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NIFL Premiership
NIFL Premiership
Country Flag of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland
Confederation UEFA
Founded 2008 (as IFA Premiership)
Number of teams 12
Relegation to NIFL Championship
Level on pyramid 1
Domestic cup(s) Irish Cup
NIFL Charity Shield
UEFA cup(s) UEFA Champions League
UEFA Europa League
Setanta Sports Cup
Current champions Larne
(1st Premiership title; 1st Irish title overall) (2022–23)
Most successful club Linfield (8 titles)
TV BBC NI (12 live games per season and 50
live games plus highlights via BBC iPlayer)
Eleven Sports, OneFootball (Outside the UK)
Bwin.Party
Sky Sports (5 Premiership games per
season and the League Cup final)
Website Official website
Football current event 2023–24

The Northern Ireland Football League Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football League – the national league in Northern Ireland. It was formerly called the IFA Premiership until 2013, with previous competition formats called the Irish Premier League, Irish Football League Premier Division, and before that simply the Irish Football League. Still known in popular parlance simply as the Irish League, the Premiership was established in 2008 under the auspices of the Irish Football Association before the Northern Ireland Football League was created for the start of the 2013–14 season. At the end of the season, the champion club is presented with the Gibson Cup.

Larne are Irish League champions for the first time in their 134 year history, following a 2-0 win over Crusaders in April 2023. In winning the league, Larne became the first team from outside of Belfast to win the league since Portadown in 2002.

Origin[]

The current Premiership format was introduced for the 2008–09 season after the League system for Northern Ireland was re-organised. The top flight was reduced in size from 16 to 12 clubs, included on the basis not only of their performance in the 2007–08 season, but in the previous two seasons, and other off-the-field criteria. Each applicant 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 result of submitting their application for inclusion in the Premiership 29 minutes past the deadline for consideration. The Premiership remained under IFA control for five seasons until the creation of the Northern Ireland Football League in 2013, when it became the NIFL Premiership.

2021–22 membership[]

Club Stadium Location Capacity Finishing position in 2020–21
Ballymena United Ballymena Showgrounds Ballymena 3,600 8th
Carrick Rangers Loughshore Hotel Arena Carrickfergus 6,000 11th
Cliftonville Solitude Belfast 3,200 5th
Coleraine The Showgrounds Coleraine 2,496 2nd
Crusaders Seaview Belfast 3,383 6th
Dungannon Swifts Stangmore Park Dungannon 5,000 12th
Glenavon Mourneview Park Lurgan 4,160 7th
Glentoran The Oval Belfast 6,050 3rd
Larne Inver Park Larne 3,250 4th
Linfield Windsor Park Belfast 18,614 1st (champions)
Portadown Shamrock Park Portadown 2,770 9th
Warrenpoint Town Milltown Warrenpoint 1,450 10th

Champions[]

No. Season Champion
1 2008–09 Glentoran
2 2009–10 Linfield
3 2010–11 Linfield
4 2011–12 Linfield
5 2012–13 Cliftonville
6 2013–14 Cliftonville
7 2014–15 Crusaders
8 2015–16 Crusaders
9 2016–17 Linfield
10 2017–18 Crusaders
11 2018–19 Linfield
12 2019–20 Linfield
13 2020–21 Linfield
14 2021–22 Linfield
15 2022–23 Larne

External links[]

IFA Premiership 2023-24

Ballymena United · Carrick Rangers · Cliftonville · Coleraine · Crusaders · Dungannon Swifts · Glenavon · Glentoran · Larne · Linfield · Loughgall · Newry City

NIFL Premiership seasons

2014–15 · 2015–16 · 2016–17 · 2017–18 · 2018–19 · 2019–20 · 2020–21 · 2021–22 · 2022–23 · 2023–24 ·

Football in Northern Ireland
League competitions The IFA Cup competitions
NIFL Premiership Northern Ireland (B) Irish Cup
NIFL Championship (U-21) (U-20) (U-19) Irish League Cup
Intermediate League (U-18) (U-17) (U-16) County Antrim Shield
Ballymena & Provincial List of clubs Mid-Ulster Cup
Northern Amateur Football League List of stadiums Mid-Ulster Football League
(by capacity)
List of competitions
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