In the 1920s several Arab clubs (Dajani Sports Club of Jerusalem, several Orthodox clubs) were established; by the start of the 1930s, there were about 20.
In 1921 a first league was formed, the Government Department League, which only operated in Jerusalem; it only lasted until 1925 due to reduction of the British personnel in the various departments. The Al-Zahra league, also restricted to Jerusalem, which initially included a few Jewish clubs became the first (and only) "integrated" league in the country when it was joined by Rawdat al Ma'aref and Arab Sports Club in 1923. A number of cup competitions were also played; in Jerusalem these included one operated by The Sports Club between 1924 and 1927 (when Royal Air Force won the trophy outright), the Jerusalem Flower Cup (first held in 1923 with as participants Rawdat al Ma'arif, YMCA, Arab SC, Shell, Ofir and Hanoar Haoved) and the Municipal Cup competition.
Note that the Palestine FA was formed in 1928; in the same year, it submitted
a report submitted to FIFA (in order to apply for membership of the worldwide
organisation) describing 3 soccer divisions in Palestine, with 10 teams in the
first, 20 in the second (5 of them Arab), and 39 in the third (6 of them Arab);
however, this was deliberate misinformation (not to say a pack of lies) by PFA
founder Yosef Yekutieli (né Zusmanovitz), as was the claim in the report
that the PFA had been formed in 1927 (apparently in order to take credit for
organising the cup tournament that year, cf. [Bli 19],
pp. 97 ff.): there was no league competition at the time, and nowhere
near 50 Jewish football clubs as implied by the report.
No official league championship was played until the 1932 edition;
there only were cup competitions 1928-1930 and sources (such
as [FIF 31]) crediting
Maccabi Hashmonai Jerusalem with a 1928 championship title just
upgraded their win in the controversial
cup competition of that year. The
same applied for the supposed championships of Maccabi Tel-Aviv
in 1929 and 1930;
the latter was actually won by
their reserve side.
See also the list of final tables and Palestine - List of Champions and Cup Winners.
Champions marked with D won the double.
1931/32 D British Police
1932/33 no championship
1933/34 D Hapoel Tel-Aviv
1934/35 abandoned
1935/36 Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1936/37 Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1937/38 abandoned [1]
1938/39 no championship [2]
1939/40 Hapoel Tel-Aviv
1940/41 no championship [3]
1941/42 Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1942/43 not finished [4]
1943/44 Hapoel Tel-Aviv [5]
1944/45 no championship [6]
1945/46 no championship
1946/47 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1947/48 not finished
[1] the league was abandoned long before the end of the season; some
sources credit Hapoel Tel-Aviv with the title but this is incorrect
as several other clubs could still overtake them in the table and
the PFA did not declare them champions.
[2] no national championship was held; the Tel-Aviv district league was
won by Maccabi Tel-Aviv, that of Jerusalem by Police Depot; the
champions of Haifa are not known.
[3] no national championship was held; there were separate competitions
for Hapoel clubs (won by Hapoel Tel-Aviv) and for Maccabi and Beitar
clubs (won by Maccabi Avshalom Petah-Tikva); in addition there were
regional leagues in Jerusalem and in the northern region.
[4] in 1942/43, three regional leagues were played, in Haifa, Jerusalem
and Tel-Aviv; the Haifa league was abandoned while the champions of
Jerusalem (Homenetmen) and Tel-Aviv (Maccabi Tel-Aviv) were to play
off for the championship; Homenetmen refused to enter and Maccabi
were declared champions; however, this championship is not considered
official by the IFA.
[5] the 1943/44 championship was abandoned with about two dozen matches
left to play; leaders Hapoel Tel-Aviv were declared champions.
