Qualifier pairings the main draw

ALL eyes will be on RTÉ television on Sunday evening for the draws for the All-Ireland hurling and football championship qualifiers.

The draws will be broadcast live after the Leinster SHC semi-final between Kilkenny and Offaly.

Sixteen teams will go into the draw for football: Louth, Wicklow, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath, Carlow, Fermanagh, Down, Antrim, Monaghan, London, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Donegal or Armagh.

The pairings will be based on an open draw system. The first named team drawn in each case will have home venue, except in the case where an undesignated county is drawn against a designated county, in which case the latter will have the right to home venue.

The designated counties are: Sligo, Wicklow, Carlow, Louth, Longford, Waterford, Tipperary, Antrim and Monaghan.

Games between counties who have already met in the championship will not be permitted, ie Louth v Offaly, Armagh v Fermanagh.

The draw system is different for hurling. Eight teams are involved and will go into two groups of four, to play a round robin series of matches.

The top two teams in each group will advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals, where they will be joined by the Munster and Leinster winners and runners-up.

The eight teams are: Galway, Antrim, Dublin, Laois or Wexford, Offaly or Kilkenny, Clare, Waterford and Limerick.

A number of regulations govern the draw. Dublin, Laois and Antrim are entitled to two home games out of the three in their respective groups, which means all three cannot be in the same group. Counties who have already met in the championship will also be kept apart, and only two counties from Munster and Leinster are permitted in the same groups.

The Games Administration Committee meets on Monday to decide times and venues for the games, scheduled for Saturday June 18.