2026 League of Ireland Premier Division

League of Ireland Premier Division
Season	2026
Dates	6 February 2026 – 30 October 2026
Matches	18
Goals	44 (2.44 per match)
Top goalscorer	Michael Duffy ; Colm Whelan ; (4 goals each)
Biggest home win	St Patrick's Athletic 4–0 Dundalk ; (27 February 2026)
Biggest away win	Sligo Rovers 0–4 Bohemians ; (14 February 2026)
Highest scoring	Derry City 4–2 Waterford ; (27 February 2026)
Longest winning run	3 matches; Bohemians
Longest unbeaten run	4 matches; Bohemians
Longest winless run	4 matches; Dundalk; Sligo Rovers; Waterford
Longest losing run	2 matches; Sligo Rovers
Highest attendance	21,472; Bohemians 0–0 St Patrick's Athletic; (8 February 2026)
Lowest attendance	2,103; Drogheda United 2–0 Waterford; (13 February 2026)
Total attendance	85,658
Average attendance	4,759
	← 2025 2027 → All statistics correct as of 27 February 2026.

Last updated March 02, 2026

The 2026 League of Ireland Premier Division, known as the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division for sponsorship reasons,^[1] is the 42nd season of the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top Irish league for association football clubs since its establishment in 1985.

Teams

The league consists of ten teams – the top nine teams from the previous season and one team promoted as champions from the First Division, Dundalk.^[3] They replaced Cork City who were relegated after a single season in the top flight.^[4]

Stadiums and locations

Dundalk

Dublin

Dublin teams
Bohemians
St Patrick's Athletic
Shamrock Rovers
Shelbourne

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Locations of Premier Division teams

Bohemians

St Patrick's Athletic

Shamrock Rovers

Shelbourne

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Locations of Dublin Premier Division teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Bohemians	Dublin (Phibsborough)	Dalymount Park	4,500
Derry City	Derry	Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium	6,242
Drogheda United	Drogheda	Sullivan and Lambe Park	3,500
Dundalk	Dundalk	Oriel Park	4,500
Galway United	Galway	Eamonn Deacy Park	5,000
Shamrock Rovers	Dublin (Tallaght)	Tallaght Stadium	10,500
Shelbourne	Dublin (Drumcondra)	Tolka Park	5,700
Sligo Rovers	Sligo	The Showgrounds	3,873
St Patrick's Athletic	Dublin (Inchicore)	Richmond Park	5,340
Waterford	Waterford	RSC	5,160

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Bohemians	Alan Reynolds	Dawson Devoy	O'Neills	Des Kelly Interiors
Derry City	Tiernan Lynch	Michael Duffy	O'Neills	Diamond Corrugated
Drogheda United	Kevin Doherty	Ryan Brennan	Macron	NoFo Brew Co^[5]
Dundalk	Ciarán Kilduff	Daryl Horgan ^[6]	Macron	ZOMA^[7]
Galway United	John Caulfield	Jimmy Keohane	O'Neills	Comer Property Management
Shamrock Rovers	Stephen Bradley	Roberto Lopes	Macron	MASCOT Workwear
Shelbourne	Joey O'Brien	Paddy Barrett	O'Neills	Chadwicks ^[8]
Sligo Rovers	John Russell	William Fitzgerald	Umbro	Avant Money ^[9]
St Patrick's Athletic	Stephen Kenny	Joe Redmond	Umbro	Clune
Waterford	Jon Daly	Pádraig Amond ^[10]	Puma	WhiteBox^[11]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in the table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Waterford	Matt Lawlor (interim)	End of interim spell	16 November 2025^[12]	Pre-season	Jon Daly	16 November 2025^[12]

League table

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Bohemians	4	3	1	0	8	2	+6	10	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	Derry City	4	2	1	1	8	6	+2	7	Qualification for Conference League second qualifying round
3	Drogheda United	4	2	1	1	5	3	+2	7	Qualification for Conference League first qualifying round
4	Shelbourne	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
5	St Patrick's Athletic	3	1	1	1	4	2	+2	4
6	Shamrock Rovers	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
7	Galway United	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
8	Dundalk	4	0	3	1	4	8	−4	3
9	Waterford	4	0	2	2	3	7	−4	2	Qualification for promotion/relegation play-off
10	Sligo Rovers	4	0	1	3	1	7	−6	1	Relegation to League of Ireland First Division

Updated to match(es) played on 27 February 2026. Source: SSE Airtricity League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.

