The 1985–86 National Football League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Ford National Football League, was the 55th 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 ...

Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

won their second title to bridge a sixty-year gap.

Format

1985-86 saw a change in format of the National League. Divisions Three and Four were amalgamated into a new Division Three, which was split by region.

Divisions

* Division One: 8 teams * Division Two: 8 teams * Division Three: 16 teams. Split into two regional groups of 8 (North and South)

Round-robin format

Each team played every other team in its division (or group where the division is split) once, either home or away.

Points awarded

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

Titles

Teams in all three divisions competed for the

title.

Knockout stage qualifiers

* Division One: top 4 teams * Division Two: top 2 teams * Division Three (North): group winners * Division Three (South): group winners

Knockout phase structure

In the quarter-finals, the match-ups were as follows: * Quarter-final 1: First-placed team in Division One v First-placed team in Division Three (South) * Quarter-final 2: Second-placed team in Division One v First-placed team in Division Three (North) * Quarter-final 3: Third-placed team in Division One v Second-placed team in Division Two * Quarter-final 4: Fourth-placed team in Division One v First-placed team in Division Two The semi-final match-ups are: * Semi-final 1: Winner Quarter-final 1 v Winner Quarter-final 4 * Semi-final 2: Winner Quarter-final 2 v Winner Quarter-final 3 The final match-up is: Winner Semi-final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2.

Promotion and relegation

* Division One: bottom 2 teams demoted to Division Two * Division Two: top 2 teams promoted to Division One. Bottom 2 teams demoted to Division Three. * Division Three (North): group winners promoted to Division Two. * Division Three (South): group winners promoted to Division Two.

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

Divisions

Round-robin format

Points awarded

Titles

Knockout stage qualifiers

Knockout phase structure

Promotion and relegation

Separation of teams on equal points

League Tables

Division One

Division Two

Division Three

Division Three (North) table

Division Three (South) table

Knockout stages

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

References

External links