Suffolk F.C.

Last updated

Suffolk
Full nameSuffolk Football Club
Founded1987
GroundSuffolk Park Belfast
League NAFL Division 1C

Suffolk Football Club is a Northern Irish, intermediate football club playing in Division 1C of the Northern Amateur Football League. The club is based in Belfast, and was formed in 1987. [1] The club plays in the Irish Cup. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaelic Athletic Association</span> Irish amateur sporting and cultural organisation

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, Gaelic handball and rounders. The association also promotes Irish music and dance, as well as the Irish language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland national football team</span> Mens national association football team representing Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association (IFA). In 1921, the jurisdiction of the IFA was reduced to Northern Ireland following the secession of clubs in the soon-to-be Irish Free State, although its team remained the national team for all of Ireland until 1950, and used the name Ireland until the 1970s. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) organises the separate Republic of Ireland national football team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish Football Association</span> Governing body of association football in Northern Ireland

The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team.

Association football is organised on a separate basis in each of the four constituent countries that make up the United Kingdom (UK), with each having a national football association responsible for the overall management of football within their respective country. There is no United Kingdom national football team. Football has been the most popular sport in the UK since the 1860s. Rugby union, rugby league and cricket are other popular sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derry City F.C.</span> Association football club in Northern Ireland

Derry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. It plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of league football in the Republic of Ireland, and is the League of Ireland's only participant from Northern Ireland. The club's home ground is the Brandywell Stadium and the players wear red and white striped shirts from which its nickname, the Candystripes, derives. The club is also known as the Red and White Army, Derry or City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Jennings</span> Northern Irish former footballer (born 1945)

Patrick Anthony Jennings is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played 119 international matches for Northern Ireland in an international career which lasted for over 22 years. During his career, Jennings played for Newry Town, Watford and in the top division with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, winning the FA Cup with both of the north London rivals. In total, Jennings made over 1,000 top level appearances, and despite being a goalkeeper he scored in the 1967 FA Charity Shield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ards F.C.</span> Association football club in Northern Ireland

Ards Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Championship. The club is based in Newtownards, but plays its home matches at Clandeboye Park in Bangor, which it rents from rivals Bangor to play home games. The club colours are red and blue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliftonville F.C.</span> Association football club in Northern Ireland

Cliftonville Football & Athletic Club is a Northern Irish, semi-professional association football club playing in the NIFL Premiership – the top division of the Northern Ireland Football League. The club was founded in September 1879 by John McAlery in the suburb of Cliftonville in north Belfast. It is the oldest football club in Ireland and celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2019. Since 1890, the club has played home matches at Solitude. Cliftonville contests the North Belfast derby with nearby rivals Crusaders, and also has local rivalries with Linfield and Glentoran. The club has won the Irish League Premiership five times outright including one shared title, the Irish Cup eight times and the Irish League Cup six times.

The Northern Ireland football league system is categorised into three levels: senior, intermediate and junior. Clubs attain intermediate status by fulfilling certain criteria. Senior status requires clubs to reach stricter criteria. National leagues exist at senior and intermediate level. All junior leagues and some intermediate are organised on a regional basis.

The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Inaugurated in 1881, it is the fourth-oldest national cup competition in the world. Prior to the break-away from the Irish Football Association by clubs from what would become the Irish Free State in 1921, the Irish Cup was the national cup competition for the whole of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland Football League Cup</span> Football tournament

The Northern Ireland Football League Cup, also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Northern Ireland Football League. It is the third-most prestigious competition in domestic Northern Irish football after the NIFL Premiership and Irish Cup. It should not be confused with the Irish League Floodlit Cup which ran from 1987–88 to 1997–98. Unlike the Irish Cup, the League Cup does not have a berth for UEFA Europa Conference League qualification. The cup has been operated by the Northern Ireland Football League since the 2013–14 season when it took over the administration from the Irish Football Association (IFA), after which the cup was renamed to the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) Cup.

Association football in Northern Ireland, widely known as football or sometimes as soccer, is one of the most popular sports in Northern Ireland. The governing body in Northern Ireland is the Irish Football Association (IFA). Gaelic football, rugby union and association football are the most popular sports in Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NIFL Premiership</span> Association football top division of Northern Ireland

The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football League – the national league in Northern Ireland. The Premiership was established as the IFA Premiership in 2008 under the auspices of the Irish Football Association, before the Northern Ireland Football League was created for the start of the 2013–14 season. At the end of the season, the champion club is presented with the Gibson Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland national under-21 football team</span>

The Northern Ireland national under-21 football team also known as the Northern Ireland under-21s or Northern Ireland U21s, is the national under-21 football team of Northern Ireland and is controlled by the Irish Football Association. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years. To date Northern Ireland haven't yet qualified for the finals tournament.

Bryansburn Rangers Football Club is a Northern Irish, intermediate football club playing in Division 1B of the Northern Amateur Football League. The club are from Bangor, County Down and play their home matches at Ballywooley Park on the Crawfordsburn Road. The club was founded in 1974 and joined the Amateur League in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland Football League</span> Football league

The Northern Ireland Football League, known historically, and still colloquially, as the Irish League, is the national football league of Northern Ireland. The Irish League was originally formed in 1890, with the league in its current format created in 2013 to assume independent collective management of the top three levels of the Northern Ireland football league system; namely the Premiership, Championship and Premier Intermediate League.

Sunday football in Northern Ireland has been a controversial issue. Until 2008, the Irish Football Association (IFA) under IFA Article 27, prohibited any clubs affiliated with them from playing association football matches on Sunday. The ban initially came from various government legislation, both local and national. Northern Ireland's Protestant Christian majority's observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, was also a major factor which amounted to a continuance of the observance of tradition for a lot longer than in the rest of the UK. It was also a way to combat a perceived encroachment on their culture by Catholics. Since the abolition of the ban, teams can play matches on Sunday if they have mutual agreement, although some teams such as Linfield have club rules against such games.

The 2019–20 NIFL Premiership was the 12th season of Northern Ireland's highest national football league in this format since its inception in 2008, the 119th season of Irish league football overall, and the seventh season that the league operated as part of the Northern Ireland Football League. The fixtures were released on 26 June 2019. The season began on 9 August 2019 and was initially scheduled to conclude on 25 April 2020, with the promotion/relegation play-off scheduled to take place in the first week of May 2020. However, the season was suspended on 13 March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland, with the clubs having only played 31 of the 38 rounds of fixtures. The season did not resume after the suspension, with the final games having been played on 7 March 2020.

The 2019–20 Irish Cup was the 140th edition of the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its inauguration in 1881. The competition began on 17 August 2019, and concluded with the final at Windsor Park on 31 July 2020. The final was the first football match in the United Kingdom to host fans since the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom led to a pause in the season in March, with 250 fans from each team permitted at the final.

The 2021–22 Northern Ireland Football League Cup was the 35th edition of Northern Ireland's football knock-out cup competition for national league clubs, and the seventh edition of the competition as the Northern Ireland Football League Cup. The competition was contested by the 35 member clubs of the Northern Ireland Football League, commencing on 31 July 2021 with the first round and concluding with the final on 13 March 2022. The competition was sponsored by McLean Bookmakers, the title sponsors of the cup since the 2017–18 season.

References