League of Ireland

The League of Ireland was founded in 1921 as a single division known as the A Division. The first season featured eight teams, all from County Dublin. The teams that competed in the first season were Bohemians, Dublin United, Frankfort, Jacobs, Olympia, St. James's Gate, Shelbourne and YMCA.[2][3] The eight founding members had spent the 1920–21 season playing in the Leinster Senior League. Bohemians and Shelbourne had played in the 1919–20 Irish League. St James's Gate were the inaugural champions. Gate also went on to complete a treble having already won both the 1921–22 FAI Cup and 1921–22 Leinster Senior Cup. In 1922–23 the league was expanded to twelve clubs. Among the new members were Shamrock Rovers, who finished as champions, and Athlone Town who became the first team from outside County Dublin to compete in the league. Together with fellow Dublin clubs teams, Bohemians and Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers would go onto dominate the league during the 1920s and the 1930s.

In 1924–25 Bray Unknowns and Fordsons became the second and third teams from outside County Dublin to join the league. Fordsons also became the first team from Munster to play in the league. The league continued to expand numerically and geographically during its first two decades of existence. In 1926–27 Dundalk were elected to the league and in 1932–33 became the first club from outside County Dublin to win the title. Dundalk were subsequently joined by Waterford in 1930–31, Cork Bohemians in 1932–33, Sligo Rovers in 1934–35 and Limerick F.C. in 1937–38. In 1936–37, Sligo Rovers became the second club from outside County Dublin to win the title.[2][3] During The Emergency/Second World War era Cork United emerged as the league's strongest team. The club won five league titles between 1940–41 and 1945–46, including three in succession. However they subsequently resigned from the league in 1948.[4]

The 1950s was marked by the emergence of St Patrick's Athletic and the re-emergence of Shamrock Rovers. The former succeeded in winning the title at the first attempt in 1951–52 and claimed a further two in the middle of the decade. In 1953–54 the Coad's Colts earned Shamrock Rovers their first title in fifteen years. Drumcondra and Dundalk claimed two League of Ireland titles each during the 1960s but Waterford secured their status as the team of the decade with four league titles, including three in succession between 1967–68 and 1969–70. Six clubs won the League of Ireland title during the 1970s with Waterford, Bohemians and Dundalk winning two titles each. Athlone Town won two league titles at the start of the 1980s but the decade was marked by the four successive league titles won by Shamrock Rovers between 1983–84 and 1986–87. Following the conclusion of the 1984–85 season the league was restructured and the A Division was replaced by the League of Ireland Premier Division.[2][3]

The League of Ireland first organised a second level division in 1964–65. The B Division featured reserve teams and emerging senior teams. Although there was no relegation and promotion to and from the A Division, a number of B Division teams, including Home Farm, Bray Wanderers, Athlone Town, UCD, Longford Town and Monaghan United, were subsequently elected to the A Division.[5][6] In 1985–86 the B Division was replaced as the second level division by the First Division. The First Division featured first teams and a relegation and promotion system operated with the new Premier Division.[2][7][8]

Between 2008 and 2011 the FAI organised a short lived national third level league known as the A Championship. Like the earlier the B Division, the A Championship featured a mixture of League of Ireland reserve teams and emerging senior teams. Unlike the B Division, a promotion and relegation system operated between the Premier Division, the First Division and the A Championship.[1][9]

Since 2000–01 the League of Ireland has organised a youth league. It was originally an under-21 league, later becoming an under-20 league, but is now an U19 league. The winners of the overall competition are awarded the Dr Tony O'Neill Cup.[10][11] In 2015, the League of Ireland also introduced an U17 league.[12][13] An under-15 league was introduced in 2017, beginning with a truncated season, before fully aligning with the League of Ireland calendar in 2018. An under-13 league is planned to start April 2019.[14][15][16]

The LOI's 20 member clubs are grouped into two divisions: the League of Ireland Premier Division, and League of Ireland First Division (previously the League of Ireland A Division, and League of Ireland B Division respectively; they were renamed in the 1985-86 season). Each division has 10 clubs, and in any given season a club plays each of the others in the same division four times twice at their home stadium and twice at that of their opponent's. This makes for a total of 36 games played each season.

Clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. At the end of the season, clubs at the top of the First Division may win promotion to the next higher division. One First Division club wins promotion directly to the Premier Division, with the bottom Premier Division club taking their place. A second First Division club may get promoted through the promotion/relegation playoff. To sustain interest for more clubs over the length of the season one promotion playoff spot from the first division is decided according to a playoff between four clubs, which takes place at the end of the season. The playoff winner plays the 9th place Premier Division club to determine the last spot in the following seasons Premier Division.

