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The Football League of Ireland includes one club from across the border, Derry City . Derry City formerly played in the Irish Football League, but was forced to leave that league following the 1972 - 73 season because of safety and security concerns. Derry City joined the Republic's league at the second level in 1985 , after a special dispensation from the Irish Football Association (IFA) and UEFA . It won promotion in 1987 , and has stayed in the top flight ever since. No teams from the Republic play in the northern league. HISTORY Formed in 1922 , the league originally contained 8 teams and was first won by St. James' Gate FC. Over the next forty years the league grew to eventually twenty-two clubs. In 1985 the league split into two divisions Premier and First Division, with 12 teams in the Premier Division and 10 in the First. Clubs are promoted and relegated between the Premier and First divisions at the end of each season. Also, the club which finishes bottom of the First must reapply for league membership. In the 1960s and 1970s the League of Ireland reached its height of popularity with clubs in Dublin commanding crowds of up to forty thousand however, in recent years, with the growing popularity of the national team and support for FA Premier League in England and the Scottish Premier League (many Irish football fans prefer to follow English or Scottish clubs' fortunes rather than their local clubs), attendances began to dwindle from thousands to hundreds in some cases. Meanwhile the Premier Division's representatives in European competitions performed poorly with clubs from smaller European nations such as Lithuania and Iceland beating Irish oppostion easily. There were however, some highlights, Cork City's draw with Bayern Munich in front of 13,000, Derry City's entertaining Benfica and St. Patrick's Athletic narrowly going out to Glasgow Celtic . In the last several years a mini-revival has occurred with clubs such as Shelbourne , Bohemians and Cork City progressing in European competition. Most recently, in 2004 Shelbourne progressed to the third qualifying round of the Champions League only going out to Spanish giants, Deportivo La Coruña and Cork City qualified for the first round proper of the Uefa cup. Until recently the league followed the pattern of the other leagues in the British Isles of starting their league campaigns towards the end of Summer and playing through the Winter until late Spring and playing no league games during the height of Summer. However, due to the league's seeming inability to compete with the FA Premier League and the Scottish Premier League and to a lesser extent the more favourable climate, the league has switched to playing Summer football (like the Scandinavia n leagues for example). Domestically, with the advent of summer soccer both skill and attendances have improved with many clubs going professional and many former international stars returning home. However, professionalism has cost some clubs. Former greats Shamrock Rovers , without a home ground since the sale of Glenmalure Park in 1987, were put into administration in 2005 and subsequently taken over by a fans' group, the 400 Club . Rovers suffered their first ever relegation by losing a two-legged play-off 3-2 to Dublin City at the end of the 2005 season. However in the emergence and re-emergence of clubs such as Cork City , Derry City , Drogheda United and Shelbourne , to name a few, Have helped impove the fortunes of the league in the past several seasons. CLUBS IN MEMBERSHIP LIST OF WINNERS OF THE LEAGUE Footnotes
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