2024–25 NIFL Premiership

NIFL Premiership
Season2024–25

The 2024–25 NIFL Premiership (known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is the 17th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland and the 124th season of Irish League football overall.

Teams

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The league consisted of twelve teams; the top eleven teams from the previous season, and one team promoted from the NIFL Championship. Larne entered the season as defending champions (for the second consecutive season).

Portadown were promoted as champions of the 2023–24 NIFL Championship (returning to the top-flight after a one-season absence), replacing the 2023–24 NIFL Premiership bottom-placed team Newry City.

Stadia and locations

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Locations of the 2024–25 NIFL Premiership teams
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Locations of the Belfast-based 2024–25 NIFL Premiership teams
Club Stadium Location Capacity[1][2]
Ballymena United The Showgrounds Ballymena 3,824 (all seated)
Carrick Rangers Loughshore Hotel Arena Carrickfergus 2,100 (380 seated)
Cliftonville Solitude Belfast 3,054 (all seated)
Coleraine The Showgrounds Coleraine 4,843 (1,607 seated)
Crusaders Seaview Belfast 3,208 (all seated)
Dungannon Swifts Stangmore Park Dungannon 2,000 (300 seated)
Glenavon Mourneview Park Lurgan 3,302 (all seated)
Glentoran The Oval Belfast 6,054 (3,991 seated)
Larne Inver Park Larne 2,732 (1,632 seated)
Linfield Windsor Park Belfast 18,434 (all seated)
Loughgall Lakeview Park Loughgall 3,000
Portadown Shamrock Park Portadown 3,940 (2,765 seated)

Regular season

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League table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Linfield 13 8 2 3 27 13 +14 26 Qualification for Section A
2 Ballymena United 14 8 0 6 20 15 +5 24
3 Dungannon Swifts 14 7 2 5 19 13 +6 23
4 Cliftonville 13 6 3 4 17 14 +3 21
5 Glentoran 14 6 3 5 15 12 +3 21
6 Crusaders 12 6 2 4 15 12 +3 20
7 Coleraine 14 5 4 5 19 19 0 19 Qualification for Section B
8 Portadown 13 5 3 5 17 16 +1 18
9 Larne 10 4 3 3 11 9 +2 15
10 Glenavon 14 3 6 5 11 16 −5 15
11 Carrick Rangers 13 3 2 8 13 24 −11 11
12 Loughgall 14 2 2 10 14 35 −21 8
Updated to match(es) played on 27 October 2024. Source: Northern Ireland Football League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Drawing of lots[3]


Results

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For matches 1–22, each team plays every other team twice (home and away). For matches 23–33, each team plays every other team for the third time (either at home or away).

Home \ Away BYM CRK CLF COL CRU DUN GLA GLT LAR LIN LGL POR BYM CRK CLF COL CRU DUN GLA GLT LAR LIN LGL POR
Ballymena United — 3–2 0–1 0–1 3–1 1–0 0–2 4–1 — — — — — — —
Carrick Rangers 1–4 — 2–0 2–1 2–0 2–3 0–1 — — — — — —
Cliftonville — 2–1 a 1–0 0–0 1–3 0–0 1–0 — — — — — — —
Coleraine 4–2 3–1 — 0–2 2–1 1–1 0–3 2–0 — — — — — — —
Crusaders 1–0 2–1 1–1 2–1 — 0–1 2–3 0–3 — a — — — — —
Dungannon Swifts 1–0 4–0 1–1 1–0 — 1–0 1–3 2–0 — — — — — —
Glenavon 0–1 1–1 1–2 1–1 — 0–0 0–3 2–2 2–1 — — — — — —
Glentoran 1–1 1–0 0–0 0–1 2–0 0–0 — a 2–0 — — — — — a — —
Larne 0–1 1–1 0–3 2–0 — 2–0 — — — — — — —
Linfield 1–0 1–2 3–1 1–3 0–1 — 5–1 — — — — — —
Loughgall 3–0 1–5 0–4 0–2 1–3 — 2–2 — — — — — —
Portadown 0–1 2–2 2–1 1–2 2–1 2–2 1–0 — — — — — — — —
Updated to match(es) played on 27 October 2024. Source: Northern Ireland Football League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 34–38

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For the final five matches, the table splits into two halves, with the top six teams forming Section A and the bottom six teams forming Section B. Each team plays every other team in their respective section once. The fixtures are reversed from those played during rounds 23–33, ensuring that teams have played every other team in their respective section twice at home and twice away overall throughout the season.

Play-offs

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Conference League play-off

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Clubs placed 3rd–7th compete for the second and final place in the 2025–26 Conference League first qualifying round. The play-offs are one-off matches, with the higher-ranked teams given home advantage and extra time and penalties used to determine the winner if necessary. If the 2024–25 Irish Cup winners finish in the top three, the third-placed team will qualify automatically for the Conference League spot and the spot will be vacated. If the Irish Cup winners finish in between fourth and seventh, that spot will be vacated.

NIFL Premiership play-off

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The eleventh-placed club will face the second-placed club from the 2024–25 NIFL Championship in a two-legged play-off for the final place in the following season's NIFL Premiership.

References

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  1. ^ "AQW 1178/11". Northern Ireland Assembly. 18 October 2010.
  2. ^ "Sport NI Annual review 2008/09" (PDF). sportni.net. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2013.
  3. ^ "NIFL Premiership Rules 2020–21" (PDF). NIFL. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
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