Irish League football is on the Up and Up

Just recently Linfield played a game against Rigas Futbola Skola in which they came just minutes away from being the first team from Northern Ireland to qualify for the group stage of not just the European Conference League but for any European competition. 

A late own goal left Linfield fans in heartache but an achievement like this cant be overlooked. Which brings me to my topic of discussion of this blog post. That being the current state of football in Northern Ireland and how it is on the incline.

Growing up in Northern Ireland while both playing and being a fan of football, the Irish league was never really taken seriously and has always left questions to be asked about the overall standard of the league and its players. But over the last 5 years the league as a whole has taken major steps forward and has even had a team turn from semi pro to professional.

It’s no secret as to how this overall improvement has come about. Just like anything in life, if you what to improve the quality of something you have to spend money, and this is exactly what has happened.

It all started with the huge investment into Windsor Park, the home of Northern Ireland National Team and Linfield football club. Over £29 million was spent on upgrading the stadium turning it into the spend football pitch in the country. This stadium has become the home of all cup finals and European games. 

Larne FC has without question taken the biggest steps as an organisation over the last 5 years. Multi-millionaire owner Kenny Bruce has invested a large amount into the club making major improvements to the club’s stadium Inver Park. Not only did he upgrade the pitch to be synthetic grass but also improved the two main stands and in 2021 got approved to add another 600 seats to the ground.

After seeing the recent success Larne has experienced by getting promoted to the top division, other clubs have started to follow in their footsteps. Both Glentoran and Bangor have applied to make improvements to their home ground and H&W Welders have just moved into a new home entirely after building a new ground.

Overall, as a football fan it has been great to see how football in my country has improved but what is more encouraging is that many people now believe it is worth the investment. At this rate there is a good chance that in 20 years’ time all teams who play in the Danske Bank premier league could be professional teams. For now im glad to say, Northern Irish football is on the up and up.