Football Club Prishtina (, ), commonly known as Prishtina, is a professional football club based in Prishtina, Kosovo. The club play in the Football Superleague of Kosovo, is the most successful club in Kosovo, and is also the only Kosovar club to have never have been relegated from the league.
History
The club was founded in 1922 under the name Kosova. Later on their name changed to Proleter, Jedinstvo, Kosova and finally Prishtina.
1922–1926: Beginnings of FC Prishtina (Futboll Klub Kosova) Football in Kosovo has been played and developed since 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War. Many demobilized soldiers and officers, as well as students studying at universities in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, England, Bucharest, Budapest, and elsewhere, began to return to their home countries. Thus, a student of Samerslen College Grenoble (France) brought the first soccer ball to Prishtina in 1919. This gift he had from a doctor where he came from.
After the arrival of the first ball in Prishtina and Kosovo, mainly young people started running after it, but there was no organized way of playing.
Only friendly matches took place at that time. The city of Prishtina was just a town with 16,000 inhabitants when in 1922 the first blue club was formed, called "Kosova". This was a club that at that time consisted of soldiers of the Prishtina Garrison and did not hold official matches because it was not registered, but in its formation constantly played quality footballers of the Prishtina Garrison army.
Kosovo's oldest club did not compete at official levels, but played friendly matches with other teams, meanwhile formed by the country and Macedonia. In 1926 in Prishtina was formed the football club "Bashkimi", which gathered mainly craft youth. This club was materially much more consolidated than "Kosova". This team took advantage of the opportunity and registered with the Banovina Skopje Football Sub-League. There is no data on the level of competition.
1939–1945: War years
In the beginning the club competed in Yugoslav lower leagues all the way until the beginning of World War II when the region was annexed to Albania. In 1942 Prishtina competed in the North group of the 1942 Albanian Championship finishing in fourth and bottom place of their group.
1945–1981: First success in Yugoslavian Football
After the end of the war the club returned to the Yugoslav league system and played for mostly in the Yugoslav Second League. FC Prishtina won in 1945 and 1946 they won the Kosovo Province Title and are the first Kosovar to do so but the success did not end there. In the Season 1947 FC Prishtina wrote History for being one of the Founder Clubs in the new SFR Yugoslavia Cup in this Season. In their first ever Cup match they played against Goce Delcev from Prilep. FC Prishtina won this match with 1–0 and qualify for the next Round. In the second Round FC Prishtina had a harder tie against Rabotnicki Skopje from the second League, but FC Prishtina did not give up and won this Match away in Skopje with 1–2 and became the first Albanian Club to ever reach the Round of 16 in a Regional competition in their first ever Cup Season. In the Round of 16 FC Prishtina had to play away against Partizan Belgrad despite a good performance they lost this match 2–0.
Fc Prishtina also were close to qualify for their first time in the Yugoslav First League in the season 1972–73 but they lost the playoffs games against NK Osijek from Croatia and could not Progress in the Main division. After losing in the home in Prishtina the leg with 1–2 and away with 0–1 in Osijek.
