National Association for Football

National Association for Football (NAF; 曾國足球協會, Zēngguó Zúqiú Xiéhuì), or Tseng Football Association is the main professional soccer league in the Tseng Republic, currently compromising of 30 teams, and affilated with the Tseng Football Association. Its title, the Jorge Ka Championship Trophy, is the oldest professional sport trophy in Tseng and is awarded to the league champion at the end of each season.

The NAF is part of the "Big Three" in Tsengian professional sports, the others being Tseng Professional Baseball and the Tsengian Basketball Association. It is by far the most popular and wealthiest league however.

History
The NAF's predecessor was the National Football League (NFL), which existed from 1953 to 1960. In the late 1950s, the NFL was riddled by corruption scandals involving the Bank of Tseng and the National Prosperity Party, in which players, coaches, and staff would get monetary compensation for being a member of the NPP and/or "spying" on opposing teams' players/personnel in order to rat out communists. Some teams were against this, and decided to start a new league.

The NAF was founded on February 29, 1960, in the coastal town of Longtan, Tseng City-Capital, in a meeting by representatives of Hillsborough F.C., July 17 F.C., and Sandao Islanders, members of the NFL. The first season featured five teams, Hillsborough, July 17, Pushan, Tseng City Athletics, and Southern Tseng S.C., with Sandao folding immediately before the season.

Starting from the 1988 season, the conference system was introduced, with the North and South conferences being created.

Originally, there was just a single division, but starting from the 1991 season, a system of promotion and relegation was created, with the NAF in the first tier and the Tsengian Football League (TFL) in the second tier. The top team, the winner of the Jia Metals TFL Cup would automatically be promoted to the NAF, and the lowest team in the NAF would be relegated to the TFL.

In 2011, the Tsengian Football Youth Association became the 3rd tier in the Tsengian football system.

Season
The season runs from May to December, playoffs included. Each team plays 40 games. 16 teams (4 from each division) make the playoffs and they face in a group and knockout format.

Playoffs
"See also: List of NAF champions"Teams play three games against each other for the first and second rounds. The team that goes through is the one with the highest aggregate score goes to the next round. In the semi-final the four teams play one game and the two teams that win will go to the final, where they will play one game to decide the winner.

The team with the most titles is the Tseng City Tigers, with 14 titles.

Teams
The NAF is divided into two conferences with two divisions in each. For the 2022 season:

Promotion and relegation
Since 2011, a system of promotion and relegation exists between the NAF, the Tsengian Football League (TFL), and the Tsengian Football Youth Association (TFYA)