The GAA’s Football Review Committee has published its second report which aims to streamline the football Championship season into a more structured format and to revitalise club games across the country.
The main element of change at All Ireland level will be to equalise the number of teams starting out at provincial Championships.
Currently Leinster plays three qualifier matches and Ulster one in order to get to a quarter final stage. The proposal is that the four losers from these games be re-allocated to Munster for the top two ranked losers in Leinster and to Connaught for the lower ranked loser in Leinster and the loser in Ulster. New York would still play an early qualifier against one team from Connaught and the addition then of London would mean each provincial Championship starting out with eight teams.
The proposal then states that the 16 quarter finals should be played across two weekends in May, the eight Provincial semi finals over two weekends in July and the four provincial finals over two weekends in early August.
The Qualifier system would remain in place and be run along its current time frame.
This greater level of consistency and the easier framing of a narrative across all four provinces would have additional benefits for sponsors across multiple sports and competitions being able to structure the kinds of social media and content marketing that are increasingly an important part of sponsorship activation.
Club Championships will be forced to be held earlier than is currently the case. 52% of the players who took part in the 4,000 strong consultation process undertaken by the committee expressed dissatisfaction with club structures where many counties delay Championships until after the inter county season and then end up with a major backlog of games after a summer long drought.
The proposal now is that all counties have to play rounds of club championship from April through to semi finals in August and that the All Ireland Club Championship closing stages be brought back from March to December.
the report contains other sensible changes including the restructuring of Minor football to U17 rather than U18 to account for the fact that five times more students are completing Leaving Certificate or A level exams in the older age group than the younger. the danger here is that it would create a gap between Minor and College level but this is outweighed by the greater balance between sport and study.
The report can be read in full here and includes elements on the marketing of the inter provincial series, as well as commentary on the International Rules games and the importance of the Allianz National Leagues.
Sport for Business is a membership organisation. We help sport reach out to business, and business to engage the power of sport in its management, marketing and values. We publish a free daily news digest on the commercial world of Irish sport, we bring together smart minds in round table and larger formats, and we create initiatives among our members that make a difference.
