The Athletic Union League is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

league featuring junior and amateur teams mainly from

Northside, Dublin The Northside ( ga, Taobh Ó Thuaidh) is the part of Dublin city that lies to the north of the River Liffey. It is an informal but commonly used term. While it is sometimes regarded as less wealthy than the city's Southside, the Northside w ...

. The AUL currently operates thirteen divisions. Its senior division is known as the Premier A. Teams from the AUL also compete in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

, the FAI Junior Cup and the Leinster Senior Cup. The AUL headquarters are at the AUL Complex at Clonshaugh/

Swords, Dublin Swords ( or ), the county town of Fingal, is a large suburban town on the east coast of Ireland, situated ten kilometres north of Dublin city centre. The town was reputedly founded . Located on the Ward River, Swords features Swords Castle, ...

. The AUL is affiliated to both the Football Association of Ireland and the

Leinster Football Association The Leinster Football Association (LFA) is the governing body for association football in the Irish province of Leinster. It is responsible for organizing the Leinster Senior Cup and the Leinster Senior League as well as numerous other leagues ...

History

League of Ireland clubs

A number of current and former and

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

clubs have played in the AUL at one time of another. At the end of the 1933–34 League of Ireland season, Shelbourne were suspended by the FAI and banned from playing football for one season. After completing their ban, Shelbourne spent the 1935–36 season playing in the AUL before rejoining the

in 1936–37.

Athlone Town Athlone Town Association Football Club () is an Irish football club from Athlone who are playing in the League of Ireland. The club is the oldest in the League as it was founded in 1887. First elected to the League of Ireland in 1922, they pl ...

also played in the AUL during the 1930s.

Bray Wanderers Bray Wanderers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Fánaithe Bhré) are an Irish association football club playing in the League of Ireland First Division. The club in its present form was founded in 1942 in Bray, and was known until 2010 as ''B ...

played in the AUL between 1943–44 and 1954–55 before joining the Leinster Senior League. St Francis joined the AUL in 1968 before they also joined the Leinster Senior League. In more recent seasons Frankfort, who were among the founding members of the League of Ireland, also played in the AUL.

Relationship with LSL

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open league ...

system operates within the AUL structure itself. However, there is no formal promotion and relegation relationship with the Leinster Senior League. However, there is a history of teams moving from the AUL to the LSL. A number of LSL clubs such as Wayside Celtic,

St. Patrick's C.Y.F.C. St. Patrick's C.Y.F.C. is an Irish association football club based in Ringsend, Dublin. Their senior team play in the Leinster Senior League Senior Division. They also regularly compete in the FAI Cup, the FAI Intermediate Cup, the FAI Junior C ...

Cherry Orchard A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus '' Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. Th ...

, Tolka Rovers, Killester Utd and Portmarnock have played in the AUL before switching to the LSL. Strong AUL club Seaview Celtic later left the AUL to merge with Portmarnock. At the end of the 2013–14 season four AUL teams – CIE Ranch, Hartstown Huntstown, Corduff, and Ballymun United – all switched from the AUL to the LSL.

Sheriff Y.C.

In the 2010s Sheriff Y.C. have emerged as one of the AUL's strongest teams. Between 2009–10 and 2014–15 they have won the Premier A title six times. This included a five in a row sequence between 2011–12 and 2014–15. During this time Sheriff were also regular winners of the two AUL league cups, the Nivea Cup and the Liddy Cup. They also won two FAI Junior Cups and two Leinster Junior Cups. In 2013 Sheriff also won the Tom Hand Memorial Cup, a new cup featuring the winners of the

FAI Intermediate Cup The FAI Intermediate Cup ( ga, Corn Comortais Peile na hÉireann), also known as the FAI Umbro Intermediate Cup and the Pat O'Brien Intermediate Challenge Cup, is a cup competition organized by the Football Association of Ireland for intermediat ...

and the winners of the FAI Junior Cup. In the final they defeated Avondale United 3–2 at Turners Cross. www.fai.ie
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2015–16 teams

References

{{Authority control 7 4 Association football in Dublin (city)