New all-island competition for Women's Premier division clubs

A new all-island competition has been agreed by the League of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Football League.

ALL-ISLAND COMPETITION:The League of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Football League have made an agreement to introduce an all-island competition for women's teams which will start in June 2023. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

The League of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Football League have made an agreement to introduce an all-island competition for women's teams which will start in June 2023.

Both sides have been in talks for some time to create the new competition which sees the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division clubs take on their NIFL Women's Premiership counterparts. The competition will take place during the season break ahead of FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 - a period that has created the perfect opportunity to bring this competition to fruition.

The SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division season has been structured to allow for a period where there are no games taking place to aid the Republic of Ireland Women's National Team's preparations for the World Cup. The new competition will be played during this scheduled break which will ensure that the women's domestic football continues as the excitement for the World Cup builds.

The competition will involve 16 teams in total, 11 from the League of Ireland and five from the Northern Irleand League. They will be split into four groups of four teams.

The group stage games will take place on June 18th, June 25th and July 2nd. The top teams in each group will progress into the semi-finals which will take place on July 9th and the final will take place on July 16th.

League of Ireland Director Mark Scanlon is looking forward to the new competition “We are looking forward to working with the Northern Ireland Football League to create what should be an exciting new competition that will act as an additional test for our SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division clubs.

“Finding the right time to host these games was always going to be the main obstacle to overcome but we have identified a block in June, when preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be ongoing and thankfully our colleagues in the NIFL have been able to work the dates into their schedule also. We believe this competition will be a brilliant start to what promises to be a historic summer for Women’s football in Ireland.

“Along with introducing the President’s Cup this year, this all-island competition is ensuring that our clubs are competing in more top quality games and that will help to strengthen our league as a whole.”

“We’re delighted to accept the invitation from the FAI and the League of Ireland for our clubs to participate in this exciting new competition" said Northern Ireland Football League Chief Executive Gerard Lawlor. 

“This is a ground-breaking season for Women’s football for us with the introduction of professionalism, therefore the challenge of competing against new opposition is hugely positive and exciting for the growth of our game.”

The clubs taking part in the competition are: Athlone Town, Bohemians, Cork City, DLR Waves, Galway United, Peamount United, Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne, Sligo Rovers, Treaty United, Wexford Youths, Cliftonville, Crusaders, Derry City. Glentoran and Linfield.

All games will be streamed live on LOITV and details of dates and venues will follow in due course.