2024 League of Ireland First Division

The 2024 League of Ireland First Division, known as the SSE Airtricity Men's First Division for sponsorship reasons,^[1] was the 40th season of the League of Ireland First Division. The competition began on 16 February 2024,^[2] and concluded in October 2024.^[3]

League of Ireland First Division

Season	2024
Dates	February 2024 – October 2024
Champions	Cork City (3rd title)
← 2023 2025 →

Cork City won the title for the third time.^[4]

Teams

Athlone Town

Bray Wanderers

Cobh Ramblers

Cork City

Finn Harps

Treaty United

UCD

Wexford

Longford Town

Cork City

Kerry

Locations of the 2024 First Division teams

Team changes

The teams relegated to the First Division were Cork City (losers of the 2023 League of Ireland Premier Division play-off) and UCD (the bottom-placed team of the 2023 League of Ireland Premier Division). They replaced the two teams promoted from the 2023 League of Ireland First Division (champions Galway United and Premier Division play-off winners Waterford).

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Athlone Town	Athlone	Athlone Town Stadium	5,000
Bray Wanderers	Bray	Carlisle Grounds	4,000
Cobh Ramblers	Cobh	St. Colman's Park	3,000
Cork City	Cork	Turners Cross	7,485
Finn Harps	Ballybofey	Finn Park	6,000
Kerry	Tralee	Mounthawk Park	1,200
Longford Town	Longford	Bishopsgate	5,097
Treaty United	Limerick	Markets Field	5,000
UCD	Dublin	UCD Bowl	3,000
Wexford	Crossabeg	Ferrycarrig Park	2,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Athlone Town	Dario Castelo	Oisín Duffy	Nike	Valeo Futbol
Bray Wanderers	Paul Heffernan	Kilian Cantwell	Capelli Sport	OutdoorLiving.ie
Cobh Ramblers	Gary Hunt	Jason Abbott	Uhlsport	McCarthy Insurance Group
Cork City	Tim Clancy	Cian Coleman	Adidas	Zeus
Finn Harps	Darren Murphy	Tony McNamee	Joma	So-Lo Stores
Kerry	Conor McCarthy	Andy Spain	New Balance	Kerry Airport
Longford Town	Wayne Groves	Shane Elworthy	Macron	Bishopsgate
Treaty United	Tommy Barrett	Mark Walsh	O'Neills	Trade Electric Group
UCD	William O’Connor	Jack Keaney	O'Neills	Maples Group
Wexford	James Keddy	Ethan Boyle	Macron	Campion Insurance

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	Cork City (C, P)	36	22	12	2	64	23	+41	78	Promotion to League of Ireland Premier Division
2	UCD	36	14	14	8	47	37	+10	56	Qualification for League of Ireland Premier Division play-off
3	Wexford	36	15	11	10	61	56	+5	56
4	Athlone Town	36	15	10	11	51	49	+2	55
5	Bray Wanderers	36	14	9	13	54	47	+7	51
6	Finn Harps	36	12	10	14	39	43	−4	46
7	Treaty United	36	11	11	14	41	43	−2	44
8	Cobh Ramblers	36	12	8	16	41	56	−15	44
9	Longford Town	36	6	11	19	41	64	−23	29
10	Kerry	36	5	12	19	34	55	−21	27

Source: SSE Airtricity League of Ireland First Division
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Results

Teams play each other four times (twice at home and twice away).

