The ('''IFA''') is the organising body for the sport of
Football (soccer) in
Northern Ireland . It should not be confused with the
Football Association Of Ireland (FAI), which is the organising body in the
Republic Of Ireland .
The IFA was formed in
1880 by football clubs in the
Belfast area as the organising body for the sport across all of
Ireland . A meeting was called by
Cliftonville FC of other football clubs who followed the rules set out by the
Scottish Football Association (SFA) on
November 18 of that year to form the IFA. It is the fourth oldest national football association in the world. The first decision they took was to form an annual challenge cup competition similar to the
FA Cup and
Scottish Cup competitions called the
Irish Cup . Two years later the Irish
National Side played its first international against
England , losing 13-0 (a record).
Upon the
Partition Of Ireland in
1921 the FAIFS (now the FAI) was set up to regulate the game in the
Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland). Those behind the FAIFS believed that soccer should be regulated by a federation based in Ireland's capital
Dublin . The IFA's supporters argued that the federation should be based where the game was mainly played -
Ulster and its principal city
Belfast . Both federations claimed to represent the whole of the island and both competed as Ireland and both picked players from the two rival leagues - which also split at this time.
Interventions by
FIFA effectively favoured the FAI by giving them ''de jure'' organising rights over the 26 counties of the Republic. From the 1950s onwards the IFA was no longer to claim it was the federation for the whole of Ireland.
The IFA regulated the game in Northern Ireland, and all results obtained by the Irish national side and records in the
Irish Football League and the cup competition stood as Northern Irish records. Therefore in essence the IFA as Northern Ireland's organising body is a direct continuation of the IFA as the organising body across all of Ireland.
Along with the other "home nations" associations (the
FA , the SFA and the
Football Association Of Wales ) the IFA sits on the
International Football Association Board which is responsible for the laws of the game. The IFA continues to have responsibility for the running of the
Northern Ireland National Football Team .
