It was a majority but not enough to bring about change to the 2022 All Ireland Football Championship.

Like the momentum in a match, the ebb and flow of the debate at Saturday’s GAA Special Congress suggested that this would be the most likely outcome but that there would be a push to get a better alternative drawn up and possibly even brought to the regular Congress in February 2022.

For next year though we will revert to the way the Championship was staged prior to the experimental Super 8 period that expired during the two disrupted seasons under the shadow of Covid.

The Allianz League will remain with a likely season running from February through March with the provincial Championships, the back door qualifier series and the All Ireland Knock-outs from a Quarterfinal stage to be completed before the end of July.

The dates for the season will be confirmed next month.

They will include the Tailteann cup for the first time, offering Counties who exit at the earlier stages of the Championship an opportunity to compete for a secondary national title.

“Having said during the week that I hoped we’d be bold, based on the result, for me, we weren’t bold enough in terms of it didn’t pass,” said GAA President speaking to GAA.ie after the vote.

“But having said that we’re looking forward to a pretty altered landscape anyway for the Championship in 2021.

“I expect that we will revisit this very, very quickly. I’m not so sure we’ll have something for (Annual Congress 2022) in February but there’s a majority for change and every speaker said they’d like change. In a lot of cases, it just wasn’t the change that was proposed, but there’s certainly a mandate there for change.”

“We will contemplate and see how we will bring forward some alternatives in terms of the options that are put on the table.”

Director General Tom Ryan was similarly optimistic that change would come.

“We know what the sticking points are. I think there’s a core of an idea there and acceptance that there’s a momentum and will to change,” he said.

“And we know what the tricky bits are around the edge of that. The provincial championships and where they fit into the scheme of things is clearly one. We’ll have to acknowledge that.”

Earlier on the agenda the motion requiring every county to have a formal Audit and Risk Committee was passed, an imoportant step in meeting improved levels of governance across the Association.

It was passed with a 91 per cent vote from the delegates.

 

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