2007–08 Irish Premier League

Irish Premier League
Season 2007–08
Champions Linfield
48th Irish title
Relegated Armagh City
Donegal Celtic
Larne
Limavady United
Portadown
UEFA Champions League Linfield
UEFA Cup Cliftonville
Glentoran
UEFA Intertoto Cup Lisburn Distillery
Matches played 240
Goals scored 698 (2.91 per match)
Top goalscorer Peter Thompson
(29 goals)
Biggest home win Glenavon 5–0 Armagh City
Linfield 5–0 Crusaders
Linfield 5–0 Newry City
Lisburn Distillery 5–0 Limavady United
Biggest away win Armagh City 0–5 Glentoran
Highest scoring Dungannon Swifts 4–6 Newry City

The 2007–08 Irish Premier League was the fifth and final season of Northern Ireland's national football league in this format since its inception in 2003, and the 107th season of Irish league football overall. This was the last season of the competition before the league system in Northern Ireland was restructured. The 2008–09 competition onwards would be re-branded as the IFA Premiership, with stricter rules governing the eligibility of clubs wishing to take part. The top tier of the Northern Irish league system would also be reduced in size from sixteen clubs, to twelve.

The season began on 22 September 2007, and ended on 26 April 2008. Linfield were the defending champions, and successfully defended their title, winning their 48th title by 3 points. Five teams were relegated to the newly introduced IFA Championship for the following season.

League table

Pos
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
Qualification or relegation
1 Linfield (C) 30 23 5 2 71 18+53 74 2008–09 UEFA Champions League First Qualifying Round
2 Glentoran 30 22 5 3 69 24+45 71 2008–09 UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round
3 Cliftonville 30 18 6 6 55 32+23 60
4 Lisburn Distillery 30 17 7 6 50 28+22 58 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup First Round
5 Portadown (R) 30 15 2 13 44 39+5 47 Relegation to 2008–09 IFA Championship
6 Ballymena United 30 12 8 10 42 41+1 44
7 Crusaders 30 12 7 11 45 472 43
8 Newry City 30 13 4 13 45 527 43
9 Coleraine 30 11 7 12 41 509 40
10 Dungannon Swifts 30 9 9 12 38 446 36
11 Donegal Celtic (R) 30 9 8 13 39 478 35 Relegation to 2008–09 IFA Championship
12 Glenavon 30 9 3 18 37 5114 30
13 Larne (R) 30 7 4 19 44 7127 25 Relegation to 2008–09 IFA Championship
14 Institute 30 5 8 17 23 4118 23
15 Limavady United (R) 30 6 5 19 26 5731 23 Relegation to 2008–09 IFA Championship
16 Armagh City (R) 30 5 6 19 29 5627 21

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Each team played every other team twice (home and away) for a total of 30 games.

Home ╲ Away ARM BYM CLICOLCRUDGCDUNGLAGLTINSLRNLIMLINLISNEWPOR
Armagh City 12 01 01 22 11 01 20 05 11 25 10 13 41 12 11
Ballymena United 21 01 20 22 00 00 00 04 21 30 30 04 22 21 21
Cliftonville 21 32 12 01 51 21 33 42 20 11 41 22 22 20 21
Coleraine 20 11 03 33 32 22 01 14 21 41 10 14 14 01 11
Crusaders 11 30 11 34 20 10 21 02 10 41 21 03 13 41 02
Donegal Celtic 30 02 02 11 30 31 20 33 01 43 31 11 12 23 01
Dungannon Swifts 51 21 10 41 11 00 14 00 01 10 02 40 03 46 03
Glenavon 50 12 12 10 04 01 12 12 20 23 03 02 23 10 03
Glentoran 10 24 21 21 30 51 11 30 40 10 30 10 22 21 31
Institute 11 11 12 00 31 11 10 23 12 01 00 01 02 02 12
Larne 02 21 12 12 03 42 33 34 03 12 22 15 12 30 12
Limavady United 03 31 31 00 12 01 11 10 10 22 23 04 12 13 02
Linfield 21 10 00 40 50 20 21 32 00 10 30 30 21 50 10
Lisburn Distillery 10 02 12 20 10 01 11 00 12 00 20 50 00 10 10
Newry City 30 22 10 02 11 11 30 21 03 21 22 30 03 14 21
Portadown 21 21 02 15 20 21 01 01 02 21 51 20 25 01 32

Source: rsssf.com
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

League restructuring

From the 2008–09 season onwards, the league system in Northern Ireland was re-structured. It would be renamed as the IFA Premiership, and reduced to twelve teams, included on the basis not only of their performance in the 2007–08 season, but in the previous two seasons, and other off-the-field criteria as follows. Each applicant club was assessed by an independent panel and awarded points against the following criteria:

Five of this season's sixteen Premier League teams failed to gain a place in the new twelve-team Premiership and were relegated to the newly introduced IFA Championship. Of the five teams that missed out, two of them - Armagh City and Limavady United failed to obtain the necessary domestic licence, while Larne did not apply. Donegal Celtic obtained a licence, but were ranked thirteenth in the entry list, and thus missed out by one place. Finally, Portadown also obtained a licence, but were relegated to the IFA Championship as a result of submitting their application for the IFA Premiership 29 minutes past the deadline for consideration.[1] That left thirteen clubs to be ranked - twelve from this season's Premier League plus Bangor, who had finished third in the First Division.

Rankings

Rank Club Points Division Notes
1 Linfield 1339 2008–09 IFA Premiership
2 Ballymena United 1054
3 Glentoran 1016
4 Coleraine 965
5 Cliftonville 945
6 Dungannon Swifts 855
7 Glenavon 828
8 Crusaders 826
9 Lisburn Distillery 815
10 Newry City 796
11 Bangor 641 Only club from outside this season's Premier League to apply.
12 Institute 632
13 Donegal Celtic 543 2008–09 IFA Championship Missed out on the Premiership by one place.
Portadown Gained Domestic Licence, but Premiership application received past deadline.
Armagh City Applied, but failed to gain Domestic Licence.
Limavady United Applied, but failed to gain Domestic Licence.
Larne Did not apply.

Source: BBC Sport

External links

References

  1. "Portadown out of Premier League". BBC News. 2008-05-13.
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