CORK CITY FC Women will take part in a new cross border football competition that is being organized by the League of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL).
The tournament is set to kick-off in June 2023 and it will take place during the season break ahead of FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Women’s Premier Division was structured this year to help the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team, and this has created a gap when no league games will take place.
This new competition will be played during that period and it will see 16 teams from the League of Ireland come up against 5 from the NIFL.
The tournament is supported by both the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Football Association.
The 16 teams will be divided into four groups of four teams and games are set to get underway on June 18th and the final is penciled in for July 16th.
The clubs involved will be: Athlone Town, Bohemians, Cork City, DLR Waves, Galway United, Peamount United, Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne, Sligo Rovers, Treaty United, Wexford Youths, Cliftonville, Crusaders, Derry City, Glentoran and Linfield.
This is the first cross border competition organized between the two leagues since the Champions Cup between Dundalk and Linfield in 2019. That followed the Setanta Sports Cup that ran from 2005 to 2014.
League of Ireland Director Mark Scanlon has welcomed the new competition.
“We are looking forward to working with the Northern Ireland Football League to create what should be an exciting new competition that will act as an additional test for our SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division clubs.
“Finding the right time to host these games was always going to be the main obstacle to overcome but we have identified a block in June, when preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be ongoing and thankfully our colleagues in the NIFL have been able to work the dates into their schedule also.
“We believe this competition will be a brilliant start to what promises to be a historic summer for Women’s football in Ireland.
“Along with introducing the President’s Cup this year, this all-island competition is ensuring that our clubs are competing in more top quality games and that will help to strengthen our league as a whole.”
Northern Ireland Football League Chief Executive Gerard Lawlor said: “We’re delighted to accept the invitation from the FAI and the League of Ireland for our clubs to participate in this exciting new competition.
“This is a ground-breaking season for Women’s football for us with the introduction of professionalism, therefore the challenge of competing against new opposition is hugely positive and exciting for the growth of our game.”