Promotion and relegation are determined by final league positions, but to sustain interest for more clubs over the length of the season one promotion place from each division is decided according to a playoff between four clubs, which takes place at the end of the season. It is possible for a team finishing sixth in the Championship or League One, or seventh in League Two, to be promoted rather than the clubs finishing immediately above them in the standings.

Since the 2004–05 season, penalties have existed for clubs entering financial administration during the season. If a club enters administration before 31 March of any given season, they will immediately be deducted 12 points; entering administration from 1 April onward will see the points deduction either held over until the end of the season (if the club finishes outside the relegation places) or applied the following season (if the club was relegated anyway). Also, it is required that a club exiting administration agrees to a Creditor's Voluntary Agreement, and pays in full any other footballing creditors. Failure to do either of these will result in a second, potentially unlimited (though in practice usually between 15 and 20) points deduction.

The other main situation in which is a club may lose points is by fielding an improperly registered or otherwise ineligible player. If a club is found to have done this, then any points earned from any match that player participated in will be deducted; the opposing club(s) do not earn any points from this, however.

Apart from the current twenty members, at least 38 other clubs have competed in the League of Ireland at one time or another. Some of these clubs are still active, playing in intermediate and junior leagues. The list below only includes teams that played in the A Division, the Premier Division and the First Division.

Source:[2][3]

Source:[2][3]

For each season, the number of teams competing (in brackets) are shown.

Season	Club	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg
2009–10	Bohemians	2QR	Red Bull Salzburg	0–1	1–1	1–2
2010–11	Bohemians	2QR	The New Saints	1–0	0–4	1–4
2011–12	Shamrock Rovers	2QR	FC Flora Tallinn	1–0	0–0	1–0
		3QR	F.C. Copenhagen	0–1	0–2	0–3
2012–13	Shamrock Rovers	2QR	FK Ekranas	0–0	1–2	1–2
2013–14	Sligo Rovers	2QR	Molde FK	0–1	0–2	0–3
2014–15	St Patrick's Athletic	2QR	Legia Warsaw	0–5	1–1	1–6
2015–16	Dundalk	2QR	BATE Borisov	0–0	1–2	1–2
2016–17	Dundalk	2QR	FH	1–1	2–2	3–3 (a)
		3QR	BATE Borisov	3–0	0–1	3–1
		PO	Legia Warsaw	0–2	1–1	1–3
2017–18	Dundalk	2QR	Rosenborg BK	1–1	1–2	2–3 (aet)
2018–19	Cork City	1QR	Legia Warsaw	0–1	0–3	0–4
2019–20	Dundalk	1QR	Riga FC	0–0	0–0	0–0 (5–4 p.)
		2QR	Qarabag	1–1	0–3	1–4
2020–21	Dundalk	1QR	NK Celje	0–3[lower-alpha 1]		0–3
2021–22	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	Slovan Bratislava	2–1	0–2	2–3

