Solving fixture jam won’t be child’s play

Fixtures planning expert Paul Kinsella has warned that alleviating the burden on club players will be considerably more difficult than has been portrayed this week.

At Monday’s launch of the Club Players Association (CPA), Martin McHugh insisted the fixtures problem could be addressed simply, saying: “If you go into a sixth year class and give them an hour to do it, they’ll sort it out. That’s how it easy it is.” The ex-Donegal star was backed up by CPA chairman Micheál Brody on radio later that day.

However, former Kilkenny chairman Kinsella, who chaired the national fixtures planning committee during Liam O’Neill’s presidency, says putting together a county’s fixtures calendar is an extremely sophisticated exercise.