Home \ Away	ATH	BRW	COB	COR	FIN	KER	LON	TRU	UCD	WEX
Athlone Town	—	2–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	3–3	1–0	2–2	3–0
—	0–1	1–2	4–1	1–4	3–3	4–1	1–0	1–0	2–3
Bray Wanderers	3–0	—	2–2	1–3	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	3–4
1–0	—	3–1	3–3	2–2	2–0	0–1	5–0	0–1	3–1
Cobh Ramblers	3–3	2–1	—	0–3	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–4
1–2	3–0	—	0–1	2–0	2–1	1–0	0–3	2–2	1–2
Cork City	1–0	2–0	3–0	—	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–1
0–0	1–0	4–1	—	2–2	2–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	6–0
Finn Harps	2–0	2–0	9–0	1–1	—	0–0	3–2	1–0	1–1	1–0
1–1	1–2	5–0	0–2	—	1–0	1–0	1–2	1–1	1–3
Kerry	1–2	2–3	1–1	0–1	2–0	—	3–0	0–1	1–2	1–1
2–0	3–3	0–2	1–4	1–1	—	2–1	2–1	0–1	1–1
Longford Town	1–1	0–3	0–0	1–4	2–3	2–1	—	2–1	1–2	1–2
1–1	1–0	2–0	1–4	1–1	2–2	—	1–4	1–2	3–0
Treaty United	0–1	2–2	3–1	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	—	0–2	2–2
1–2	2–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	3–1	—	2–2	1–3
UCD	3–0	0–0	1–2	0–0	3–3	1–1	1–0	0–1	—	1–2
1–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	2–2	1–1	—	1–1
Wexford	2–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–0	2–2	3–2	2–3	—
2–1	0–0	3–0	1–3	2–0	4–0	2–2	0–1	2–0	—

Source: SSE Airtricity League of Ireland First Division
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

League of Ireland Promotion/Relegation play-off

The ninth-placed team (Drogheda United) from the 2024 League of Ireland Premier Division qualified for a play-off alongside the second, third, fourth, and fifth-placed teams from the 2024 League of Ireland First Division (Athlone Town, Bray Wanderers, UCD, and Wexford).

The First Division teams contested the semi-finals and final. The semi-finals were held over two legs, with the second-placed team facing the fifth-placed team and the third-placed team facing the fourth-placed team. The semi-final winners then contested the First Division final, with the winners ultimately facing the ninth-placed League of Ireland Premier Division team for the final place in the 2025 League of Ireland Premier Division. Ultimately, Drogheda United won the play-off and remained in the Premier Division.

Bracket

	Semi-finals							Final					Promotion/Relegation Playoff
	2	UCD	0	1	1
													Drogheda United		3
	5	Bray Wanderers	2	0	2
								5	Bray Wanderers	2 (4p)			Bray Wanderers		1
								4	Athlone Town	2 (2p)
	3	Wexford	0	0	0
	4	Athlone Town	1	0	1

Semi-finals

First leg

Bray Wanderers v UCD

24 October 2024	Bray Wanderers	2–0	UCD	Bray
19:45 IST	Guillermo Almirall 17' Cristian Măgerușan 70'	Report		Stadium: Carlisle Grounds Attendance: 1,205 Referee: Mark Houlihan

Athlone Town v Wexford

24 October 2024	Athlone Town	1–0	Wexford	Athlone
19:45 IST	Dean Ebbe 53' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Athlone Town Stadium Attendance: 572 Referee: Oliver Moran

Second leg

UCD v Bray Wanderers

28 October 2024	UCD	1–0 (1–2 agg.)	Bray Wanderers	Dublin
17:00 IST	Ronan Finn 88' (pen.)		Paul Murphy  58'	Stadium: UCD Bowl Attendance: 1,112 Referee: Declan Toland

Wexford v Athlone Town

28 October 2024	Wexford	0–0 (0–1 agg.)	Athlone Town	Wexford
15:00 IST		Report		Stadium: Ferrycarrig Park Attendance: 1,251 Referee: Alan Patchell

Final

Bray Wanderers v Athlone Town

2 November 2024	Bray Wanderers	2–2 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)	Athlone Town	Dublin
16:00 IST	Hand 63' (o.g.) Omorehiomwan 90+2'	Report	Ebbe 11' Fuentes 24'	Stadium: Dalymount Park Attendance: 1,782 Referee: Marc Lynch
	Penalties
	Griffin Craven Măgerușan O'Sullivan		Connolly Torre McKenna Oakley

Promotion/Relegation Playoff

Bray Wanderers v Drogheda United

16 November 2024	Bray Wanderers	1–3	Drogheda United	Dublin
14:00 IST	Groome 63'	Report	Bolger 33' Pierrot 36', 52'	Stadium: Tallaght Stadium Attendance: 5,573

See also

• 2024 League of Ireland Premier Division