GAA media rights yet to be awarded over All-Ireland football quarters uncertainty

The All-Ireland senior football quarter-finals being made free-to-air is among the reasons why the media rights have yet to be awarded.

Uncertainty about the All-Ireland senior football quarter-finals being made free-to-air is among the reasons why a decision has yet to be made about the awarding of GAA media rights. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Uncertainty about the All-Ireland senior football quarter-finals being made free-to-air is among the reasons why a decision has yet to be made about the awarding of GAA media rights.

One of the two championship packages made available by Croke Park in August is a six-game suite that includes two of the last-eight matches, which for the past two years have been shown on the GAA-RTÉ owned pay-per-view streaming service GAAGO.

However, the outgoing Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media of Ireland Catherine Martin had been keen on designating all four quarter-final fixtures as free-to-air.

Whether her successor is just as determined to make the fixtures available on a terrestrial service remains to be seen and the GAA are unlikely to receive any indication until a new government is formed.

GAAGO and TG4 are among those who submitted bids for the packages. It is also believed Clubber at least expressed an interest in taking one of them. TG4’s state funding was increased to €60 million in October’s Budget and the tranche included the two quarter-finals is believed to have been the most attractive to them.

RTÉ, who did not apply for either, are currently putting together their 2025 championship schedule with the Clare-Cork Munster SHC opener on Easter weekend, April 19/20, and Donegal-Derry Ulster SFC preliminary round game earlier that month believed to be on their shopping list.

Meanwhile, a Clontarf motion insisting inter-county players line out for their clubs in at least four league games passed at Dublin GAA convention on Monday night. The proposal, led by former county footballer Noel McCaffrey father of current player Jack, is set to be debated at Annual Congress in February.

The wording of the motion insists a player is only eligible to represent his county is he has played four league games for his club in the previous season. As club leagues take place at the same time as the inter-county season, the rule would prompt the disbandment of the split season.

Only exceptional circumstances such as an injury will an exception be made for a player in qualifying for his county, while a dual player can satisfy the required four club league fixtures by a mixture of both codes.

Clontarf set out a 14-week block for inter-county league football and hurling fixtures played on alternate weekends with players returning to their clubs on those weekends the counties are not in action.

A four-week period where club championship games could be played would follow before a three-month window for inter-county championship and then a six-week spell for the county championships.