Gold Cup (Northern Ireland)
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The Gold Cup is a now-defunct cup competition which involved competitors from Ireland and from 1921 onwards, just for Northern Ireland. It was initially run by the New Irish Football Association but later, and mainly, by the Irish Football Association.
The competition was first played in the 1911-12 season after seven of the eight participating clubs left the IFA (only Linfield FC remained) and founded the New IFA. This new organisation introduced the cup. At the end of the season, the dissident clubs returned to the IFA and the tournament was not held in 1912-13. However, it was revived by the IFA in 1913-14. In the seasons 1915-16 to 1918-19 it was played in a league format. This involved a play-off between the two teams topping the table in the first of these seasons. The competition was last staged in 2001.
[edit] Number of wins by club
- Linfield - 34
- Glentoran - 14
- Belfast Celtic - 11
- Portadown - 6
- Distillery - 5
- Coleraine, Glenavon - 4 each
- Cliftonville - 3
- Ards, Crusaders - 2 each
- Ballymena United, Derry City, Shelbourne (Dublin) - 1 each
