Avenir Sports All-Island Cup
(From the Northern Ireland Football League website)
"In order to aid the Ireland Women's National Team's preparations for FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division season was structured to allow for a period where no League games would take place.
This new competition will now be played during that scheduled break to ensure that women's domestic football continues to be played as excitement for the World Cup builds.
The competition, which is supported by both the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Football Association, will involve 16 teams in total – 11 from the League of Ireland, 5 from the Northern Ireland Football League – split into four groups of four teams.
The group games will take place on the week ending June 18, June 25 and July 2. The top teams in each group will progress to the semi-finals, which will be played on the week ending July 9, before the last two compete for the silverware in the Final on July 16."
https://www.nifootballleague.com/new...land-cup-draw/
Avenir Sports All-Island Cup
Group A | Athlone Town, Galway United, Linfield, Shelbourne
Group B | Glentoran, Peamount United, Shamrock Rovers, Wexford Youths
Group C | Bohemians, Cliftonville, Sion Swifts, Sligo Rovers
Group D | Cork City, Crusaders, DLR Waves, Treaty United
Results to date:
Group A Week One - Athlone Tn 1 v 4 Shelbourne; Linfield 0 v 1 Galway Utd;
Group A Week Two - Galway Utd 0 v 0 Athlone Tn.; Shelbourne 1 v 1 Linfield;
Group B Week One - Glentoran 1 v 1 Wexford Yths; Shamrock Rvrs. 2 v 1 Peamount Utd;
Group B Week Two - Peamount Utd. 0 v 5 Glentoran; Wexford Yths. 5 v 3 Shamrock Rvrs.;
Group C Week One - Cliftonville 2 v 1 Sion Swifts; Sligo Rvrs. 1 v 3 Bohemians;
Group C Week Two - Bohemians 1 v 2 Cliftonville; Sion Swifts 4 v 1 Sligo Rvrs;
Group D Week One - Cork City 2 v 1 DLR Waves; Crusaders Strikers 3 v 2 Treaty Utd;
Group D Week Two - DLR Waves 3 v 1 Crusaders Strikers; Treaty Utd. 1 v 3 Cork City
Week Three fixtures, Sat. July 1st:
Group A - Linfield v Athlone Tn; Galway Utd. v Shelbourne;
Group B - Glentoran v Shamrock Rvrs. ( Sun. July 2nd); Peamount/Wexford (unsure of home team);
Group C - Cliftonville v Sligo Rvrs; Sion Swifts v Bohemians;
Group D - Crusaders Strikers v Cork City, Treaty Utd v DLR Waves
Some random thoughts:
1. The NI teams seem to be doing ok, but I assume that this is at least partly (largely?) because some of the ROI teams are weakened by having players away with the NT in Oz?
2. Although some games may be on LOI TV (unsure), this is nonetheless very badly publicised on the official FAI and IFA websites, while even the Avenir (sponsors) website and FB feeds are a week behind. The NIFL website gives some coverage, but really only for the NI sides, ditto BBC NI, eg:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/new...cup-victories/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66010888;
3. Derry City Women, who are members of the IFA and play in the NIWFL, were due to compete but pulled out very late, being replaced by Sion Swifts. In truth, this will have been no bad thing, since Derry's women are terrible, getting "battered everywhere they go" every week in the NIWFL:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/wom...023/standings/
