Tight All-Ireland schedule sees 36 games run risk of Covid forfeit

Only games outside All-Ireland semi-finals and finals where the winners or losers aren’t playing again the following weekend can be refixed

Only 11 of the 47 All-Ireland senior championships fixtures can be rescheduled for Covid reasons. Aside from the special dispensation that is to be afforded to the six All-Ireland football and hurling semi-finals and finals, just five provincial matches can be postponed. Otherwise, the games will be forfeited.

Due to the tight schedule of the competitions, the possibility of walkovers in the event a team is struck down by several Covid cases can’t be ruled out. The GAA are to deploy a rapid testing system so as to ensure the safety of players and games being able to take place. Already, the Armagh, Donegal, and Fermanagh camps have experienced positive tests.

According to the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee, only games outside All-Ireland semi-finals and finals where the winners or losers aren’t playing again the following weekend can be refixed. 

Those five games are all in the football championship: both Munster senior football finals on November 7 and 8 as the final does not take place until November 22, two Ulster quarter-finals (Donegal v Tyrone, Derry v Armagh) as there is a gap weekend between those matches and the provincial last four and the Connacht SFC final, which falls at least 13 days before the first All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

Largely because of the extra matched provided by the backdoor format of the Liam MacCarthy Cup, none of the games up to the All-Ireland semi-finals can be refixed in the event of a Covid outbreak. Both Leinster and Munster first-round games take place the weekend before the semi-finals. The losers of those semi-finals are in qualifier action the following weekend. All-Ireland quarter-finals also take place a week after the provincial deciders and a week prior to the All-Ireland semi-finals.

The Connacht senior football championship, comprising four games starting with Leitrim and Mayo’s first round clash in Páirc Seán MacDiarmada on November 1, takes place over three consecutive weekends. The All-Ireland SFC is 50 days in duration, the hurling championship one day less.

Speaking on September 25, GAA director of club, player and games administration Feargal McGill explained only certain games can be postponed: 

“One of the regulations that will be going into our competitions is that really we’ll only be able to grant postponements where there’s a 13-day window between the round where the team is looking for the postponement and the next round of the competition. But there are very few instances where that’s allowed. One exception to that would be All-Ireland semi-finals and finals.”

Meanwhile, the GAA have confirmed no team will be relegated as a direct consequence of a Covid outbreak. Should a game be called off as a result, it will be played at a later date. In Division 1, Mayo must beat Galway on Sunday week to help ensure they avoid being relegated alongside Meath.

The Banner are currently on four points along with Kildare while Fermanagh are in bottom spot with two. At present, just three points separates table toppers Armagh and seventh placed Kildare.

A defeat for Fermanagh away to Clare could send them down.

In Division 3, pointless Louth are all but demoted.