Counties slow to complete fixtures could be thrown out of All-Ireland Championship

The proposed national club fixtures oversight committee will be given the power to disqualify tardy counties from championships.

The proposed national club fixtures oversight committee will be given the power to disqualify counties from championships if they don’t submit their complete fixtures lists by the end of January each year.

Along with loss of championship expenses and/or grants, it is one of the two punishments for non-compliance with the group who, if backed by Congress on February 29, will have a major say in how counties frame their scheduling of games.

One of the motions put forward by the national fixtures calendar review group calls for the establishment of a committee, which will have to approve a county’s fixtures list. According to the rule, each county must submit their complete adult and under-age fixtures programme for the year to their respective provincial council by January 31. The current deadline date is the end of February.

At that point, the provincial council either passes on the list to the national club fixtures oversight committee or reverts to the county to make adjustments “as is considered necessary”. As is the case now, any postponement of a Championship game must be communicated to the provincial council within three days of the original date of the game along with the reason for the delay.

The motion stresses “counties shall comply with policies and directives of Central Council on the proper scheduling of club fixtures.”

It was confirmed at a briefing in Croke Park today that several motions concerning the definition of under-age grades as well as transfer of players are on the Clár of Annual Congress later this month.

The establishment of a new World GAA body within the GAA is also recommended although it is likely to impact on the number of international delegates can attend Congress outside of London and New York as they are participating in the All-Ireland senior championship.

It has been confirmed the GAA presidential election will take place in the opening session of Congress on Friday evening, February 28 as was the case when Aogán Farrell was voted in six years ago.

The candidates are Jim Bolger (Carlow), Jarlath Burns (Armagh), Larry McCarthy (New York), Jerry O’Sullivan (Cork) and Mick Rock (Roscommon).