Provincial losers may get longer break

THE possibility of giving losing provincial finalists a guaranteed minimum 13-day gap before playing in the football qualifiers will be investigated by the GAA ahead of next year’s championship.

“Everybody would accept now that it is a disadvantage,” GAA director general Páraic Duffy said yesterday of the existing system where teams may be out within a week of losing their provincial decider.

“Clearly there is a difficulty in doing it because it means you’ve got to finish all your provincial competitions within a two-week gap. Clearly it is a negative and you don’t want to make things unfair. I’m not going to make a promise and say we’ll change but I think it’s obvious that the Competitions Control Committee will look at it for next year.”