The countdown to the start of the 2023 Women’s Premiership begins with the announcement of the new season fixtures.

It’s a big season of change in the top-flight of female football in the NI Football League with the biggest ever Women’s Premiership season set to get underway on Friday 21 April 2023.

Now expanded to ten clubs following the promotion of Ballymena United and Larne, this year also marks the advent of professionalism for women’s football in Northern Ireland.

In another positive revamp to the league, the majority of fixtures will now be played on Friday evenings throughout the summer months, as the ten teams will play each other twice (home and away) over the course of the season.

In the first round of fixtures, reigning champions Cliftonville Ladies host Linfield Women at Solitude on the opening night of the new campaign, whilst there are away trips for the two newly promoted sides as Ballymena United Women travel to Crusaders Strikers and Larne Women make the trip to Sion Swifts Ladies.

In the other games, last season’s runners-up Glentoran Women welcome Derry City Women and Lisburn Ladies meet Mid Ulster Ladies at the Bluebell Stadium.