Irish Football Association (also known as English Irish Football Association, IFA) is the organization that manages football in Northern Ireland. The Irish football was organized in 1880 and was originally controlled by the football association ruling the competitions throughout the UK. This association should be distinguished from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), the national soccer organization in the Republic of Ireland that became a member of FIFA in 1911 and a member of UEFA in 1954.
Irish Football Association (IFA) was founded in 1880 by football clubs of Belfast and its environs and was originally created for the organization of competitions in the sport throughout Ireland. Organizational meeting was convened by the club og Cliftonville and other football clubs that adhere to rules adopted in the Scottish Football Association. At this meeting, held on 18 November 1880, its members formed the Irish Football Association, which became the fourth oldest national football association, after England, Scotland and Wales. The first decision of the association was to organize an annual cup tournament, similar to the FA Cup and Scotland, under the name of the Irish Cup. Two years later, this first match had reconvened the team of Ireland, which they lost with a score of 0:13 to England (this result remains to this day, a record for both teams, a record win for England and the largest team defeated Northern Ireland).
Soon after the partition of Ireland in 1921, there was created an alternative football organization - Football Association of Ireland (FAI), designed to manage soccer in the Irish Free State. The immediate cause served to split erupted dispute over the venue of the Irish Cup replay match between Glentoranom "from Belfast and" Shelbourne "in Dublin. When the first match, held in Belfast, ended in a draw, the decision of an ELISA replay was again appointed in Belfast. Representatives of the "Shelburne", with the support of Leinster Football Association, objected to this decision, insisting on holding a replay in Dublin. Flared up in the conflict led to the exit of the Association of Leinster ELISA and education of a new national football organization at its base. Built by the FAI there were convinced that the Irish football should be run by organization based in the capital of the Irish Free State - Dublin, in addition, they criticized ELISA neglecting the development of football in the southern part of the island.
