Congress set to consider radical overhaul of fixture calendar

THE senior inter-county calendar could be in for a serious pruning at Special Congress in Sligo this weekend if a number of motions are accepted.

High-ranking association officials have been vocal in their determination to loosen the noose that a jam-packed inter-county scene has placed around the club scene’s neck for some months now and the wider appetite for change will become clear in the coming days.

Three of the first seven motions on the clár on Saturday could affect the inter-county game if adopted, the first of them being Motion 2 which calls for the Allianz NFL and NHL competitions to be completed inside an eight-week window. This alone would be a significant move as this year’s football league will take 12 weeks from first round to the divisional finals, spanning the months of February, March and April. The hurling league will take just two weeks less.

The championship too may well see some rough edges trimmed, thanks to Motion 5, which asks that the “quarter-finals of the All-Ireland Championship shall be completed by the August Bank Holiday Monday (ie first Monday in August)”.

The only exception would be in the event of a draw at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage. With another motion calling for each round of the All-Ireland Qualifiers and quarter-finals to be played over a single weekend, it seems inevitable some teams making the last eight could not be accommodated at Croke Park.

The playing of games at HQ is a touchy subject, especially with the doors having been opened to soccer and rugby. If passed, it seems inevitable that this motion will cause some heated arguments come high summer.

Motion 7 is another that, if passed, would almost certainly mean fewer championship games played around the country as it calls for senior inter-county championship matches to go to extra-time at the first time of asking in the event of a draw at full-time.

Provincial and All-Ireland semi-finals and finals are not included. Neither are All-Ireland quarter-finals but had such a rule been on the books last summer, there would have been four less football matches and two fewer hurling.

Neither the Louth-Wicklow nor the Tipperary-Limerick epics would have happened.

In total, there are 24 motions on the clár arising from the Player Burnout and Club Fixtures Task Force reports and the most contentious by far are motions 16-20, which deal with the adoption of a temporary U-19 grade.

The other obviously controversial motion is the second last, which calls for the months of November and December to be closed to inter-county collective training and games, while less contentious proposals will concentrate on tidying up the post-primary and third-level calendar.

The club scene could still be the biggest winner however. Under one proposal, counties would have to submit their club championship programmes to their provincial council by March 31 each year. Each provincial council would then have the authority to approve or to adjust the counties’ club championship schedules and also monitor them on a monthly basis.

The curbing of the inter-county game’s influence is also apparent in Motion 8, which calls for an annual charter to be drafted in each county to be signed by both the county chairman and county team managers. The signing of the charter will indicate acceptance of the agreed policy of the county committee on the availability of players for club fixtures, training and other matters relevant to the playing of club fixtures in the county.