Cyprus Division 1

Football was introduced to Cyprus early in the 20th century by the British. Initially played in the island's schools, it proved hugely popular and a number of clubs were duly formed.

Anorthosis Famagusta FC was founded in 1911, after which many other clubs were established. In 1932, the annual Cypriot Championship began, at first unofficially. Every season, the championship was organised by a different football club, which caused conflict among some of the teams.

As football became more established, the clubs were united in agreeing that an official body was needed to regulate the sport. In September 1934, the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) was formed and the Cypriot Championship and Cup began to take place annually. The first Champions of Cyprus were Trust in 1935, but the club folded three years later. The 1930s were dominated by APOEL, who won five championships in a row until 1940. Like other championships throughout the world, the Cypriot Championship was interrupted due to World War II from 1941 until 1945.^[]

In 1955, Çetinkaya Türk S.K., who had been the only Turkish Cypriot team playing in the Cypriot First Division since 1934–35, withdrew from the Championship and, along with other Turkish Cypriot teams, established the Cyprus Turkish Football Association, with its own competitions. The reason behind this was political, as the Turkish Cypriots were opposed to the anticolonial struggle of EOKA and union with Greece (enosis). However, this federation was never recognised, and none of its teams was permitted to play in international competitions.

Cypriot independence in 1960 was followed by full UEFA membership for the Cyprus Football Association in 1962. From 1963, the champions of Cyprus could compete in the European Cup and the Cup winners in the European Cup Winners Cup. The runners-up in the Greek Cypriot First Division began to compete in the UEFA Cup in 1971. From 1967 until 1974, the Greek Cypriot Champions were promoted to the Greek First National Division. Greek Cypriot teams were relegated every season from the Alpha Ethniki, apart from 1973–74, when APOEL managed to remain in the Greek Championship, which meant that Cyprus would have two teams in Greek top tier. However, due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus that year, APOEL and Omonia (the 1973–74 Cypriot champions) withdrew from the League.^[]

From the beginning of the 2000's, the Cypriot First Division started to improve in quality which leaded to some surprising runs to the Champions League by teams like Anorthosis Famagusta, APOEL Nicosia and most recently Paphos. The Cyprus national team couldn't benefit from this success, as most game time among most teams in the Cypriot First Division go to foreign players.