Platinum League

The Platinum League, or titled with the main sponsor, SportsPlay Platinum League is a Histalian professional league for men's association football clubs in Histalpol. The league is the top of the Histalian football league system, which consists of 3 leagues below it before being split into regional leagues. It is the country's primary football competition and is completed with 23 clubs, operating on a system of Relegation with the Histalpol Football League 1. The Top Clubs are entitlled to represent Histalpol in the AFA Club League. Only Histalian clubs can play, and participation by clubs in the British Isles, Ireland or Leeonia has been mooted.

Seasons run from May through to February. It is currently sponsored by SportsPlay bookmaker and thus known inside of Histalpol as the SportsPlay Platinum League, and outside of Histalpol, it is referred to as the Histalian Platinum League.

The competition formed originally as Histalian League 0 on 31 March, 1989, after the first serge of new teams being promoted to League 1 from regional leagues. Since then, a total of 7 clubs have been crowned the champions of the Platinum League, renamed from League 0 with the creation of League 2 in 1997. Since the inception of the league in 1989, 5 clubs have held the title for differing amounts; with the most championships held by Islington Wolves (9) followed by Darsingborough FC (8), NB Olympic (3), Honywood Lane FC (3), Chorlington Town FC (1). The current champions are Darsingborough FC, and were promoted to represent Histalpol in the AFA Club League alongside Islington Wolves and Chorlinton Town FC, who gained 2nd and 3rd respectively in the season.

Competition format
There are 23 clubs in the Platinum League and each club plays two games with other clubs per season, one home game and one away game. This equals up to 38 games total with teams receiving 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then by goal difference and then by goals scored.

The club with most points is crowned champion. if points are equal the goal difference and then the goals scored determine the winner. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same position. The top 3 teams are also permitted to enter the AFA Club League of that year and in case of a draw between the 3rd and 4th place teams which "occupy the same position", only the champion and 2nd place team proceed. The bottom 3 teams are relegated to Histalpol Football League 1 and the top 3 teams from League 1 are promoted in their place.

Clubs
A total of 42 clubs have played in the Platinum League since it's foundation in 1989-90 season to the start of the 2012-2013 season. Currently, Darsingborough, Islington Wolves, Rydal United and NB Olympic are the only founding members of the league to be playing in the Platinum League.

Media coverage
In Histalpol, the league is covered officially on the state broadcaster Histalpol's Vision Broadcasting Company on it's sport channels and on it's main channel, Channel 1, for important matches, this are free channels. The company who also has the naming rights, SportsPlay has their own premium pay TV channel which the Platinum League is shown on. As of the 2015-16 season, The entire Histalian Football League will be streamed on their own website for a cost as well.

Sponsorship
The Platinum League has been sponsored since it's start in 1989. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. There have been 4 sponsors since the league's formation.


 * 1989-1995: Histalian Standard Groupe de la Banque (HSGB Platinum League)
 * 1995-1999: Sp33d Sports (Sp33d Premiership)
 * 1999-2007: Relentless UK (Relentless Platinum League)
 * 2007-present: SportsPlay.Com (SportsPlay Platinum League)
 * 2015 onwards: SportsPlay (AFA SportsPlay Platinum League)

Domination of Darsingborough and Islington Wolves
Ongoing from 2004 has been a domination between Darsingborough F.C and Islington Wolves. As of 2014, both teams have 9 championships and of them, between 2004 and 2014, 4 belong to Darsingborough and 6 belong to Islington Wolves. The only time that another team has broken this domination was Lincoln City in 2008, when both Darsingborough and Islington suffered with injured players all season. HVBC Sports Presenter, Petru J. Dwight commented on this in 2012 saying "This league is becoming too predictable for winning, the real excitement comes from seeing who would get 3rd or 4th and that isn't as fun in my opinion."

Unmaintained stadiums
In Histalpol, it is punishable for managers and owners of Histalian stadiums to not maintain their stadiums to safe standards since 1990 as result of the 1987 Brigstone Stadium Crush. Since then, government reports on unmaintained stadiums have become more slack. The Histalian Ministry of Health released a study in 2013 that outlines that the slack was because of increasing laziness to make reports and that in fact 40% of all Histalian stadiums are dangerous unmaintained, what has been described as "ticking timebombs".

After the report, Minister of Health at the time, Alex Somaar announced a push to enforce the law and sacking invigilators who are not harsh on the stadiums they are reviewing and the possibility of criminal charges against them. The Ministry of Culture, Art and Sport is also given more control over the upkeep of stadiums to add backing to the law.

In 2014, The Minister of Culture, Art and Sport said that the possibility of Histalpol bidding for the 2015 AFA Alliance World Cup also lead to the chance of a further push to better the infrastructure and stadiums of Histalpol.