This article is about the top flight of national association football in Northern Ireland since 2008. For the arrant history since 1890, see Northern Ireland Football League Football league
The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, [ 4 ] and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership , is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football League – the national league in Northern Ireland. The premiership was established as the IFA Premiership in 2008 under the auspices of the Irish Football Association, before the Northern Ireland Football League was created for the begin of the 2013–14 temper. At the end of the season, the champion cabaret is presented with the Gibson Cup.
Reading: NIFL Premiership
Linfield are the stream champions, having lifted their third straight championship and 55th league championship overall, after a 1–1 draw with Coleraine on 25 May 2021. This entail Linfield equalled the world record for the most top division league titles won by any club, a record shared with scottish club Rangers .
origin [edit ]
The current Premiership format was introduced for the 2008–09 season after the League arrangement for Northern Ireland was re-organised. The acme flight was reduced in size from 16 to 12 clubs, included on the footing not lone of their operation in the 2007–08 season, but in the previous two seasons, and other off-the-field criteria. Each applicant golf club was assessed by an independent panel and awarded points against the following criteria :
- Sporting (maximum 450 points) – based on league placings, Irish Cup, League Cup and European performances in 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08; with points also awarded for running youth teams, women’s teams and community development programmes
- Finance (maximum 200 points) – based on solvency, debt management and cash-flow projection
- Infrastructure (maximum 150 points) – based on stadium capacity, changing provisions, sanitary facilities, field of play, floodlighting, existence and standard of control room, first aid room, drug testing room and media facilities
- Personnel (maximum 100 points) – based on qualification and experience of staff
- Business planning (maximum 50 points)
- Attendances (maximum 50 points)
Portadown were the highest-profile casualty of the new system, suffering relegation to the newly formed IFA Championship as a solution of submitting their application for inclusion in the Premiership 29 minutes past the deadline for consideration. [ 5 ] The Northern Ireland Football League assumed responsibility for the top three divisions of national domestic football from the IFA in 2014, putting ahead plans to improve the scene of football in Northern Ireland. The plans include improving stadiums, condition in european competitions, league structure, commercial trope of the competitions, adenine well as spreading out match kick-off times to be more variable and reintroducing previously abandoned competitions for clubs to compete in, such as the Charity Shield, Floodlit Cup, Ulster Cup and Gold Cup .
League format [edit ]
Fixtures [edit ]
Each team plays a entire of 38 fixtures during the season. Each team initially plays every other team three times ( either twice at home and once off, or once at home and twice away ) for a sum of 33 fixtures per team. The league then splits into Section A and Section B, the top six teams in Section A play each other for a fourthly and final fourth dimension to settle backing and european qualification issues, and the penetrate six teams in section B playing each other to settle relegation issues. [ 6 ] The post-split fixtures are normally arranged in such a means as to result in the teams in each half playing each early doubly at home and twice off. After the burst, teams in the top six can not finish lower than 6th position, and teams in the bottom six can not finish higher than 7th position, regardless of the results in the concluding 5 games. The League campaign begins in August and continues until late April or early May. Most fixtures are played on Saturday afternoons, with casual fixtures on Friday evenings, and some mid-week games, normally on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. traditionally, there are Bank Holiday good afternoon fixtures on Boxing Day, New Year ‘s Day, and Easter Tuesday. Three points are awarded for a gain, and one bespeak for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Points can be deducted for breaches of rules e.g. fielding an ineligible player. The teams are first gear and foremost ranked by number of points. The team with the most points at the end of the season wins the championship. If two or more teams finish level on points, four tiebreakers are used to separate them : highest overall finish difference, most goals scored, most points gained in the tete-a-tete meetings, and ultimately, highest goal remainder in the neck and neck meetings. In the highly improbable event that teams are still tied in a key place after these tiebreakers e.g. determining the league champions, european qualification, relegation, or even second stage group allotment, lots will be drawn by the Management Committee. [ 6 ]
promotion and relegation [edit ]
