League Of Ireland football is on the way to County Mayo, following their application to the FAI National league being accepted.
The Connaught Telegraph is today reporting that Mayo FC’s application to the FAI National league has been accepted with confirmation of this expected “imminently
While no club has officially confirmed that their application has been accepted, LOI Talk revealed last week that Lucan United had been accepted to the new third tier aswell as reports of St Francis and Home Farm FC had also seen their applications accepted. In recent days it has been speculated that Limerick FC has also been accepted with their joint application under the Carew Limerick United name aswell as University College Cork (UCC)
A meeting of the LSL (Leinster Senior League) took place 2 weeks ago informing clubs that wished to join the new FAI National League aswell as continue to compete in the Leinster Senior League would need to field different squads for the National League and the LSL.
The Connaught Telegraph also reports that “Letters of acceptance are due to issue to all approved applicants shortly”. It is still not clear how many applicants have been speculated but LOI Talk understands that it will fall short of the initial 20 clubs the FAI had hoped to have in place.
The only clubs to come out publicly that there applicants were not successful have been Trim Celtic and St Patricks CYFC, both clubs being told that they are on the radar for future expansions with rumours of a 4th tier where the Munster Senior League and Leinster Senior League would merge all the way down.
The inaugural season of the FAI National League is expected to commence in August/September 2026 in a shorter season with the aim to start in 2027 alongside the League Of Ireland Premier and First Division calendar.
