The Champions Cup (known as the

Unite the Union Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK (afte ...

Champions Cup for sponsorship purposes) is a cross-border

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

super cup inaugurated in 2019 that features the league champions from both football associations on the island of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The competition sees the League of Ireland Premier Division champions from the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

face the

NIFL Premiership 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 Northe ...

champions from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The Champions Cup is the successor to the

Setanta Sports Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of I ...

, the previous all-Ireland competition which ran from 2005 until 2014. The Champions Cup is sponsored by

, the British and Irish

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

History

The Champions Cup is the seventh major all-Ireland competition since Irish football was split into two jurisdictions following the

partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...

in 1921. Previous competitions include the Dublin and Belfast Intercity Cup (1941–1949), the

North-South Cup The North-South Cup was a short-lived all-Ireland football tournament. It was played for two seasons in the 1960s and on both occasions won by teams from Northern Ireland. The 1960-61 competition was played to the semi-final stage, however d ...

(1961–1963), the

Blaxnit Cup The Blaxnit Cup, is a defunct club football competition which featured teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland, in a similar format to the later Setanta Cup. It was inaugurated in 1967 as a cross-border competition between c ...

(1967–1974), the

Texaco Cup The Texaco Cup, officially known as the International League Board Competition, was an association football competition started in 1970, involving sides from England, Scotland, and Ireland that had not qualified for European competitions. It wa ...

(1973–1975), the

Tyler Cup The Tyler Cup was an association football competition played between clubs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The competition ran from 1978 to 1980, and was similar to the earlier Blaxnit Cup, North-South Cup, Dublin and Belfast I ...

(1978–1980), and the

(2005–2014). There was also the Irish News Cup (1995–1999), however this is not counted among the major all-Ireland competitions, as neither the league champions or the cup winners were invited. The final edition of the previous all-Ireland competition, the

, took place in 2014. Linfield and

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

declined the invitation to take part, citing inconvenient fixture scheduling and reduced prize money as their reasons for deciding not to enter. As a result,

Ballinamallard United Ballinamallard United Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Championship. The club, re-formed in 1975 after being dormant since the 1960s, hails from Ballinamallard, near Enniskillen, County Ferma ...

and Coleraine were invited to take part instead, and the tournament did eventually take place – for what turned out to be the final time. The withdrawal of two high-profile Northern Ireland Football League clubs was a major blow for the competition, and raised doubts regarding its future. The 2015 tournament was initially scheduled to take place as planned, with four clubs from each league. However, in May 2015, NIFL clubs again voiced concerns over fixture scheduling – particularly plans for midweek games. When suitable fixture dates could not be agreed upon by the clubs, the competition was ultimately postponed until 2016. However, the 2016 tournament did not materialise. In December 2015, principal sponsor

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

was acquired by

Eir In Norse mythology, Eir (Old Norse: , "protection, help, mercy"Orchard (1997:36).) is a goddess or valkyrie associated with medical skill. Eir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; th ...

and became

Eir Sport Eir Sport (stylised as eir Sport; formerly Setanta Sports) was a group of Irish television sports channels operated by Eircom Sport Limited, a subsidiary of Eir. In December 2015, Eir purchased original Setanta Sports operations in the Republi ...

in 2016, with the competition eventually being scrapped. In February 2019, the FAI announced that a 'champions match' would take place between the League of Ireland champions and the Northern Ireland Football League champions. However, the Northern Ireland Football League said they were surprised at the announcement, adding that discussions were still ongoing. In May 2019, after five years without an all-Ireland competition, it was confirmed that a new competition would take place between the champions of the

Northern Ireland Football League The Northern Ireland Football League (commonly abbreviated to NIFL), 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 l ...

and the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

. The inaugural competition was a two-legged tie played in November 2019, with each team playing home and away. The winners received

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50,000, while the runners-up received €25,000. A further €25,000 was allocated to community-based projects in the local areas of the two competing clubs. The 2020 edition was postponed in November 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, while plans for an expanded 4 team tournament were announced for 2021. A draw for the venue to host the final of the 2021 edition was held in October 2021, with the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

drawn over

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual renta ...

, while Linfield would face Coleraine in one Semi-final following 1st and 2nd placed finishes respectively in the 2020–21 NIFL Premiership, with the other Semi-final likely to be an all Dublin affair of Shamrock Rovers vs St Patrick's Athletic as 1st and 2nd in the 2021 League of Ireland Premier Division. In November 2021, it was announced that the tournament had been postponed again, with a statement citing ''"in light of the current Covid-19 situation on both sides of the border, Unite The Union has asked the FAI and the

IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Ac ...

to postpone the competition until 2022. Both associations have agreed to the request."'' On 4 May 2022, it was announced that the 2021 edition of the competition was called off, with scheduling issues cited as the reason for the decision.

Editions

2019

In the inaugural competition, the 2018–19 NIFL Premiership champions, Linfield, faced the 2019 League of Ireland Premier Division champions,

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

, with the matches played on 8 and 11 November 2019. Dundalk won 7-1 on aggregate to become the first holders. ----

References

{{UEFA national super cups All-Ireland association football cup competitions

2019 establishments in Ireland

History

Editions

2019

See also

References