The 2016 Bhutan National League was the fifth season of the national football competition in Bhutan, having replaced the

A-Division (Bhutan) The Bhutan Super League, previously known as the Thimphu League and Bhutan A-Division, was the men's football league in Bhutan. Until 2012, it was the lone national top division. Between 2013 and 2020, it was played as the second division and th ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. Again, the Thimphu League provides the qualifiers from

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) 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 ...

, with the top three teams in that competition being awarded places in the National League alongside three regional teams.

Thimphu League

Format and rules

The Thimphu League is a regional competition for teams from Thimphu. the competition consists of seven teams, each plays the others twice – home and away – for a total of 12 games each, over 14 game weeks. 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. The league table is decided firstly on points won, then on goal difference and finally on total goals scored if the previous two are equal. The first three teams automatically qualify for the

National league The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

, the bottom two teams compete in relegation playoffs with the top two teams from the B-Division for two places in the next season's competition.

Competing clubs

* Bhutan U-17s * Druk Pol * Druk Stars *

Druk United Druk United FC was a Bhutanese football club from Thimphu and based at the Changlimithang Stadium, which played in the Bhutan Premier League, the top division of Bhutanese football. History 2002 to 2012 Druk United's first recorded instan ...

* Tensung * Terton *

* Thimphu City

Season summary

The 2016 season of the Thimphu League, previously called the Bhutan A-Division, started on April 3, 2016 and ended on June 19. Terton are defending champions and the competition has been expanded from 7 teams in 2015 with the addition of Tensung and Bhutan U-17s following the relegation of Dzongree. The 2016 Thimphu league was opened with a friendly match organised 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 Bhu ...

between the ''Legends,'' a team of ex-

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

players, including ''Nado,'' a sixty-five year old player who represented Bhutan throughout the eighties and nineties, and the ''Young Stars,'' the

, with the ''Young Stars'' winning 5–4.

League table

Results

National league

Format and rules

The competition consists of six teams competing for the national league championship, the winner of which gains a place in the next season's. AFC Cup. Each plays the others twice – home and away – for a total of 10 games each, over 10 game weeks. 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. the league table is decided firstly on points won, then on goal difference and finally on total goals scored if the previous two are equal. There is no promotion or relegation from this league.

Teams

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

, who qualified as a result of their final positions in the 2015 A-Division, and three teams representing other districts. * Bhutan Clearing (representing

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

) *

(third place in the 2016 A-Division) * Paro United (representing

Paro District Paro District ( Dzongkha: སྤ་རོ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Spa-ro rdzong-khag'') is a district ('' dzongkhag''), valley, river and town (population 20,000) in Bhutan. It is one of the most historic valleys in Bhutan. Both t ...

) *

(runners-up in the 2016 A-Division) * Thimphu City (winners of the 2016 A-Division) * Ugyen Academy (representing

Punakha District Punakha District ( Dzongkha: སྤུ་ན་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Spu-na-kha rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Thimphu, Gasa, and Wangdue Phodrang Districts. The do ...

)

League table

Results

References

{{2016 in Asian Football (AFC) Bhutan National League seasons

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...