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Dhaka Senior Division Football League

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Dhaka Senior Division Football League

Dhaka Senior Division Football League (Bengali: ঢাকা সিনিয়র ডিভিশন ফুটবল লিগ), or the First Division Football League, is the third tier football league in Bangladesh. Until 2006, it was the top-tier league of the country. It was established in 1948 as part of the Dhaka League, while modern-day Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan. Until 1971, it was run in parallel with the National Football Championship held in both West and East Pakistan.

The top-tier football league in Dhaka has seen numerous changes in both format and name. Initially, it was referred to as the First Division or Senior Division Football League. In 1993, a Dhaka Premier Division Football League was launched which was also re-introduced in its current version as the Dhaka Senior Division Football League.

Upon the creation of the country's first national top-tier professional football league, the B. League in 2007, the Dhaka Premier Division League was merged with Dhaka First Division League, and re-introduced as the second-tier football league, the Dhaka Senior Division League. Finally, after the introduction of a national second-tier professional football league, the Bangladesh Championship League in 2012, it became the third-tier.

The league is the highest division of semi-professional football in the country, and the two top-finishing teams are automatically promoted to professional football through the Bangladesh Championship League. The league is run by Dhaka Metropolitan Football Committee under the supervision of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF).

Although the Dhaka Football League was initially established in 1915, it was not until 1948, a year after the Partition of India, that the three-tiered football league system (First Division, Second Division, Third Division), operated by the Dhaka Sporting Association, was officially recognized in what was then the province of East Bengal. Initially, games were held at Paltan Maidan, until the completion of Dhaka Stadium. Dhaka's Nawab Family also played a massive role in administrating the league during its early years. After receiving official recognition, the first league title was won by the Bengali-dominated Victoria SC.

Sports clubs like Dhaka Wanderers and Mohammedan SC were the more successful ones and grew the base for league football among Bengalis. Regulations also prevented clubs from fielding more than five non-Bengali players, consequently Dhaka's football grew popular and a few East Pakistani footballers from the league, such as Nabi Chowdhury, Abdur Rahim, Golam Sarwar Tipu, Hafizuddin Ahmed and Mari Chowdhury were selected for the Pakistan national team, which was dominated by West Pakistanis. Makrani players like the "Pakistani Pele" Abdul Ghafoor and Turab Ali were also essential to the league's success, when the clubs took part in the Aga Khan Gold Cup.

During the Pakistani days, a number of corporate and government owned clubs also participated in the Football League, with most of the players being employees of the parent corporations. Some of them were, PWD SC, Police AC, Dhaka Central Jail, WAPDA Sports Club, East Pakistan Government Press (EPGP), East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (EPIDC), and East Pakistan Railways, to name some. The league often attracted the leading players from National Football Championship in West Pakistan to play in a competition run as a parallel to the National Championship each year. Following 23 uninterrupted seasons, the league was not held in 1971, due to the Bangladesh Liberation War. After the Independence of Bangladesh, EPIDC one of the most successful corporate teams was changed into Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) and East Pakistan Government Press into Bangladesh Government Press.

On 15 July 1972, the Bangladesh Football Federation was founded, and the league was resumed only to be stopped after seven games. However, during the unfinished 1972 season, Dhaka Wanderers striker Nazir Ahmed Sr, scored a hattrick against Dilkusha SC and thus became the first player to achieve this feat since the country's independence. The regular league format after independence had all clubs play against one another for the first 15 rounds, however, from the 16th round the top-8 teams played a single round robin known as the Super League, while clubs who would finish midtable or face relegation were decided in the normal league round. The league usually consisted of 16 teams but the number of teams varied each year.

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