Northern Ireland Football League
The Northern Ireland Football League, formerly known as and still commonly referred to as the Irish League, is the national football league of Northern Ireland. The Irish League was originally formed in 1890, with the league in its current format created in 2013 to assume independent collective management of the top three levels of the Northern Ireland football league system; namely the Premiership, Championship and Premier Intermediate League.
In addition to the league divisions, the NIFL also operates the Northern Ireland Football League Cup for its member clubs, as well as the NIFL Development League and George Wilson Cup for their reserve teams, and the NIFL Youth League and NIFL Youth League Cup for their youth teams. Operated as a limited company, the 36 member clubs act as shareholders with one vote each. The NIFL is the successor to the Irish Football League, which, upon its formation in 1890, was historically the league for the entire island of Ireland until it became Northern Ireland's national league after the partition of Ireland in 1921.
Larne are the current champions, after winning the 2022–23 title on 14 April 2023 with a 2–0 win against Crusaders. This was the club's first league title.
History
Senior
Originally formed in 1890, the Irish Football League, is the second-oldest national league in the world, being formed a week earlier than the Scottish Football League. Only the English Football League is older..The Irish Football League was originally formed as the football league for, in theory, all of Ireland. It became the league for Northern Ireland in 1921 after partition, with a separate league and association – being formed for the Irish Free State. The league's records from its days in operation as the league for all of Ireland stand as the records for Northern Ireland.
In its first season, seven of the eight teams came from Belfast, and the league – and Irish football – continued to be dominated by Belfast clubs for many years. In 1892, Derry Olympic became the second non-Belfast side, but only lasted for one season. In 1900, Derry Celtic joined the league and, in 1901, a second Derry team, St Columb's Court, was added. St Columb's Court lasted just one season, before being replaced by the league's first Dublin team, Bohemians, in 1902. Another Dublin side, Shelbourne, was added in 1904. In 1911 Glenavon, from the County Armagh town of Lurgan replaced Bohemians, who resigned from the league, but were re-admitted in 1912. During 1912 there were three Dublin sides, with the addition of Tritonville, but, like Derry Olympic and St Columb's Court before them, they lasted just one season. Derry Celtic also dropped out in 1913, so that when the Irish League split in 1921, Glenavon was the only non-Belfast team left. No southern clubs ever won the championship. The highest place achieved by any of these clubs was second, by Shelbourne in 1906–07.
During the 1920s, however, the league expanded and soon achieved a wide geographic spread across Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, no club from outside Belfast won the League championship for the first 62 years of its existence, until Glenavon took it to County Armagh in 1951–52. In 1957–58, Ards became the first team from County Down to win the League, and in 1964–65, Derry City were the first County Londonderry club to do so. Derry City – now of the League of Ireland – played in the Irish League from 1929 until 1972 and won the title in 1965, but eventually resigned during the Troubles after the League voted narrowly to continue a ban on their home ground imposed by the security forces, even after the security forces had lifted it.
Historically, with relatively few league fixtures each season, the Irish League organised a number of other competitions for its members. While some of these once enjoyed considerable prestige, they have been phased out over the years due to fixture congestion caused by the expansion of the league, and reduced spectator interest. These competitions were: the City Cup; the Gold Cup; the Ulster Cup and the Irish League Floodlit Cup. In addition, clubs still compete in their respective regional cup competitions: the County Antrim Shield ; the Mid-Ulster Cup ; and the North West Senior Cup.
From 1995–96 until 2002–03, the senior League was split into two divisions: the Premier Division and First Division. From 2003-16, there was a single division, albeit with relegation to intermediate leagues below, and from 2016 there are two senior divisions. In 2003, the Irish Football Association took direct charge of Northern Ireland's top flight with the creation of the Irish Premier League. As in England and Scotland, the old Irish Football League retained a separate existence, but controlling only two feeder leagues: the First Division and Second Division. In 2004, the IFA took over control of the remaining IFL divisions and renamed them as the IFA Intermediate League First Division and Second Division, effectively winding up the Irish Football League after 114 years.
The first ever Irish League match to be broadcast live on television took place on 24 September 2007 when Sky Sports showed Cliftonville and Linfield draw 2–2 at Solitude. In 2008, the IFA took over responsibility for the Senior League under the name IFA Premiership, and the IFA Intermediate League was replaced by the IFA Championship. After five years under the auspices of the IFA, it was decided to create a single Northern Ireland Football League to assume responsibility for all the national leagues from the 2013–14 season.
Intermediate
The NIFL Premier Intermediate League, as the highest-level of intermediate football in Northern Ireland, is the successor to the intermediate-status IFA Championship, IFA Intermediate League, the Irish Football League First Division during its last season, and ultimately the Irish League B Division.The B Division of the Irish League was founded in 1951, and originally consisted of the reserve teams of the senior Irish League clubs alongside some of the top intermediate clubs. The B Division was split geographically into North and South sections in 1974, and then into Section 1 and Section 2 in 1977.
In 1999, the B Division Section 1 was renamed as the Irish League Second Division, and Section 2 became the Reserve League.
There was never any automatic promotion and relegation between either the B Division or Second Division and the senior Irish League.
In 2003, the Irish Premier League was formed by the top sixteen senior teams in the senior Irish League. The four remaining senior teams reverted to intermediate football, along with the top eight teams from the previous year's Second Division - in the Irish League First Division, with the Second Division continuing with twelve teams. Automatic promotion and relegation between senior and intermediate football was introduced. There was also automatic promotion and relegation between the two divisions of the Irish League.
In 2004, the Irish Football League was wound up and replaced by the IFA Intermediate League, consisting of two divisions of twelve, with promotion and relegation between the two. This continued for four seasons, until the Championship was created.
For one season only, 2008–09, there was also an IFA Interim Intermediate League for those former members of the IFA Intermediate League which had failed to meet the criteria for the Championship. These clubs were given a year to make improvements in order to join the Championship for 2009–10. Ten of the 12 clubs succeeded in meeting the necessary standard in 2009 and the Championship was then divided into two divisions.
In 2010–11, a pyramid system was introduced, with the possibility of promotion and relegation between Championship 2 and the four regional intermediate leagues, namely the:
- Ballymena & Provincial League
- Mid-Ulster Football League
- Northern Amateur League
- Northern Ireland Intermediate League
In 2013, the Northern Ireland Football League assumed responsibility from the IFA for the Championship, which became two intermediate divisions of the NIFL and was renamed as the NIFL Championship.
In 2016, Championship 1 acquired senior status and Championship 2 was renamed as the Premier Intermediate League, thus succeeding the Championship as the top intermediate league in Northern Ireland.
2024-25 membership
Listed below are the 38 member clubs for the 2024–25 season.UEFA coefficient and ranking
Country coefficient for 2024–25:- 40 10.750
- 41 8.500
- 42 8.333
- 43 8.250
- 44 8.000
- *
Senior
List of champions and runners-up
- Bold indicates team achieved a Double – winners of league and Irish Cup
- Bold italic indicates team achieved a Treble – winners of league, Irish Cup and at least one other national trophy
Irish Football League (1890–1995)