Results

Teams play each other four times (twice at home and twice away).

Home \ Away	BOH	DER	DRO	DUN	GAL	SHM	SHE	SLI	STP	WAT
Bohemians		1 May	15 May	20 Mar	13 Mar	3–2	4 May	10 Apr	0–0	6 Apr
					a	a		26 Jun
Derry City	0–1		20 Mar	2–2	4 May	24 Apr	13 Mar	2–1	22 May	4–2
								9 Oct
Drogheda United	3 Apr	8 May		22 May	6 Apr	16 Mar	1–2	1 May	17 Apr	2–0
			a					21 Aug
Dundalk	8 May	10 Apr	1–1		17 Apr	15 May	1 May	16 Mar	6 Apr	13 Mar
		a						4 Sep
Galway United	22 May	3 Apr	0–1	6 Mar		8 May	10 Apr	1–0	1 May	16 Mar
							a	23 Oct
Shamrock Rovers	17 Apr	6 Mar	4 May	1–1	20 Mar		6 Apr	22 May	2–0	1 May
a						a		a
Shelbourne	16 Mar	17 Apr	24 Apr	3 Apr	1–1	a		8 May	6 Mar	22 May
a					a			7 Aug
Sligo Rovers	0–4	6 Apr	7 Mar	25 Apr	15 May	13 Mar	21 Mar		4 May	18 Apr
				a				19 Sep
St Patrick's Athletic	24 Apr	16 Mar	13 Mar	4–0	2 Mar	10 Apr	15 May	3 Apr		8 May
30 Oct	31 Jul	12 Jun	24 Jul	3 Jul	11 Oct	16 Oct	19 Jun		28 Aug
Waterford	6 Mar	15 May	10 Apr	4 May	24 Apr	3 Apr	1–1	0–0	20 Mar
								10 Jul

Updated to match(es) played on 27 February 2026. Source: ,
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.

Positions by round

To preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for round 7, but then played between rounds 8 and 9, it will be added to the standings for round 8.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4
Team ╲ Round
Bohemians	5	2	1	1
Derry City	1	3	4	2
Drogheda United	2	1	2	3
Shelbourne	3	5	6	4
St Patrick's Athletic	5	6	9	5
Shamrock Rovers	7	8	3	6
Galway United	10	9	8	7
Dundalk	7	4	5	8
Waterford	3	7	7	9
Sligo Rovers	9	10	10	10

	Leader and qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
	Qualification for Conference League second qualifying round
	Qualification for Conference League first qualifying round
	Qualification for promotion/relegation play-off
	Relegation to League of Ireland First Division

Updated to match(es) played on 1 March 2026. Source: ,

Season statistics

As of 27 February 2026

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Michael Duffy	Derry City	3
1	Colm Whelan	Bohemians	3
3	Tommy Lonergan	Waterford	2
	Roberto Lopes	Shamrock Rovers
	Daniel Mullen	Dundalk
	Harry Wood	Shelbourne
7	28 players	Various	1

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref.
Colm Whelan	Bohemians	Sligo Rovers	4–0 (A)	14 February 2026	^[13]
Michael Duffy	Derry City	Waterford	4–2 (H)	27 February 2026	^[14]

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Kacper Chorążka	Bohemians	3
2	Joseph Anang	St Patrick's Athletic	2
2	Luke Dennison	Drogheda United	2
4	Edward McGinty	Shamrock Rovers	1
	Stephen McMullan	Waterford
	Sam Sargeant	Sligo Rovers
	Evan Watts	Galway United

