The FAI has confirmed that the 2018 Airtricity League Premier Division season will start on Friday, February 16th with the fixtures for the campaign to be announced on December 19th. The President’s Cup, which will again involve Cork City and Dundalk, will take place at Oriel Park on Sunday, February 11th.

The association has, meanwhile, ended the protracted uncertainty over the format for the First Division which several clubs had criticised in recent weeks due to the difficulties it was causing for them as they sought to set budgets without knowing how many games they would have to play.

The lower tier will involve three rounds of games (the Premier Division will involve four) with each club playing 27 games, before a slightly protracted set of play-offs for promotion. The winners of the division will go up automatically while the winner of a play-off between the teams placed third and fourth will face the club that finished second with, in turn, the winner of that facing the ninth placed team in the Premier League for a place in the top flight the following season.

Next season’s FAI Cup final will take place on Sunday, November 4th while the EA Sports sponsored League Cup final has been scheduled for September 15th.