A local championship was founded in 1953 before independence, when the islands were still part of the Portuguese Empire.
The first official championships began in 1953 and featured clubs from only the islands of São Vicente (along with its surroundings) and Santiago took part.
Mindelense won the first title for an independent Cape Verde, the club lead in the most titles, in the first national championships, Mindelense faced Botafogo from Fogo, the first to feature a club outside Santiago or São Vicente.
In 1984, FC Derby faced Académica do Sal in the first finals with two clubs from the same island chain.
The triangular system was introduced and was used in 1994 and 1995, the finals was restored again, for one season in 1997, the final phase was introduced and the winner was decided on the highest number of points and Mindelense won, the finals restored again in 1998 and 1999, for the next three seasons, the winner was decided on a total number of points and sometimes goals, Sporting and Batuque shared a record total of 19 points won at the national championships, no other club surpassed it since.
In 2015, the FCF chose to keep the group system instead of alterations probably including only the introduction of the first and second tier levels.
On 7 May, AJAC became champions, the final result actually went to uncertainty especially after 11 May where the regional Judicial Council thought to make it official, Benfica de Santa Cruz were crowned Premier Division champions of the North Zone as well as AJAC.
In August 2017, Sporting Praia won their recent national championship title after defeating FC Ultramarina from Tarrafal de São Nicolau and Santiago now has 15 titles won, two less than São Vicente.
After the matched ended 1-1, the winner would eventually be decided via a penalty shootout, with Palmeira beating Académica do Mindelo (7-6), thus becoming national champions for the first time in their history.
The defending champions' island or sport region also gets an extra spot in the following season's championship.
The greatest top scorers in the national championships was Zé di Tchecha of Sporting Praia who scored 14 goals.