All-Ireland finals in August?

October 22, 2014

GAA President Liam O'Neill

The GAA are considering "radical change" to its annual fixture list which could result in moving the All-Ireland football and hurling finals away from their traditional September slots.

GAA President Liam O'Neill wants to see the GAA season condensed into the calendar year, in an attempt to support club activity, and proposals from a working group set up in the wake of a Football Development Committee (FDC) report will go before Central Council on Saturday week.

"We're going to have to look at the primacy of the inter-county scene as it is at the moment and seek to change that," O'Neill revealed to The Irish Daily Star.

"Nothing concentrates the mind like a deadline and having a deadline at the end of the year (for the All-Ireland club finals) by which activity has to be finished then forces you to look back along the sequence.

"We might have to look at early-season tournaments, the dates National Leagues are played and when Championship starts.

"I've no doubt that when we do it and come with proposals that will have a knock-on effect on people's thinking.

"This will be only the start of radical change.

"We've known the problem has existed and I suppose we're now taking the opportunity to do something about it."

As regards the dates for the All-Ireland football and hurling finals, O'Neill added: "Everything's open. We'll be looking at sequencing.

"We are aware that the sequence as it is now maximises the publicity for our games at a very important time of the year and if we change that we know there'll be a knock-on effect.

"But, if we keep on doing what we're doing nothing will change.

"We will have firm proposals and we will be recommending change. We hope to have them for Congress.

"They obviously won't take effect in 2015 but in the 2016 calendar year."


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