The 2018–19 Pakistan Premier League was the 61st season of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

domestic football and the 12th season of the

Pakistan Premier League The Pakistan Premier League (PPL; ur, پاکستان پریمیئر لیگ) is a Pakistani professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Pakistan football league system, it is the country's primary football compe ...

, and the first season to be played since 2014–15. The season is scheduled to be held in

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the old ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

and

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

between 25 September and 11 January 2019, with 16 teams participating (12 PPL teams and 4 winner teams of second-tier playoffs). Each team would get to play each other twice, meaning in a season they would play 30 games. The bottom four teams get relegated to the second tier. The team that finishes first would get qualification in the AFC Cup, but AFC denied entry of Pakistani football clubs in

2019 AFC Cup The 2019 AFC Cup was the 16th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club association football, football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Al Ahed FC, Al-Ahed won the title for the first time, defeating 4.25 SC, ...

because of incomplete licensing regulations due to absence of footballing activity since the end of 2014-15 season.

Teams

Promotion and relegation

Teams relegated to FFL

Baloch Quetta and

Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways ( ur, ) is the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan. Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger servi ...

were relegated at the end of 2014–15 season (no league was held until current season).

Teams promoted from FFL

Pakistan Navy got promoted after winning 2014–15 Pakistan Football Federation League, defeating Baloch Nushki 1–0 in the finals.

Teams promoted from PPL Promotion Play-Offs 2018

Civil Aviation Authority, Sui Southern Gas Company, Ashraf Sugar Mills and Sui Nouthern Gas Company won their matches and promoted to

Stadium and locations

Season summary

Ashraf Sugar Mills and Pakistan Airlines withdrew from league with former withdrawing after playing first phase in

and latter not playing a single match due to financial issues. Baloch Nushki got relegated after failing to win a single match and ended third last in relegation zone with six points from 6 draws. On 9 January 2019,

Karachi Port Trust The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) ( ur, ) is a Pakistani federal government agency under the administrative control of the Federal Maritime Secretary that oversees the operations of the Port of Karachi, one of South Asia's largest and busiest de ...

got relegated to Federation League for the first time ever, after they lost 2–0 to Muslim and 12th placed Sui Northern Gas winning their game match 4–3 against Afghan Chaman, leaving Karachi Port Trust 5 points from safe zone with only one match to play.

Khan Research Laboratories The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, ( ur, ) or KRL for short, is a federally funded, multi-program national research institute and national laboratory site primarily dedicated to uranium enrichment, supercomputing and fluid mechanics. It ...

won the league on the final match day. Pakistan Airforce were sitting at the top of table with 51 points, one point ahead of Sui Southern Gas and three ahead of Khan Research Laboratories, who both had to face each other on final match day. Sui Southern Gas victory would hand them the title and for Khan Research Laboratories, they to beat the Sui Southern Gas by four goals to secure the title. Khan Research Laboratories the last game of the season, defeating title contenders Sui Southern Gas 4–0, finishing first on goal difference ahead of Pakistan Airforce. This is the smallest title winning margin in the history of

, with Khan Research Laboratories winning with a goal difference of just +1, as Pakistan Airforce had a goal difference on +27 and winners Khan Research Laboratories had +28.

League table

Results

Season statistics

Scoring

* First goal of the season: Ahmed Faheem for WAPDA against Pakistan Army (26 September 2018). * Last goal of the season: Izharullah for Khan Research Laboratories against Sui Southern Gas (13 January 2018) * Most goals scored by a single team in a match: 6 goals ** Pakistan Navy 6–1 Baloch Nushki (7 December 2018) * Highest scoring game: 7 goals ** Pakistan Navy 6–1 Baloch Nushki (7 December 2018) ** Karachi Port Trust 2–5 Civil Aviation Authority (30 December 2018) ** Sui Northern Gas 4–3 Afghan Chaman (8 January 2019) * Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 3 goals ** Sui Northern Gas 4–3 Afghan Chaman (8 January 2019)