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The GAA Central Council has formally approved the 2021 season in which all inter-county matches will be charged to the front in the first part of the year, despite the financial implications of having restricted or no crowds at games.
The adoption of the split season, eliminating the April club window that has been in operation for the past two years, will see games kick off the last week of February with the soccer divisions split in two at the regional level, launching Dublin. Galway, Roscommon and Kerry together in one Division One group and the four teams of Ulster, Monaghan, Tyrone, Donegal and Armagh in the other.
In Division Two there will be Down, Westmeath, Meath and Mayo in one group with Cork, Clare, Laois and Kildare in the other.
The third division will be divided with Derry, Fermanagh, Longford and Cavan in one group and Limerick, Wicklow, Offaly and Tipperary in the other.
Division Four will see Carlow, Wexford, Waterford and London, if they participate, on the one hand with Leitrim, Antrim, Louth and Sligo together.
There will be a minimum of four league games, semi-finals for a place in the final and for relegation, with no April club month as the championship begins on the third weekend of April (football) with hurling a week later.
The hurling league will be conducted in the same manner as a normal year with two groups of six in Division One, but with no quarter-finals or semi-finals. The league final will take place on the second weekend of April, one week after the soccer final.
Both the soccer and hurling championships will be contested by provincial knockout / qualifiers, in accordance with the pre-2018 format, so the ‘super-brats’ in soccer and the provincial round robin in hurling have been ruled out for 2021.
The All Ireland Soccer and Hurling Finals will take place on the second and third weekends in July, respectively, likely Sunday July 11 and Sunday July 18.
The new club’s window will run from July 24/25 through the end of October, but it will actually be earlier for the vast majority of counties whose teams have been eliminated much earlier.
There will be a Tailteann Cup competition for Division Three and Four teams that do not reach their provincial finals.
The semifinals will take place on the weekend of June 6 at Croke Park and will be the only major matches that weekend, while the final will precede an all-Ireland launch semifinal on June 27.
If New York participates, it is recommended that they play their game in Ireland.
Counties will be given a six-week preparatory period before the league’s first round, beginning Jan. 15.
The U-20 soccer championship will be held from March 27 to May 1/2 (six weekends) and the U-20 hurling championship will be held from May 22 to July 10.
The GAA deferred a decision until now while they waited to see if they could get a clearer vision of what 2021 would be like. By going to the club first, the association could have gotten bigger crowds at games in the second half of the year as it struggles with a projected loss of € 20 million in addition to € 35 million in 2020.
The GAA Central Council has also approved all proposed motions on the rules of the game to be tabled in Congress in April, including the addition of the penalty given in hurling and soccer where a clear opportunity has been denied. the Gol.
It is understood that some delegates expressed concern at tonight’s meeting that the subjective nature of such a decision by a referee could jeopardize their success, but the motion will go ahead along with the sin, by way of a yellow card, for any cynical foul on pitching. Soccer will continue to operate a black card for similar fouls that fall into the cynical category.
The introduction of a concussion substitute will be presented to delegates in February, along the lines of the current blood substitute, while the Standing Rules of the Game Committee is making another attempt to ban the field for the ‘maor foirine’ and that has also been approved.
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