[6] there were two regional "test" leagues: the southern division was
won by Beitar Tel-Aviv, the northern division by Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
1948/49 no championship
1949/50 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 24 21 1 2 103-18 43
1950/51 no championship
1951/52 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 22 18 2 2 89-18 38
1952/53 no championship
1953/54 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv 22 16 6 0 59-11 38
1954/55 Hapoel Petah-Tikva 26 18 4 4 68-23 40
1955/56 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 22 13 6 3 47-16 32
1956/57 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 18 13 2 3 41-19 28
1957/58 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv 22 13 9 0 50-12 35
1958/59 Hapoel Petah-Tikva 22 15 3 4 49-18 33
1959/60 Hapoel Petah-Tikva 22 14 3 5 65-29 31
1960/61 Hapoel Petah-Tikva 22 16 4 2 48-15 36
1961/62 Hapoel Petah-Tikva 22 12 4 6 35-19 28
1962/63 Hapoel Petah-Tikva 22 13 6 3 38-17 32
1963/64 Hapoel Ramat-Gan 28 17 6 5 52-33 40
1964/65 Hakoah Maccabi Ramat-Gan 30 13 11 6 42-24 37
1965/66 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 30 12 14 4 36-23 38
1966-68 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 60 30 18 12 88-50 78
1968/69 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 30 19 6 5 55-21 44
1969/70 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv 30 15 9 6 51-21 39
1970/71 Maccabi Netanya 30 20 7 3 44-18 47
1971/72 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 30 18 9 3 45-20 45
1972/73 Hakoah Maccabi Ramat-Gan 30 16 10 4 41-20 42
1973/74 Maccabi Netanya 30 13 11 6 32-19 37
1974/75 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 30 15 10 5 34-19 40
1975/76 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 34 14 14 6 40-29 42
1976/77 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv 30 16 10 4 47-26 42
1977/78 D Maccabi Netanya 26 15 8 3 50-21 38
1978/79 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 30 18 8 4 47-16 33
1979/80 Maccabi Netanya 30 19 8 3 53-23 46
1980/81 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 30 13 12 5 50-30 38
1981/82 Hapoel Kfar-Saba 30 17 8 5 45-28 42
1982/83 Maccabi Netanya 30 18 7 5 54-31 61
1983/84 Maccabi Haifa 30 16 9 5 48-28 57
1984/85 Maccabi Haifa 30 20 5 5 57-20 65
1985/86 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 30 17 8 5 52-26 59
1986/87 Beitar Jerusalem 30 19 9 2 59-27 66
1987/88 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 33 19 9 5 43-23 66
1988/89 Maccabi Haifa 31 15 14 2 49-19 57
1989/90 Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 32 17 11 4 48-24 62
1990/91 D Maccabi Haifa 32 22 5 5 56-28 71
1991/92 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 32 23 6 3 82-29 75
1992/93 Beitar Jerusalem 33 22 5 6 64-38 71
1993/94 Maccabi Haifa 39 28 11 0 97-27 95
1994/95 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 30 19 6 5 59-27 63
1995/96 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv 30 23 5 2 59-16 74
1996/97 Beitar Jerusalem 30 21 6 3 62-20 69
1997/98 Beitar Jerusalem 30 20 9 1 71-33 69
1998/99 Hapoel Haifa 30 22 5 3 66-23 71
1999/00 D Hapoel Tel-Aviv 39 26 7 6 76-28 85
2000/01 Maccabi Haifa 38 24 10 4 68-28 82
2001/02 Maccabi Haifa 33 22 9 2 72-32 75
2002/03 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 33 22 3 8 66-31 69
2003/04 Maccabi Haifa 33 19 6 8 54-25 63
2004/05 Maccabi Haifa 33 21 8 4 66-27 71
2005/06 Maccabi Haifa 33 23 6 4 65-25 75
2006/07 Beitar Jerusalem 33 19 10 4 52-24 67
2007/08 D Beitar Jerusalem 33 20 7 6 61-23 67
2008/09 Maccabi Haifa 33 19 10 4 49-24 67
2009/10 D Hapoel Tel-Aviv 35 25 9 1 87-26 49
2010/11 Maccabi Haifa 35 24 8 3 63-28 45
2011/12 Hap. Ironi Kiriat Shmona 37 21 10 6 48-26 73
2012/13 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 36 25 5 6 78-30 80
2013/14 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 36 26 6 4 76-30 84
2014/15 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv 36 21 9 6 67-32 70 [-2]
2015/16 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 36 25 8 3 66-24 83
2016/17 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 36 26 7 3 73-18 85
2017/18 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 36 24 8 4 70-27 80
2018/19 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 36 27 8 1 77-17 92
2019/20 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 36 26 9 1 63-10 87
2020/21 Maccabi Haifa 36 24 7 5 72-29 79
2021/22 Maccabi Haifa 36 24 6 6 79-27 78
2022/23 Maccabi Haifa 36 27 3 6 76-34 84
2023/24 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 36 26 7 3 75-25 85
2024/25
Number of Titles (80)
24 Maccabi Tel-Aviv [includes 4 before 1948]
15 Maccabi Haifa
11 Hapoel Tel-Aviv [includes 3 before 1948]
6 Beitar Jerusalem
Hapoel Petah-Tikva
5 Hapoel Beer-Sheva
Maccabi Netanya
2 Hakoah Ramat-Gan
1 Bnei-Yehuda Tel Aviv
British Police [before 1948]
Hapoel Haifa
Hapoel Kfar-Sava
Hapoel Ironi Kiriat Shmona
Hapoel Ramat-Gan
Sources included: [Sho 06], [Bli 19], [FIF 31]
Prepared and maintained by Yaniv Bleicher and Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Authors: Yaniv Bleicher and Karel Stokkermans
Last updated: 12 Oct 2024
(C) Copyright Yaniv Bleicher, Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF 1995/2024
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
acknowledgement is given to the authors. All rights reserved.