Championship (Northern-Ireland)

Championship (Northern Ireland) (NIFL Championship) - the second tier of national club football in Northern Ireland, operated by the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) under the Irish Football Association (IFA). Regulations: the competition has 12 clubs, teams play each other three times according to the fixture schedule, and after 33 matches the league splits into two sections - positions 1-6 (Section A) and 7-12 (Section B), with points carried forward, then each club plays a further 5 matches against the other teams in its section, and any club not eligible for promotion licensing cannot remain in Section A and is moved to Section B. A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1, and a loss 0, and if clubs are level on points they are ranked by overall goal difference, then overall goals scored, then head-to-head points, then head-to-head goal difference, and finally by a draw of lots. The league champions are promoted to the NIFL Premiership, the bottom club in the NIFL Premiership is relegated to the NIFL Championship, and an additional promotion place can be decided by a two-legged play-off between the 11th-placed Premiership club and the highest-placed eligible club finishing 2nd to 6th in the Championship, with the first leg at the Championship club and the second leg at the Premiership club. Relegation from the Championship to the NIFL Premier Intermediate League is defined by the season regulations and can be adjusted during pyramid restructuring.