The 1980–81 National Football League was the 50th staging of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), an annual

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament for the

Gaelic Athletic Association county A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has ...

teams of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

defeated

Roscommon Roscommon (; ; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60 road (Ireland), N60, N61 road (Ireland), N61 and N63 road (Irelan ...

in an all-

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

final.

Format

Titles

Teams in all four divisions competed for one league title.

Divisions

* Division One: 8 teams * Division Two: 8 teams * Division Three: 8 teams * Division Four: 8 teams

Round-robin format

Each team played every other team in its division once, either home or away.

Points awarded

2 points were awarded for a win and 1 for a draw.

Knockout stage qualifiers

* Division One: top 4 teams * Division Two: top 2 teams * Division Three: top team * Division Four: top team

Knockout phase structure

In the Preliminary quarter-finals, the match-ups were as follows * Preliminary Quarter-final 1: Fourth-placed team in Division One v First-placed team in Division Four * Preliminary Quarter-final 2: Second-placed team in Division Two v First-placed team in Division Three In the quarter-finals, the match-ups were as follows * Quarter-final 1: Winner Preliminary Quarter-final 1 v First-placed team in Division Two * Quarter-final 2: Winner Preliminary Quarter-final 2 v Third-placed team in Division One The semi-final match-ups are: * Semi-final 1: First-placed team in Division One v Winner Quarter-final 1 * Semi-final 2: Second-placed team in Division One v Winner Quarter-final 2

Separation of teams on equal points

In the event that teams finish on equal points, then a play-off will be used to determine group placings if necessary, i.e. where to decide relegation places or quarter-finalists.

Format

Titles

Divisions

Round-robin format

Points awarded

Knockout stage qualifiers

Knockout phase structure

Separation of teams on equal points

League stage

Division One

Regulation Games

Division One play-offs

Tables

Division Two

Division Two Regulation Games

Tables

Division Three

Division Four

Knockout stage

Preliminary quarter-finals

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

References

External links