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards: 3
- Aodh Dervin (Dundalk)

Most red cards: 1
- Vinnie Leonard (Dundalk)
- Carl McHugh (Sligo Rovers)

Club

Most yellow cards: 13
- Dundalk

Most red cards: 1
- Dundalk
- Sligo Rovers

References

↑ "Key dates - schedule confirmed for 2026 LOI season". League of Ireland. 1 December 2025. Retrieved 6 December 2025.
↑ Duffy, Muireann (1 December 2025). "Premier Division gets early February kick-off as League of Ireland season dates confirmed". The Irish Times . Retrieved 6 December 2025.
↑ Rogers, James (11 October 2025). "Dundalk FC complete hard fought resurrection with promotion to Premier Division". Irish Independent . Retrieved 6 December 2025.
↑ "Shels nab late winner to confirm Cork City's relegation". RTE Sport. 13 October 2025. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
↑ "Drogheda United 2025 Kit Release: A New Era with NoFo Brew Co". Drogheda United . 13 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
↑ "Horgan announced as new club captain". Dundalk . 7 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
↑ "Dundalk FC welcome Zoma as principal partner". Dundalk . 15 November 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
↑ Woods, Caoimhe (4 November 2025). "Chadwicks extend Shelbourne FC partnership for a further two years". Shelbourne . Retrieved 15 December 2025.
↑ "Avant Money renew Sligo Rovers sponsorship for three years". Sligo Rovers . 13 February 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
↑ "Pádraig Amond Named as Captain for 2025". Waterford . 13 February 2025.
↑ "WhiteBox Partnership to Continue on Multi-Year Deal". Waterford . 1 December 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
1 2 "Welcome to Waterford FC, Jon Daly!". Waterford . 16 November 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
↑ Goulden, David (14 February 2026). "Wonderful Colm Whelan tears Sligo apart with hat-trick". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 16 February 2026.
↑ Keenan, Niall (27 February 2026). "Derry City: Michael Duffy hat-trick inspires Derry to comeback victory". BBC Sport .

[1] "Key dates - schedule confirmed for 2026 LOI season". League of Ireland. 1 December 2025. Retrieved 6 December 2025.

[2] Duffy, Muireann (1 December 2025). "Premier Division gets early February kick-off as League of Ireland season dates confirmed". The Irish Times . Retrieved 6 December 2025.

[3] Rogers, James (11 October 2025). "Dundalk FC complete hard fought resurrection with promotion to Premier Division". Irish Independent . Retrieved 6 December 2025.

[4] "Shels nab late winner to confirm Cork City's relegation". RTE Sport. 13 October 2025. Retrieved 3 February 2026.

[5] "Drogheda United 2025 Kit Release: A New Era with NoFo Brew Co". Drogheda United . 13 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[6] "Horgan announced as new club captain". Dundalk . 7 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[7] "Dundalk FC welcome Zoma as principal partner". Dundalk . 15 November 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[8] Woods, Caoimhe (4 November 2025). "Chadwicks extend Shelbourne FC partnership for a further two years". Shelbourne . Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[9] "Avant Money renew Sligo Rovers sponsorship for three years". Sligo Rovers . 13 February 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[10] "Pádraig Amond Named as Captain for 2025". Waterford . 13 February 2025.

[11] "WhiteBox Partnership to Continue on Multi-Year Deal". Waterford . 1 December 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[:0-12] 1 2 "Welcome to Waterford FC, Jon Daly!". Waterford . 16 November 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.

[13] Goulden, David (14 February 2026). "Wonderful Colm Whelan tears Sligo apart with hat-trick". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 16 February 2026.

[14] Keenan, Niall (27 February 2026). "Derry City: Michael Duffy hat-trick inspires Derry to comeback victory". BBC Sport .

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