The 2020–21 NIFL Premiership (known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th season of the

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

, the highest level of league football in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, the 120th season of Irish League football overall, and the 8th season of the league operating as part of the

Northern Ireland Football League The Northern Ireland Football League (abbreviated to NIFL), formerly known as and still commonly referred to as the Irish League, is the national football league of Northern Ireland. The Irish League was originally formed in 1890, with the leag ...

. Linfield were champions, winning the league for the 55th time and the 3rd consecutive season. The

COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland The COVID-19 pandemic reached Northern Ireland in February 2020. At the start of the first official lockdown, the Department of Health (Northern Ireland), Department of Health reported 3,445 deaths overall among people who had recently tested ...

meant that the start of the season was delayed by approximately two months.

Summary

The 38-game season commenced on 16 October 2020 and concluded on 29 May 2021, with the European play-offs then taking place on 1 and 5 June 2021. The fixtures were released on 19 September 2020. Linfield were the two-time defending champions, having been league winners in the previous two seasons - the curtailed 2019–20 season seeing them win a then world record-equalling 54th league title. This season Linfield won a third consecutive title, once again equalling the world record for the most top flight league titles in club football, drawing level with

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

, who had just won their 55th Scottish title two months earlier. Linfield entered the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League first qualifying round, while runners-up

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

and 3rd-placed

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

joined the European play-off winners,

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
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, in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round. There was no relegation from the Premiership this season, after a majority of

NIFL Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Playr-Fit Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championsh ...

clubs voted to cancel their 2020–21 season, having not played any league fixtures since the 2019–20 season had initially been suspended in March 2020. The second and third tiers had not been granted 'elite' sporting status by 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 Act ...

which was required in order to continue playing matches during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Teams

Twelve teams competed in the 2020–21 NIFL Premiership, eleven of which had retained their Premiership status from the previous season. Last season's bottom Premiership club,

Institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

, were relegated to the

after two seasons in the top flight, and were replaced by

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

, who were promoted to this season's Premiership as

2019–20 NIFL Championship The 2019–20 NIFL Championship was the fourth season of the NIFL Championship since gaining senior status. It is the second-tier of the Northern Ireland Football League - the national football league in Northern Ireland. The season began on 3 Augu ...

winners. This marked Portadown's return to the top flight for the first time since the 2016–17 season. The promotion/relegation play-off did not take place the previous season, as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Stadia and locations

League table

Results

Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).

Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team played every other team for the third time (either at home, or away).

Matches 34–38

For the final five matches the table was then split into two halves, with teams ranked 1st–6th in Section A and teams ranked 7th–12th in Section B. During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their respective section once. The fixtures were reversed from those played during rounds 23–33, ensuring that teams had played every other team in their respective section twice at home and twice away overall throughout the season.

Section A

Section B

Play-offs

UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs

The play-offs were one-off matches with extra time and penalties used to determine the winner if necessary, with the higher-ranked teams given home advantage against the lower-ranked teams (i.e. ''4th v. 7th'' and ''5th v. 6th'') in the semi-finals. The higher-ranked of the two semi-final winners also had home advantage in the final. As Linfield won the

2020–21 Irish Cup The 2020–21 Irish Cup (known as the Sadler's Peaky Blinder Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 141st edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knockout cup competition in Northern Irish football since its inauguration in 1881. The competitio ...

and also qualified for the Champions League, the 3rd-placed team qualified for the Europa Conference League directly, vacating one of the play-off places. As a result, the remaining four clubs that finished in 4th–7th place competed for one place in the 2021–22 Europa Conference League first qualifying round. The semi-finals were played on 1 June 2021, with the final played on 5 June 2021.

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

were the play-off winners, qualifying for European football for the first time in the club's history.

Summary

Teams

Stadia and locations

League table

Results

Matches 1–22

Matches 23–33

Matches 34–38

Section A

Section B

Play-offs

UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Clean Sheets

References

External links