1QR/2QR/3QR = First/Second/Third qualifying round; PO = Playoff

Season	Club	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg
2009–10	Sligo Rovers	1QR	Vllaznia Shkodër	1–2	1–1	1–3
	Derry City	2QR	Skonto	1–0	1–1	2–1
		3QR	CSKA Sofia	1–1	0–1	1–2
	St Patrick's Athletic	2QR	Valletta	1–1	1–0	2–1
		3QR	Krylia Sovetov	1–0	2–3	3–3 (a)
		PO	Steaua București	1–2	0–3	1–5
2010–11	Dundalk	1QR	Grevenmacher	2–1	3–3	5–4
		2QR	Levski Sofia	0–2	0–6	0–8
	Sporting Fingal	2QR	Marítimo	2–3	2–3	4–6
	Shamrock Rovers	2QR	Bnei Yehuda	1–1	1–0	2–1
		3QR	Juventus	0–2	0–1	0–3
2011–12	St Patrick's Athletic	1QR	ÍBV	2–0	0–1	2–1
		2QR	Shakhter Karagandy	2–0	1–2	3–2
		3QR	Karpaty Lviv	1–3	0–2	1–5
	Bohemians	2QR	Olimpija Ljubljana	1–1	0–2	1–3
	Sligo Rovers	3QR	Vorskla Poltava	0–2	0–0	0–2
	Shamrock Rovers	PO	Partizan	1–1	2–1	3–2 (aet)
		Group A	Rubin Kazan	0–3	1–4	4th
			Tottenham Hotspur	0–4	1–3
			P.A.O.K.	1–3	1–2
2012–13	Bohemians	1QR	Þór Akureyri	0–0	1–5	1–5
	St Patrick's Athletic	1QR	ÍBV	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a) (aet)
		2QR	Široki Brijeg	2–1	1–1	3–2 (aet)
		3QR	Hannover 96	0–3	0–2	0–5
	Sligo Rovers	2QR	Spartak Trnava	1–1	1–3	2–4
2013–14	Drogheda United	1QR	Malmö FF	0–0	0–2	0–2
	St Patrick's Athletic	1QR	Žalgiris Vilnius	1–2	2–2	3–4
	Derry City	2QR	Trabzonspor	0–3	2–4	2–7
2014–15	Dundalk	1QR	Jeunesse Esch	3–1	2–0	5–1
		2QR	Hajduk Split	0–2	2–1	2–3
	Derry City	1QR	Aberystwyth Town	4–0	5–0	9–0
		2QR	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	0–1	1–5	1–6
	Sligo Rovers	1QR	Banga Gargždai	4–0	0–0	4–0
		2QR	Rosenborg BK	1–3	2–1	3–4
2015–16	UCD	1QR	F91 Dudelange	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a)
		2QR	Slovan Bratislava	1–5	0–1	1–6
	Cork City	1QR	KR	1–1	1–2	2–3 (aet)
	St Patrick's Athletic	1QR	Skonto	0–2	1–2	1–4
	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	Progrès Niederkorn	3–0	0–0	3–0
		2QR	Odds BK	0–2	1–2	1–4
2016–17	Cork City	1QR	Linfield	1–1	1–0	2–1
		2QR	BK Häcken	1–0	1–1	2–1
		3QR	Genk	1–2	0–1	1–3
	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	RoPS	0–2	1–1	1–3
	St Patrick's Athletic	1QR	Jeunesse Esch	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a)
		2QR	Dinamo Minsk	0–1	1–1	1–2
	Dundalk	Group D	AZ	0–1	1–1	4th
			Maccabi Tel Aviv	1–0	1–2
			Zenit	1–2	1–2
2017–18	Cork City	1QR	FCI Levadia Tallinn	4–2	2–0	6–2
		2QR	AEK Larnaca	0–1	0–1	0–2
	Derry City	1QR	Midtjylland	1–4	1–6	2–10
	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	Stjarnan	1–0	1–0	2–0
		2QR	Mladá Boleslav	2–3	0–2	2–5
2018–19	Dundalk	1QR	FCI Levadia Tallinn	2–1	1–0	3–1
		2QR	AEK Larnaca	0–0	0–4	0–4
	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	AIK	0–1	1–1	1–2 (aet)
	Derry City	1QR	Dinamo Minsk	0–2	2–1	2–3
	Cork City	3QR	Rosenborg BK	0–2	0–3	0–5
2019–20	Cork City	1QR	Progrès Niederkorn	0–2	2–1	2–3
	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	SK Brann	2–1	2–2	4–3
		2QR	Apollon Limassol	2–1	1–3	3–4 (aet)
	St Patrick's Athletic	1QR	IFK Norrköping	0–2	1–2	1–4
	Dundalk	3QR	Slovan Bratislava	1–3	0–1	1–4
2020–21	Shamrock Rovers	1QR	Ilves	2–2		2–2(12–11 p.)
		2QR	A.C. Milan	0–2		0–2
	Bohemians	1QR	Fehérvár		1–1	1–1(2–4 p.)
	Derry City	1QR	FK Riteriai		2–3	2–3 (aet)
	Dundalk	2QR	Inter Club d'Escaldes		1–0	1–0
		3QR	Sheriff Tiraspol		1–1	1–1(3–5 p.)
		PO	KÍ	3–1		3–1
		Group B	Molde FK	1–2	1–3	4th
			Arsenal	2–4	0–3
			Rapid Wien	1–3	3–4

1QR/2QR/3QR = First/Second/Third qualifying round; PO = Playoff; Group = Group stage

Season	Club	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg
2021–22	Bohemians	1QR	Stjarnan	3–0	1–1	4–1
		2QR	F91 Dudelange	1–0	3–0	4–0
		3QR	P.A.O.K.	2–1	0–2	2–3
	Dundalk	1QR	Newtown	4–0	1–0	5–0
		2QR	FCI Levadia Tallinn	2–2	2–1	4–3
		3QR	Vitesse	1–2	2–2	3–4
	Sligo Rovers	1QR	FH	0–1	1–2	1–3
	Shamrock Rovers	3QR	Teuta	1–0	2–0	3–0
		PO	FC Flora Tallinn	0–1	2–4	2–5

1QR/2QR/3QR = First/Second/Third qualifying round; PO = Playoff