About Premier Liqa
History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
The Azerbaijan Premier League is the top flight of men's professional football in Azerbaijan. Founded in 1992 as the Top Division and rebranded as the Azerbaijan Premier League in 2007, the league generally starts in August and concludes in May of each year. Each team plays each other a total of four times (twice at home and twice away), and the winner of the Azerbaijan Premier League gets an opportunity to compete in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round.
The runners-up and third-placed team gain the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying rounds, while the winner of the Azerbaijan Cup also gains a spot. If the winner of that cup already has secured a place in either the Champions League or the Europa Conference League first qualifying rounds, then a spot in the Europa Conference League first qualifying rounds will go to the next-highest placed team in the table.
Like many other leagues around the world, the Azerbaijan Premier League operates on a promotion-relegation system. The worst-performing team in the league is relegated to the Azerbaijan First Division, while that tier’s best performing league earns a promotion to the Premier League.
In recent times, Qarabağ have become the most dominant side in the Azerbaijan Premier League, with more titles won than any other side.
In 2009, Azerbaijan's TV network, AzTV, secured an exclusive deal with the Azerbaijan Premier League, obtaining TV broadcasting rights for the league as well as the Azerbaijan Cup until 2015. Starting in the 2015/16 season, CBC Sport became the new broadcaster, grabbing both TV and live-streaming rights for the Azerbaijan Premier League.
