{"id":230214,"date":"2025-07-01T20:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T20:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/230214\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T20:39:09","slug":"northern-ireland-football-must-evolve-or-risk-being-left-behind-says-gerard-lawlor-after-sunday-football-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/230214\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland football ‘must evolve or risk being left behind’ says Gerard Lawlor after Sunday football vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland Football League chief executive Gerard Lawlor has welcomed the approval of their proposal over Sunday football at the Irish FA\u2019s AGM.<\/p>\n

After a previous amendment failed two years ago NIFL gained a 76% majority to their latest proposal on Monday evening with the caveat that Irish League clubs had the option to opt in or out through their participation agreement.<\/p>\n

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Now matches in the top three flights of football in Northern Ireland, which come under NIFL’s<\/a> jurisdiction, could be played on any day of the week and Lawlor<\/a> said football here “must evolve or risk being left behind”.<\/p>\n

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“The NIFL Board holds firm in its belief that being professional is more than a label, it is a standard we must reach and uphold in every sense,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The landscape of professional football is changing rapidly throughout the world, and Northern Ireland must evolve with it, or risk being left behind.<\/p>\n

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“We are pleased with the outcome and look forward to further engagement and implementation with our member clubs.”<\/p>\n

Sunday football has always been a topic for debate in the Irish League with clubs split over the playing of games with some citing their religious beliefs for deciding not to play.<\/p>\n

Matches have increased on Sundays in recent years with Larne rescheduling a number of their league fixtures due to their participation in last season’s UEFA Conference League group stages.<\/p>\n

The VBET Women’s League Cup final between Cliftonville and Glentoran was played last Sunday.<\/p>\n

The last four BetMcLean Cup finals have also been played on a Sunday with last season’s meeting between the Reds and the Glens setting a new NIFL attendance record of 14,539 supporters.<\/p>\n

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“The data is clear: traditional Saturday afternoon attendances are in decline. We must recognise this and respond accordingly,” Lawlor<\/a> posted on ‘X’ ahead of Monday’s vote.<\/p>\n

“This is not a debate of tradition versus change, it is about responding to reality with a forward-thinking approach.<\/p>\n

“The flexibility offered by this proposal allows for fixtures to be played on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, creating new opportunities for increased visibility, enhanced commercial value, and improved fan engagement.”<\/p>\n

The Irish FA’s rules stated “no match shall be played within Northern Ireland on a Sunday unless the two participating clubs and competition organisers agree to do so”.<\/p>\n

This proposal will only apply to NIFL competitions, which are the three men’s top divisions, the Women’s Premiership and their respective League Cup competitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland Football League chief executive Gerard Lawlor has welcomed the approval of their proposal over Sunday football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[40403,90532,90533,90534,90531,1144,27864,90535,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-230214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-football-league","9":"tag-gerard-lawlor","10":"tag-irish-league","11":"tag-lawlor","12":"tag-nifl","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-proposal","15":"tag-sunday-football","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114779912064178955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}