Former GAA president Sean Kelly is proposing that the provincial and All-Ireland football championships be run as separate competitions.

His suggestion follows the failure of all eight provincial finalists to make the All-Ireland semi-finals for the first time since the All-Ireland qualifiers were introduced in 2001.

Writing in the Irish Examiner, Kelly said: "If we want fairness and a system that works, and if we want to help our clubs, there is one obvious solution. Run the provincial championships as they are run at present, but run the All-Ireland series as a separate competition on an open draw basis concurrently.

"Paraic Duffy rightly said it is a separate competition already - separate but not apart from the provincial series. It is time to make the Sam Maguire Cup both separate and apart but run concurrently with the provincial campaign.

"Here's how it would work. Firstly, make your draw for each provincial championship as heretofore and run them off as normal with the fact that they would no longer be linked to the All-Ireland series giving the provincial councils some flexibility regarding dates. Also, make a separate open draw for the All-Ireland; 32 is the perfect number of counties and it's time we used such a natural resource.

"New York or London could be given the option of playing a preliminary round or just opting for a shot at the provincials." Tweet

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