Former Mayo manager James Horan says a new format needs to be brought in to make the All-Ireland senior football championship fairer.

Writing in his Irish Daily Star column, the Ballintubber clubman lauded the achievements of both Tipperary and Clare over the weekend in reaching the last eight for the first time.

However, he still feels a change to the system is required when he looks at Kerry's potential route to the semi-finals.

"It is possible to celebrate what Tipperary and Clare have done, and also loot the big picture and wonder about what it says about the championship structure," Horan wrote.

"To reach the All-Ireland semi-finals, Kerry will have had to play Tipperary and Clare (twice). That's not Kerry's fault. It's not Tipp or Clare's fault. It's important to make that clear.

"You can make the case too that Kerry have that route because teams that they might have come up against  - like Cork and Monaghan - were unexpectedly beaten.

"But a system is needed where all teams have broadly similar challenges.

"Many different formats have been put forward, and I don't know what the way forward is. But the current system is definitely not the fairest."

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