The Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) has called an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) with its member clubs for Tuesday in a bid to prevent the delay of the new Irish Premiership and Championship seasons. The move follows a legal challenge from Banbridge Town, whose appeal against being excluded from NIFL's restructured league system was upheld by the Irish FA's appeals committee as "unlawful", threatening the planned opening weekend fixtures, including Cliftonville versus Crusaders.

Banbridge is one of ten clubs being moved from the former Premier Intermediate League to a newly formed Conference League run by the Northern Amateur Football League, as NIFL narrows its remit to just the top two tiers and expands the Championship from 12 to 16 teams. Banbridge argued NIFL failed to secure proper member approval for the changes, and despite the ruling, both leagues had pushed ahead with plans to start this weekend. For Tuesday's EGM to proceed, 90% of the 47 member clubs must agree to attend, with 75% then required to back NIFL's rules; failure to secure this could see the season start as planned but leave NIFL exposed to further legal challenges.