São Vicente Premier Division
| Founded | 1938 |
|---|---|
| Region |
 São Vicente Island, Cape Verde
|
| Number of teams | 8 (Premier Division) 6 (Second Division) |
| Promotion to | Cape Verdean Football Championship |
| Relegation to | São Vicente Second Division |
| Current champions |
CS Mindelense (49th time) (2016-17) |
| Most championships | CS Mindelense (49 times) |
| Website | Official website |
The São Vicente Island or Regional Premier Division is a regional championship played in São Vicente Island, Cape Verde. The championship is organized by the São Vicente Regional Football Association (Associação Regional de São Vicente de Futebol, ARSVF).The winner of the championship plays in Cape Verdean football Championships of each season. In 1989, 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2017, a second place club participated in the national championships, Académica do Mindelo in 1989 , Mindelense in 2014 and FC Derby in 2015 and in 2016 and will be for 2017. The 7th place club plays with a Second Division runner-up in a division decisional match to decide on promoting or remain in the Second Division. The last placed club relegated into the São Vicente Second Division. Up to around 2010, only a club was relegated into that division.
The area includes the northwest central part of Cape Verde (especially the three islands of Santa Luzia, Ilhéu Branco and Ilhéu Raso which are not populated today are included in area, though the name of other isles are not used, also there are no clubs in that area).
The island league was founded in 1938 and is the oldest and existing island league in Cape Verde. In the founding years, the league formerly included much of the Barlavento Islands, when more clubs were created even the other islands, it reduced the area to only the northwestern and then the northwestcentral part of the country. None of the clubs outside the island participated in the island division before their island divisions were created. In its first three seasons, it had four clubs and were Amarantes, Castilho, Derby and Mindelense, Académica was founded later and the number of clubs risen to five.
The two island competitions were the highest level local championship in Cape Verde. The island had the second largest championships in the country in 1953 which lasted to the late 2000s. The 1953 island champion who was Académica would compete in the first colonial championship and claimed the first colonial title. The only entrant was a club from the island of São Vicente up to the end of colonial rule. Some clubs were created years later including Castilho and Falcões do Norte in the 1960s and increased its clubs to six, the points system was introduced and featured a ten-match season that started in the early of the year. After Batuque was founded, the club number rise to eight and nine in around 1990 after Corinthians who was the first Brazilian based club on the island was founded in 1988, it started a sixteen match season and had a two-year season.
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