GPA plans see championship without provinces
Last Friday, inter-county players were asked via email to consider the new formats in foot of a motion passed at last year’s agm.
The GPA have already consulted with the Football Review Committee (FRC) who have since been charged by GAA president Liam O’Neill with addressing the possible need for change in the structure of the championship.
On Sunday, FRC chairman Eugene McGee ruled out his group making any recommendation to scrap the provinces as suggestions such as a Champions League-style championship have “absolutely no chance of being successful politically in the GAA”.
The GPA stage their 2012 agm in Dublin on Friday where will discuss their four alternative championship models: the Champions League model, the Summer League format, the Conference format and a club-friendly Champions League format.
GPA head of communications Seán Potts explained their committee, including the likes of former inter-county footballers Dick Clerkin, Martin McHugh, Colm Parkinson and Ciaran Whelan, were given a canvas that excluded the provincial competitions.
“We purposely looked at these models and removed the provincial championships to give the committee a blank slate and see what opinions generated from there,” he said.
“That was to try and gauge what the players’ responses would be to something radical and they didn’t have to consider the various components.
“We wouldn’t be stimulating many ideas if we told them (the committee) at the start they couldn’t do this and couldn’t do that.
“A lot of players are in favour of retaining the provincial championships because winning a provincial title is an attainable goal for a lot of the middle-tier counties.
“There is favour in the Champions League format in the summer but not at the expense of the provincial championships.
“Composing an alternative championship structure is quite a complex matter when you drill down to it. You have to digest everything and see what the implications are.
“But there’s definitely an appetite for change and we realised that from the initial feedback that we received.”
Of the four options, the Conference format is the closest to the current provincial system with the Champions League and club-friendly Champions League format proposing the removal of the four competitions.
The Conference format calls for the replacing of the National League with four Conference Leagues which are primarily based on the provinces but moving counties such as Wexford and London to the south (Munster) and Donegal, Longford and Westmeath to the western (Connacht).
These competitions are run over eight weeks in February and March with the top two counties in each conference qualifying for the four finals in April.
The top five counties (20 teams) in each conference qualify for the All-Ireland Championship group stages with the remaining 12 counties playing the B Championship.
In the premier competition, the 20 sides would be divided into four groups of five with each of them getting four games.
The top team in each of the group would qualify for All-Ireland semi-finals with the second and third-placed teams drawn in the quarter-finals.
The Champions League model proposes eight groups of four based on league standings with each county playing three round-robin games.
The top two in each of the eight divisions would go into the knockout stages with table-toppers in one group and runners-up in another.
The bottom 16 would enter the Tommy Murphy knockout competition.
The recommendation also calls for the scrapping of the National League finals.
The Summer League format splits the All-Ireland Championship into two groups of 16 (Division 1 and 2 teams in one group and those from Division 3 and 4 in the other) while replacing the National League with an open draw All-Ireland Cup competition.
The first group would then be separated into two sub-divisions of eight with each team playing the other seven before the top four in each qualify for All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The competition comprising Division 3 and 4 would be run along the same lines, with promotion and relegation existing between two groups of 16.
The club-friendly Champions League format would entwine the club and county scenes, allowing club games to take place every second weekend.
The format of the All-Ireland SFC would be Champions League-based (eight groups of four) with the seeded draw determined by league positions.
Meanwhile, Kevin Walsh was last night reappointed as Sligo senior football manager for a fifth season.
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