| Competition: | NIFL Premiership |
| Season: | 2017–18 |
| Dates: | 11 August 2017 – 28 April 2018 |
| Winners: | Crusaders 3rd Premiership title 7th Irish title |
| Relegated: | Ballinamallard United Carrick Rangers (via play-off) |
| Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Crusaders |
| Continentalcup2: | Europa League |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Coleraine Glenavon Cliftonville (via play-offs) |
| League Topscorer: | Joe Gormley (Cliftonville) (22) |
| Biggest Home Win: | Crusaders 7–1 Carrick Rangers (18 November 2017)[1] |
| Biggest Away Win: | (4 November 2017)[2] |
| Highest Scoring: | Ballinamallard United 6–4 Cliftonville (26 January 2018)[3] |
| Matches: | 228 |
| Total Goals: | 717 |
| Prevseason: | 2016–17 |
| Nextseason: | 2018–19 |
The 2017–18 NIFL Premiership (known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 117th season of Irish league football overall, and the 5th season of the league operating as part of the Northern Ireland Football League.
Crusaders were champions, winning the league for the 7th time.
The season began on 11 August 2017 and concluded on 28 April 2018, with the play-offs taking place in May 2018.
Linfield were the defending champions from the previous season.[4] On 28 April 2018, Crusaders won the title on the final day of the regular season, defeating Ballymena United 2–1 at the Ballymena Showgrounds to win the league title for the third time in four seasons.[5]
Crusaders qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. The runners-up (and 2017–18 Irish Cup winners), Coleraine, along with third-placed Glenavon and the play-off winners, Cliftonville, all qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League.
Twelve teams competed in the 2017–18 NIFL Premiership. Portadown were relegated after finishing bottom of the 2016–17 NIFL Premiership and were replaced by Warrenpoint Town as the winners of the 2016–17 NIFL Championship.
Carrick Rangers finished second from bottom but retained their Premiership place after winning the promotion-relegation play-off against NIFL Championship promotion play-off winners Institute 5–2 on aggregate.
| Club | Stadium | Location | Capacity[6] [7] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ards | 1,895 (500 seated) | ||||
| Ballinamallard United | 2,000 (250 seated) | ||||
| Ballymena United | 3,050 (2,280 seated) | ||||
| Carrick Rangers | 4,500 (250 seated) | ||||
| Cliftonville | 2,530 (all seated) | ||||
| Coleraine | 2,496 (1,106 seated) | ||||
| Crusaders | 3,383 (all seated) | ||||
| Dungannon Swifts | 5,000 (300 seated) | ||||
| Glenavon | 4,160 (4,000 seated) | ||||
| Glentoran | 6,054 (4,989 seated) | ||||
| Linfield | 18,614 (all seated) | ||||
| 1,280 (150 seated) |
During matches 1–22 each team plays every other team twice (home and away).
During matches 23–33 each team will play every other team for the third time (either at home, or away).
During matches 34–38 each team will play every other team in their half of the table once. As this is the fourth time that teams play each other this season, home sides are chosen so that they will have played each other twice at home and twice away.
As 2017–18 Irish Cup winners, Coleraine, finished as league runners-up, their original runners-up berth in the Europa League was redistributed to third-placed Glenavon. As a result, the four teams finishing 4th–7th took part in Europa League play-offs to decide which one team would qualify for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.
----
Cliftonville were the UEFA Europa League play-off winners, and qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.
The runners-up and third-placed teams from the Championship were set to take part in a promotion pre-play-off match to decide which team would face the eleventh-placed Premiership team, Carrick Rangers, in the play-off for a place in next season's Premiership.[8] However, as the third-placed Championship team, Harland and Wolff Welders did not apply for a Premiership licence, the second-placed team, Newry City advanced directly to the play-off.
The eleventh-placed team from the Premiership, Carrick Rangers, played Championship runners-up, Newry City, over two legs for a place in the 2018–19 NIFL Premiership.
----Newry City won 6–3 on aggregate and were promoted to the NIFL Premiership with Carrick Rangers dropping down into the NIFL Championship.
| Rank | Scorer | Club | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Gormley | Cliftonville | 24 | |
| 2 | Gavin Whyte | Crusaders | 22 | |
| 3 | Curtis Allen | Glentoran | 20 | |
| 4 | Paul Heatley | Crusaders | 19 | |
| Jay Donnelly | Cliftonville | |||
| 6 | Andrew Mitchell | Glenavon | 18 | |
| Jordan Owens | Crusaders | |||
| 8 |  Darren McAuley | Coleraine | 17 | |
| 9 | Jamie McGonigle | Coleraine | 16 | |
| 10 | Ryan Curran | Ballinamallard United | 14 |