UEFA, Premiership and Women’s Premiership Licences secured for 2025/26 season

Apr 25, 2025 | Club News, All News, First Team, Womens

As a club we are pleased to have received confirmation from the Licensing Committee that UEFA, Premiership and Women’s Premiership Licences have been awarded for the 2025/26 season.

We want to place on record our sincere thanks to staff and volunteers, who have worked tirelessly for a number of months to secure this outcome.

Our UEFA club licence has been awarded on the basis of using the Ballymena Showgrounds as a home venue, should we qualify for the UEFA Conference League.

As the playing surface at Inver Park comes to the end of its natural lifespan for European competition, we have been unsuccessful in the latest FIFA Pro Standard pitch test.

Our European campaign in 2023 was played at Solitude due to a single issue that we were able to rectify ahead of last summer. However, as the surface moves into its eighth year, this was not a possibility for this year’s pitch test.

An upgrade of the artificial surface at Inver Park is an important component of our recent application to the Northern Ireland Football Fund, alongside a much-needed rebuild of our stadium’s main stand.

Significant match funding has been set aside as part of this application, and we are awaiting the outcome before undertaking any further work on the stadium.

In the meantime, we want to thank both Ballymena United Football Club and Mid and East Antrim Council for their help in keeping European football in the borough, should we earn qualification in the coming days.

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