Nangkiew Irat & Nongrim Hills to start off season; Champions Lajong take on
Rangdajied on Aug 9
By Our Reporter
Shillong, July 29: The Shillong Premier League 2025 will begin on August 6, with an exciting new format debuting this season that promises to take Meghalaya’s best known football league to greater heights, increase fan engagement and solidify the SPL’s status as the state’s No. 1 league.
Nangkiew Irat and Nongrim Hills have the honour of starting off the action this year, with all matches to take place at the SSA Stadium at First Ground, Polo, here. 2024’s runners-up Mawlai will face Sawmer the following day, while defending champions Shillong Lajong will feature in the third game against Rangdajied United on 9 August. The two teams promoted from the First Division 2024 – Mylliem and Malki – will then be seen in action on 12 August and 13 August against Langsning and Laitkor respectively.
Kick-off for the first five fixtures will be at 5:30pm under floodlights, with the following matches to begin at 3:45pm.
In 2024 the Shillong Sports Association took the monumental decision to expand its top flight competition to 10 clubs, which greatly increased the number of matches for the players and fans. However, accommodating the longer season in an already packed football calendar proved a challenge, so, in order to keep the league to a more manageable length while not compromising on player development, the SSA has introduced a new format this year.
The SPL proper will be played over one leg, with each team playing all the others once. The club that secures first place at the end of the 45 matches will be crowned SPL champions and the second-placed team will be the runners-up.
The season will then move to the new Shillong Super Cup (Super 6), featuring the best six SPL teams. The SPL champions and runners-up will qualify directly, while teams in positions 3 to 6 will first battle it out in playoffs before proceeding to the main event, which will feature two semifinals and a final. Relegation will apply as normal to the SPL – the bottom two teams from the league will drop down to the First Division in 2026.
The players have been training in earnest for several weeks now as anticipation builds for the start of SPL 2025. The single leg format means that every match is absolutely vital and that will undoubtedly make the action unmissable for the clubs’ dedicated fans.