For football fans, the idea of whether or not the teams that they support are professional is something that seems entirely natural. After all, you’re pouring your heart and soul into following a team, so why on earth wouldn’t they be professional?
Those that know about the lower leagues in England are more than aware of the fact that some clubs are semi-professional at best, which is also the base with fans of the sport in Northern Ireland. In recent years, however, there has been a move to become more professional in Northern Ireland, but how far away is a fully professional league?
About the NIFL
The Northern Ireland Football League was formed originally back in 1890, but has been in its current guise since 2008. That was the point at which it became the IFA Premiership, known colloquially as the Irish Premiership, and went under the auspices of the Irish Football Association. It is the highest division of the NIFL and features 12 teams. That involved a restructuring, given the fact that it had previously seen 16 teams plying their trade in the league. In spite of there only being 12 teams, each side still plays 38 games, played out thanks to a home game, an away game, and a game either home or away.
@wearelinfield AFJ🇬🇧 #linfieldfc #fyp #nifl #northernireland #wearelinfield ♬ original sound – wearelinfield
At that point, the league is split into Section A and Section B, with the teams playing each other once again depending on where in the league they are based. Most of the teams that play in the league are not professional. Instead, some are three-quarters professional, whilst most are semi-professional at best, but mostly amateur. That is something that many within the game is hoping to see change, given the manner in which making the Irish Premiership fully professional will also ensure that the division is significantly more competitive than it has been since its introduction.
The State of Professionalism at the Moment
Craig Norwood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Of the 12 teams that compete in the Irish Premiership, accepting that the exact teams change each season thanks to the promotion and relegation system, only thee are full-time. They are Linfield, Larne and Glentoran. Elsewhere on this site you can read about the rivalry between Linfield and Glentoran, which is the fiercest in the league. Crusaders, meanwhile, are three-quarters professional. If you look at the last ten winners of the title, Linfield have won it six times, whilst Larne and Crusaders have won two apiece. The only non-professional team to have won since the league’s formation was Cliftonville.
The scene is set for today’s #football #photography assignment for @wsc.co.uk as Glenavon host Larne in the #SportsDirectPrem Northern Irish Premiership.
— Colin McPherson (@germanocean.bsky.social) 22 March 2025 at 13:48
In the December of 2022, the Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Premiership, Gerard Lawlor, said that he would like the division to become full professionally over the next few years. He said “We need to start planning for the clubs who aren’t full-time. We need to be able to support them and we need to be able to give the clubs the tools, frameworks and mechanisms to try and achieve that. We all have to go on a journey. We can’t allow three of four clubs to go and run away and have a four-team league.” He also feels that a strong Championship will help to push the league forward.
Why Things Are Changing
In the May of 2024, the Irish Football Association confirmed that it was going to implement a new corporate strategy for the top-flight in the years that follow. A new Conference Layer is to be introduced, for example, to allow clubs to compete below the Championship. Mainly, though, there has been a realisation from some business people that getting an Irish team into Europe will allow them to make some decent money. In the September of 2017, for example, Larne Football Club was taken over by Kenny Bruce, who was the co-founder of Purplebricks, the online estate agents.
He soon began investing in the club from his hometown, investing as much as £2 million on players as well as the development of the home ground. Although the firm was later sold to Strike, a competitor in the estate agent business, Bruce has remained in charge of Larne since. It can only be seen as a good thing to supporters of teams who play in Northern Ireland, bored of seeing the same teams win the title every year and needing to support an English club such as Liverpool or Manchester United in order to hope for some success. Whether the idea of full professionalism will ever be realised remains to be seen, however.
