The Zambian National Division One is the second highest

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

division for men in Zambia and was introduced for the 2019/20 season with 18 teams. The league is administered by

Zambian Premier League The Zambia Super League, known as the MTN Super League for sponsorship purposes, is the top association football league created in 1962 by the Football Association of Zambia. The winners of the league each season receives ZMW500,000 ($26,414.20 ...

and is because of sponsorship reasons called Eden University National Division One League, as Eden University and FAZ signed a five year's agreement prior the inaugural season. The league operates on a system of

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

with

Zambia Super League The Zambia Super League, known as the MTN Super League for sponsorship purposes, is the top association football league created in 1962 by the Football Association of Zambia. The winners of the league each season receives ZMW500,000 ($26,414.20) ...

and Zambian Division One, and is played over 34 games.

Structure of the league

The league comprises 18 teams. Over the course of a season, each team plays twice against the others in the league, once at 'home' and once 'away', resulting in each team competing in 34 games in total. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. At the end of the season, the four top teams and the are promoted to the Super League and the bottom four teams are relegated to the provincial division one. The top two teams will compete in the Charity Shield ahead of next season while the top two after 17 games will join six teams from the top flight in the

ABSA Cup The ABSA Cup, formerly the Barclays Cup, is the current branding for an association football single-elimination tournament, cup competition launched in 2007 by the Football Association of Zambia. Participants are decided half-way through curren ...

Sponsorship

On 24 November 2020, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) signed a tripartite broadcast sponsorship deal with

Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation The Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) is a Zambian television and radio station, formerly state owned, now technically a statutory body but still essentially under government control. It is the oldest, widest, and largest radio and ...

(ZNBC) and TopStar (

StarTimes StarTimes is a Chinese electronics and media company with strong presence in Sub-Saharan Africa. StarTimes offers digital terrestrial television and satellite television services to consumers, and provides technologies to countries and broadcas ...

) that will see National Division One matches beamed live on TV.

Qualification to the league

The teams placed 5-14 are automatically qualified for the next season. The four promoted teams will be replaced by four relegated teams from the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. The four relegated teams will be replaced by four teams that win the National Division One qualifier which consists of the ten provincial division one champions.

Inaugural season

Teams that was qualified for the first season 2019/20 came from both the

and the old Zambian Division One. Four teams were relegated from the 2019 Zambian Super League, two from each stream ( Kitwe United and Prison Leopards FC from Stream A and F.C MUZA and Circuit City F.C. (who were acquired by and absorbed into

Nchanga Rangers F.C. Nchanga Rangers is a Zambian football club based in Chingola that plays in the MTN/FAZ Super Division. They play their home games at Nchanga Stadium in Chingola. The club is sponsored by Konkola Copper Mines. Achievements *Zambian Premier Le ...

from Provincial division one, and took over the spot) from Stream B). Losing teams of the qualifiers to the 2019–20 Zambian Super League (which was played between division one zone-winners) ( National Assembly F.C. and Young Green Eagles FC) along with teams placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th from each of the four provincial division one zones. (Zone 1: Police College F.C,

Zesco Malaiti Rangers FC ZESCO (acronym for Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Limited) is a state-owned power company in Zambia. It is Zambia's largest power company producing about 80% of the electricity consumed in the country. ZESCO represents Zambia in the So ...

Kafue Celtic FC Kafue is a town in the Lusaka Province of Zambia and it lies on the north bank of the Kafue River, after which it is named. It is the southern gateway to the central Zambian plateau on which Lusaka and the mining towns of Kabwe and the Copper ...

Zone 2:

Gomes FC ''Gomes'' is a common Portuguese and Old Galician surname. It derived from the given name ''Gomes'', which derived from the Visigothic word ''guma'', meaning "man". Its Spanish equivalent is Gómez. Notable people A–E * Al Gomes (born 1960 ...

, Indeni, Chambishi F.C. Zone 3: Zambeef FC, Mpulungu Harbour FC, Chindwin Sentries FC Zone 4: Zesco Shockers F.C, Mumbwa Medics, Sinazongwe United)

Promoted teams to Super League

References

{{Reflist Football leagues in Zambia Second level football leagues in Africa