cup
• Montenegrin First League of Women's Handball

External links

• Handball Federation of Montenegro