There is no promotion from the league, as it is the highest division of the league system. At the end of the season, the 12th-placed club is relegated to the NIFL Championship and the 11th-placed club must take function in an aggregate two-legged play-off against the winners of the pre-play-off match between the runner-up and third-placed Championship teams. [ 6 ] The away goals principle is applied after 90 minutes of the second gear peg, with excess clock and penalties besides used to determine the achiever in the second stage if necessary. The Premiership clubhouse gets home advantage in the second leg, and is relegated to the championship if it loses the affiliation. In the event that the Championship winners do not possess the Promotion license required to be eligible for the top flight, there is no automatic delegating. rather, the play-off is passed down to the 12th-placed Premiership clubhouse and the 11th-placed club is condom from delegating. In the consequence that there are no Championship clubs eligible for promotion, there is no relegation. [ 6 ]
european qualification [edit ]
Northern Ireland is presently ranked in 42nd target out of 55 in the 2021 UEFA association coefficient rankings, which will be used to determine qualification places for the 2022–23 UEFA competitions. Northern Ireland ‘s relatively depleted rank over the years has meant that the clubs have entered in the preliminary turn or early qualifying rounds of UEFA competitions. No Premiership club has ever reached the group stage of a UEFA contest in their current respective formats. In fact, none have ventured beyond the moment qualify orotund of the Champions League. The closest any club has come to reaching the group phase was during the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, when Linfield became the first club from Northern Ireland to reach the play-off round, narrowly missing out on a station in the group stage after a 4–4 reap on aggregate against Qarabağ FK from Azerbaijan resulted in elimination on the away goals rule. For the 2020–21 season, the association will earn four berths in the 2021–22 UEFA competitions – three for the Premiership, with the fourthly reserved for the irish Cup winners. The Premiership champions will enter the modify rounds for the following temper ‘s UEFA Champions League, with the league runner-up and european play-off winners ( along with the irish Cup winners ) entering the UEFA Europa Conference League. If, however, the irish Cup winners have already qualified for Europe as league champions or runner-up, the Irish Cup ‘s Europa Conference League position is redistributed to the league ‘s third-placed team. In order to compete in UEFA competitions, however, clubs must possess a UEFA license. In the event that a team qualifies without such a license, lower-placed teams may take their topographic point. Unlike the English League Cup, the Northern Ireland Football League Cup winners are not awarded a european mooring. A play-off system for the final european qualification berth was introduced for the 2015–16 season. If the Irish Cup winners coating seventh or higher in the league, which historically has been the case in the majority of seasons, the four remaining teams from the top seven that have not already qualified for a UEFA competition ( the teams in 3rd–7th, excluding either the irish Cup winners, or the third-placed team if they are awarded the position as explained above ) compete in a serial of play-offs for the final european place. [ 6 ] If, however, the irish Cup winners stopping point outside the top seven in the premiership or fun in a lower division, and if they besides possess a UEFA license, all five teams finishing 3rd–7th qualify for the play-offs. This would require an extra quarter-final meet to be played by the sixth and seventh-placed teams, with the winner joining the other three clubs in the semi-finals. [ 6 ] The play-offs did not take place during the 2019–20 season, as the league ‘s UEFA rate fell to 52nd. This mean that it lost the European mooring normally awarded to the play-off winners. The play-offs returned in the 2020–21 season, after the league ‘s ranking improved to 48th put – earning the one-fourth european moor back again. The play-offs are single smasher matches and are played at the home of the higher-ranked team, with excess time used to determine the winner if the match ends level after 90 minutes, and a penalty gunfight to follow if the two teams are placid floor after 120 minutes. Seeding is used during all rounds to reward the higher-placed qualifiers, with the sixth-placed team given home advantage against the seventh-placed team in the quarter-final match if it is required. The two higher-ranked semi-finalists are then given home plate advantage when facing the two lower-ranked semi-finalists, and the higher-ranked finalist is again given family advantage against the lower-ranked finalist. [ 6 ] Since the 2016–17 temper, the league champions and the runner-up have been invited to participate in the scottish Challenge Cup. [ 7 ] Starting from 2019, the reigning champions have besides faced the League of Ireland champions in that year ‘s Champions Cup – the inaugural all-Ireland competition since the Setanta Sports Cup was discontinued after the 2014 version.
Media coverage [edit ]
Highlights of individual Premiership matches are available on-line via the BBC Sport web site. [ 8 ] BBC NI besides produces The Irish League Show, a hebdomadally highlights show available to watch via BBC iPlayer. [ 1 ] Live on-line current of matches are besides broadcast by Bwin. [ citation needed ] Since February 2017 Sky Sports have been broadcasting NIFL Premiership games live. [ 2 ]
Statistics [edit ]
These statistics cover the Premiership from 2008 onwards. For more detailed statistics covering the Irish League since 1890, see Northern Ireland Football League
Champions [edit ]
Wins by clubhouse [edit ]
Records [edit ]
2021–22 membership [edit ]
See besides [edit ]
Notes [edit ]
References [edit ]
Read more: Ex on the Beach (British series 6)