The 2012–13 Bhutan National League was the first season of the

Bhutan National League The Bhutan Premier League, currently known as the Bank of Bhutan Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the men's highest division of professional football in Bhutan. It also provides Bhutan's entrant for continental competition, the AFC ...

. It was organized by the

Bhutan Football Federation The Bhutan Football Federation (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྐང་རིལ་ཚོགས་སྡེ) is the governing body of football in Bhutan, controlling Bhutan national football team, Bhutan women's national football team and Bhutan ...

and sponsored by

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

. The National League replaced the A-Division as the country's premier football competition and would provide Bhutan's entrant to the

2013 AFC President's Cup The 2013 AFC President's Cup was the ninth edition of the AFC President's Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "emerging countries" in Asia. Istiqlol were the defending champions, but did ...

. the A-Division continues as a football competition, but is now merely a qualifying round for

Thimphu Thimphu (; ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's '' dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city of Punakha was replac ...

-based teams. The top three teams in the A-Division progressed to the national league where they were joined by three other teams representing other districts within Bhutan. The A-Division was won by Druk Pol, but were beaten to the national title by fellow A-Division competitors Yeedzin who won the inaugural competition, their fifth top flight title overall.

2012 A-Division

The 2012 Bhutanese A-Division was the twenty sixth season of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. It began on 31 August 2012 and ended on 6 October 2012. As the only stadium used in the league was the

Changlimithang Stadium Changlimithang Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan, which serves as the national stadium of Bhutan. It is predominantly used for association football, football matches and is the home of the Bhutan national football team, other ...

, matches were played one per day, with a mid-season break from 16 to 20 September. As there was only one stadium used, the 6 teams were designated so that each team played 5 "home" games and 5 "away" games. This season marked the end of the Thimphu-based league being the top league in the country. The A-Division will now act as a qualifying tournament for the Bhutan National League, a nationwide tournament that will now provide the qualifier for the

Overview

The A-Division was won by Druk Pol for the 8th time in their history, their first title since 2003. Druk Pol, together with Zimdra and Yeedzin, qualify for the 2012–13 Bhutan National League, which include these three teams from

together with four other teams representing the districts of

Punakha Punakha () is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is about 72 km away from Thim ...

, Geylegphug,

Samtse Samtse is a town and the headquarters of the Samtse District in Bhutan. The population of the town was 5,396 as of 2017. The population of the Samtse district was 60,100 at the 2005 census. Samtse is close to the Bhutan–India border. Across t ...

and Chukha.

League standings

Results

National League

Teams

A total of six teams competed in the league: three teams representing

, and three teams representing other districts. * Druk Pol (winners of 2012 A-Division) * Zimdra (runners-up of 2012 A-Division) * Yeedzin (third place of 2012 A-Division) * Ugyen Academy (representing

Punakha District Punakha District (; ) is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Thimphu District, Thimphu, Gasa District, Gasa, and Wangdue Phodrang Districts. The dominant language in the district is Dzongkha, the national lan ...

) *

(representing

Samtse District Samtse District (Dzongkha: བསམ་རྩེ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bsam-rtse rdzong-khag''; older spelling "Samchi") is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It comprises two subdistricts (''dungkhags''): Ta ...

) *

Phuentsholing Phuntsholing, also spelled as Phuentsholing (), is a border town in southern Bhutan and is the administrative seat of Chukha District. The town occupies parts of both Phuentsholing Gewog and Sampheling Gewog. Phuentsholing adjoins the Indian ...

(representing

Chukha District Chukha District (Dzongkha: ཆུ་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Chu-kha rdzong-khag''; officially spelled "Chhukha" ) is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. The major town is Phuentsholing. Languages In Chu ...

) Originally also a team representing Gelephug District was supposed to enter.

League standings

Results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2012-13 Bhutan National League Bhutan National League seasons

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