|
| |
1880
|
| |
1911
|
| |
UEFA
|
| |
1954
|
| |
Raymond Kennedy
|
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 that followed the rules set out by the
Scottish Football Association (SFA). At that meeting, on
November 18 of that year, they formed the IFA. It is the fourth oldest national football association in the world (after those of
England ,
Scotland , and
Wales ). 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,
Ireland played its first international against
England , losing 13-0 (which remains a record for both teams).
Shortly after the 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. In 1960 the association moved to its present location on Windsor Avenue in south Belfast, in a building once occupied by
Thomas Andrews .
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 English
FA , the
Scottish Football Association , 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 Irish national team.
In September 2006, ,
28 September 2006as anticipating that the IFA and the FAI would co-host the 2011
European Under-21 Championship .
The (NIWFA) is the IFA's
Women's Football arm. It runs a Women's Cup, Women's League and the
Northern Ireland Women's National Football Team .
