You won’t be surprised to read that the team with the most League of Ireland titles, Shamrock Rovers, is also the team with the best average finishing position. The method of calculating that is quite simple. Add up each finishing position earned by the clubs and divide by the number of seasons. For 2 division years (ie since 1985/86) the first division counts as a continuation of the premier. (eg in 2013 12th in the Premier is 12, 1st in the First Division is 13 etc).

So here’s the average finishing position of every League of Ireland club that has completed at least 5 seasons.

No real surprise to see Shamrock Rovers top with the 2 longest serving Cork clubs taking up 2nd and 3rd position. The top 12 teams have all won the league. Best of the non-league winning clubs is Jacobs who’s 3rd place finish in 1923/24 is their best effort. Athlone Town have, by far, the lowest average for any league winners.

It should be noted that teams who have played in the first division are at a disadvantage here. Thurles Town is the lowest average for clubs who didn’t played in the first division (ie the lowest they could finish was 16th)

I thought it was unfair to include teams with less than 5 seasons in the above table so here they are separately;

Reds United, a short-lived breakaway from Shelbourne, finished 4th in their only LOI season in 1935/36. As we outlined previously, Salthill Devon never finished above last place in the league tables.

Here’s the table for current LOI sides. I haven’t counted Galway FC or Shamrock Rovers B as they haven’t completed a season yet. I treat Galway separate to Galway United/Rovers.

18 League of Ireland clubs have won the title. Here’s how they rank

As an aside there’s 34 clubs who have competed in the League of Ireland and who haven’t won the title. Of these Finn Harps have played the most seasons (45). Wexford Youths is still awaiting it’s first Premier Division season.

As ever, if you’ve any questions, let me know on twitter