


UAE First Division League is the second tier of football league competition in the United Arab Emirates.
As of 2020–21, the league features 15 sides who play each other in a home and away round-robin format, with a total of 28 games for each team. The top two sides gain promotion to the UAE Pro-League. On 29 May 2019, UAEFA announced that a UAE Second Division League to be established with smaller clubs, privately owned clubs, football academies with semi-professional teams compete for promotion to UAE Division one. On 6 July 2022, UAEFA announced that the number of participants will increase to 17 teams for the 2022–23 season. An increase of 2 teams, promoted from the UAE Second Division, and no relegation for UAE First Division clubs from the 2021–22 season, in an expansion season.
The league is growing in prominence since its inclusion of privately owned teams promoted from the UAE Second Division league since the 2021–22 season. The league's popularity has been growing year on year and has begun to attract global names such as Mario Balotelli, Quincy Promes, Douglas Costa, Benik Afobe, Leroy Fer, Kurt Zouma and managers such as Andrea Pirlo and most recently Andres Iniesta, amongst many others.
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Seasons
![]() Al Bataeh | ![]() Al Dhaid | ![]() Al Fujairah |
![]() Al Hamriyah | ![]() Al Jazirah Al H | ![]() Al Urooba |
![]() Al-Arabi Umm Al | ![]() Al-Ittifaq Duba | ![]() Dibba Al-Fujair |
![]() Dibba Al-Hisn | ![]() Dubai City | ![]() Emirates Club |
![]() Forte Virtus | ![]() Gulf United | ![]() Palm City |


