The NIFL Irish Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football League – the national league in Northern Ireland. The Premiership was established as the IFA Premiership in 2008 under the auspices of the Irish Football Association, before the Northern Ireland Football League was created for the start of the 2013–14 season. At the end of the season, the champion club is presented with the Gibson Cup. Linfield are the current champions, having won their fourth consecutive title and 56th Irish League championship overall, after a 2–0 victory over Coleraine on 30 April 2022. This meant Linfield set a new world record for the most top division league titles won by any club, one ahead of Scottish club Rangers on 55 titles. Origin The current Irish Premiership format was introduced for the 2008–09 season after the League system for Northern Ireland was re-organised. The top flight was reduced in size from 16 to 12 clubs, included on the basis not only of their performance in the 2007–08 season, but in the previous two seasons, and other off-the-field criteria. Each applicant club was assessed by an independent panel and awarded points against the following criteria: Sporting (maximum 450 points) – based on league placings, Irish Cup, League Cup and European performances in 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08; with points also awarded for running youth teams, women's teams and community development programmes Finance (maximum 200 points) – based on solvency, debt management and cash-flow projection Infrastructure (maximum 150 points) – based on stadium capacity, changing provisions, sanitary facilities, field of play, floodlighting, existence and standard of control room, first aid room, drug testing room and media facilities Personnel (maximum 100 points) – based on qualification and experience of staff Business planning (maximum 50 points) Attendances (maximum 50 points) Portadown were the highest-profile casualty of the new system, suffering relegation to the newly formed IFA Championship as a result of submitting their application for inclusion in the Premiership 29 minutes past the deadline for consideration. The Northern Ireland Football League assumed responsibility for the top three divisions of Irish League national football from the IFA in 2014, putting forward plans to improve the scene of football in Northern Ireland. The plans include improving stadiums, status in