Northern Ireland hosts the second oldest league competition in world football, the Irish Football League being founded in 1890. Only the English Football League (established in 1888) predates it while the Scottish Football League launched a week later. The English and Scottish champions are both awarded comparatively modern trophies; the English Premier League champions receiving the trophy introduced along with the "new" league in 1992/93, and the SPFL Premiership trophy was first awarded in 1999 to the winners of the then new SPL. But, while the NIFL is the third different body to have organised the senior league game within Northern Ireland, the trophy has remained the same since it was first awarded to the champions of an initially (notionally at least) all-Ireland competition. The origins of the Irish League trophy, the Gibson Cup , have long been widely misattributed. The history of Linfield FC claims that club president, and prominent linen mill owner, Robert Gibson h