1925–26 National Football League (Ireland)

The 1925–26 National Football League was the 1st staging of the National Football League, a Gaelic football tournament for the Gaelic Athletic Association county teams of Ireland.

The inaugural NFL was won by Laois, captained by Dick Miller. They defeated Sligo in the semi-final after a lost game was ordered replayed, and beat Dublin in a low-scoring final despite losing two players, Paddy Lenihan and Bill Keeley, to emigration shortly before the final.

Format
The league was organised on a provincial basis with a separate league for each province: three leagues for Leinster due to the large number of counties. The six league winners played a knockout tournament to decide the National Football League. It is mentioned that the three Leinster Group winners played off (Longford scratching, Laois beating Dublin) for a gold medal, but this does not seem to have formed part of the league proper.

Knockout stage qualifiers

 * Leinster: 3 teams
 * Munster: 1 team
 * Connacht: 1 team
 * Ulster: 1 team

Table
Westmeath forfeited the points from their win v Offaly due to being late on the field

Munster (Munster Football League)
Won by.

Semi-finals
An objection was successfully made and a replay ordered.

Leinster League inter-group ties

 * The game was initially awarded to Longford as Dublin failed to finish owing to a disputed decision. Later, the Leinster Council declared the result void and ordered a replay.


 * Match was abandoned with seven minutes remaining. The game was awarded to Dublin


 * Longford did not play in protest at the fact that Game 1 replay versus Dublin was awarded to Dublin

Table
''Laois won the Leinster Football League. This would appear to have been a separate competition, and this ties did not form part of the National Football League proper.''