Fixture review taskforce recommends redrawing provinces to include eight counties each

The fixture calendar review taskforce has recommended the retention of the provincial football championships, but with each province redrawn so to consist of eight counties.

It is one of 32 proposals contained in the final report of the committee, who spent six months studying the inadequacies of the GAA calendar, published today.

Two of those pertain to the format of the All-Ireland SFC, one of which would see each eight-team provincial championship split into two groups of four and run off on a round-robin basis. Counties would be guaranteed three provincial championship games, with the top team in either group progressing to their respective provincial final.

The second and third placed teams in each provincial group would progress to the qualifiers, with the bottom-placed teams participating in the Tier 2 championship.

There was no clear outline as to which counties would be moved from their existing province into a new province so as to achieve four provincial championships of eight teams.

The second All-Ireland SFC format the fixture taskforce has drawn up is playing the provincial championships, as they currently exist, in February/March. The league would be scheduled during the summer months and would determine the pathway for counties to qualify for the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals.

The top four in Division 1 and top two in Division 2 would advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals; the top team in Division 3 and 4, along with teams placed third and fourth in Division 2 (four teams), go into the qualifiers to determine who takes the final two quarter-final spots.

Under this proposal, also, there is a Tier 2 championship, which would consist of the remaining teams in Division 3 and 4.

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