Sports Direct Premiership | Soccer-tainment

Sports Direct Premiership

FIFA Region

UEFA

Season

2019-2020

Location

Northern Ireland

Abbreviation

NIR1

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map of participating teams

Summary

The NIFL Premiership (NIR1), or Dankse Bank Premiership, is the top division in Northern Ireland's football system. At the end of the 2019-2020 NIR1 season, the NIR1 teams listed below qualify for the following non-league play:

2020-2021 UEFA Champions League - Preliminary Round:
- 1st place 2019-2020 NIR1 team
2020-2021 UEFA Europa League - Preliminary Round:
- 2019-2020 NIR1 UEFA Europa League Playoffs winner

The winner of the 2019-2020 Irish Football Association Challenge Cup (Irish Cup), typically a NIR1 team, also receives a berth in the Preliminary Round of the 2020-2021 UEFA Europa League.

Due to COVID-19, the NIR1 season was cut short at 31 regular season matches per team.

Leagues Pyramid - Northern Ireland

Abbrev	League	# of Teams
NIR1	Dankse Bank Premiership	12
NIR2	NIFL Championship	12
NIR3	NIFL Premier Intermediate League	12

Competition Structure

Season			# of Teams
Regular 10 Aug 2019 - 21 Mar 2020	Champ/Releg Rounds 24 Mar 2020 - 27 Apr 2020	UEFAEL Playoffs 30 Apr 2020 - 15 May 2020	12: NIR1 (10 minimum), NIR2 (2 maximum)

Season Format

The 2019-2020 NIR1 season consists of 2 stages. In the first stage, each NIR1 team plays the other 11 NIR1 teams 3 times for a total of 33 league matches. In each 3 match series one team hosts 2 home matches and the other team hosts 1 home match. In the second stage, the top six teams play each other a 4th time (5 more matches) to determine final rankings for UEFA Champions League and Europa League placements, and the bottom six teams play each other a 4th time (5 more matches) to determine the relegation placements. Total points are for all 38 matches. Table ranking ties are broken by (1) goal difference, (2) goals scored, (3) head-to-head points, (4) head-to-head goal difference, then (5) a drawing.

Playoffs

Not applicable.

Relegation

At the end of the 2019-2020 NIR1 season, the 12th place NIR1 team is relegated to the NIR2, and the 11th place NIR1 team enters into a Home-Away highest aggregate score playoff with the 2nd place NIR2 team. The playoff winner and the 1st place NIR2 team play in the 2020-2021 NIR1, and the playoff loser plays in the 2020-2021 NIR2.

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1st Stage

		League							Home						Road
POS		MP	W - D - L	PTS	CPTS	GF	GA	GD	MP	W - D - L	PTS	GF	GA	GD	MP	W - D - L	PTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Linfield FC	31	22 -3-6	69	-	71	24	47	15	12 -2-1	38	44	9	35	16	10 -1-5	31	27	15	12
2	Coleraine FC	31	19 -8-4	65	-	64	24	40	15	9 -5-1	32	29	10	19	16	10 -3-3	33	35	14	21
3	Crusaders FC	31	17 -8-6	59	-	66	30	36	16	10 -3-3	33	35	13	22	15	7 -5-3	26	31	17	14
4	Cliftonville	31	18 -5-8	59	-	48	22	26	15	9 -2-4	29	23	11	12	16	9 -3-4	30	25	11	14
5	Glentoran FC	31	17 -7-7	58	-	60	33	27	16	10 -3-3	33	34	13	21	15	7 -4-4	25	26	20	6
6	Larne FC	31	16 -8-7	56	-	59	29	30	16	7 -6-3	27	32	15	17	15	9 -2-4	29	27	14	13
7	Glenavon FC	31	10 -5-16	35	-	46	71	-25	15	7 -5-3	26	27	20	7	16	3 -0-13	9	19	51	-32
8	Carrick Rangers FC	31	10 -2-19	32	-	34	47	-13	16	5 -0-11	15	17	25	-8	15	5 -2-8	17	17	22	-5
9	Dungannon Swifts FC	31	8 -6-17	30	-	36	76	-40	16	6 -3-7	21	23	33	-10	15	2 -3-10	9	13	43	-30
10	Ballymena United FC	31	7 -6-18	27	-	34	54	-20	16	4 -3-9	15	20	30	-10	15	3 -3-9	12	14	24	-10
11	Warrenpoint Town FC	31	5 -3-23	18	-	26	85	-59	15	3 -1-11	10	15	40	-25	16	2 -2-12	8	11	45	-34
12	Institute FC	31	2 -9-20	15	-	23	72	-49	15	1 -2-12	5	8	41	-33	16	1 -7-8	10	15	31	-16
Championship Group Relegation Group