GAA announce major change to 2025 inter-county schedule

The debate surrounding an overhaul of the current All-Ireland Football Championship format is ongoing.

The Gaelic Athletic Association have announced that pre-season inter-county tournaments are to be scrapped ahead of the new season.

Meetings of the GAA's An Coiste Bainistíochta and Ard Chomhairle took place on Friday and Saturday, and the decision to suspend any pre-season competitions for one year was made.

The organisation also advised that a return to training date would be decided at the next meeting.

Amongst the other decisions made was the confirmation that the current All-Ireland Football Championship format will remain as it is for the 2025 season.

All signs indicate that the Championship format could change for 2026, and a new format is set to be voted on at February's Congress early next year.

Congress 2025 will see a motion to introduce Replays after Extra Time in Provincial finals be brought to the table.

This change would be implemented once/if the new football championship structure is adopted.

Also on the agenda will be a motion to introduce a Replay in the All-Ireland Senior Finals if they finish level.

This year was the second of the four-team, four-group Championship format.

The layout sees three sides from each group advance to either the Sam Maguire quarter-finals or preliminary quarter-finals.

This weekend's meetings led to the decision to present 'Option 1’ as the preferred choice for possible implementation for the 2026 season.

'Option 1' would still include provincial championships and would see the eight finalists, top seven league places after that, and the Tailteann Cup winners going into a 16-team draw.

Those eight ties would then produce eight-team winners’ and losers’ paths.

The sides that emerge victorious from the four winners’ games would advance straight to the quarter-finals, while the losers would have another chance against the four counties emerging with victories from the losers’ path games.

In an interview with RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland earlier this summer, president of the GAA Jarlath Burns hinted that a major change to the gaelic football format could come into effect towards the end of this year, and added that the championship should have a lot more “jeopardy” to it.

"We’re doing consultations at the moment with the provinces," Burns told Morning Ireland back in June. "Last week we were in Leinster and Munster; this week we’re in Ulster and Connacht. We will then discuss it at our next Ard Chomhairle meeting. 

"One of the themes that’s coming through really is the lack of jeopardy." he continued. "A lot of people – and I share this view – (believe) that the league is there as a development competition. You’ve seven games that allows teams to make incremental developments and improvements.

"The championship should have jeopardy. It should be more of a blunt instrument. The clue is in the title of the competition – the championship is there to get the champions."

He added: "And while we have a great competition within that now which is the Tailteann Cup, one of the major themes that’s emerging from this is there should be a lot more jeopardy. There should be more winning, more losing – more disappointments, more triumphs. 

"And I think that’s what next year’s championship will look more like."