The defending champions were Skënderbeu, who won their second Albanian league championship last season and third in their history.
[1] Besa and Elbasani finished the 2010–11 season in 11th and 12th place and were relegated to the Kategoria e Parë.
Taking their places were the champions of the 2010–11 Kategoria e Parë competition, Pogradeci, and the runners-up, Tomori.
Finally, two more spots in this competition were available via a promotion-relegation playoff between the 9th and 10th-place finishers of last season's Kategoria Superiore, Shkumbini Peqin and Dinamo Tirana, and the 5th and 6th-place finishers of last season's Kategoria e Parë, Besëlidhja Lezhë and Adriatiku Mamurras.
The 10th-, 11th- and 12th-placed Superliga teams competed against the third-, fourth- and fifth-placed First Division sides in single match relegation playoffs.