Defeated teams enter qualifiers

Proposals to dilute the knockout format in the football championship are to go before next October's GAA special congress in Dublin.

The plan was launched at Croke Park yesterday by the Inter-county Fixtures Schedule Workgroup - the body appointed by GAA president Sean McCague to consider the future of the football championship in the wake of last April's annual congress refusal to accept the more radical ideas of the Football Development Committee.

Essentially the proposals provide second chances for all teams except provincial champions whose compensation is automatic qualification for the new round of All-Ireland quarter-finals. Provincial winners will also have the right to play these quarter-finals either on their home ground or at their province's main venue.

Defeated teams will enter at various stages of an All-Ireland championship qualifier which will operate on a national, open-draw basis. The plan envisages 29 extra matches in the championship but at an average of only slightly more than two matches for each county.

Provincial championships will continue to be organised as usual except for the recommendation that Leinster's preliminary pool experiment will be discontinued.

Other elements in the report include the retention of a separate National League competition and its organisation on a calendar-year basis.

The proposed system includes the designation of, at most, 16 counties as "weaker". This would entitle the designated teams to play at home in any matches in rounds one or two against non-designated teams. Rounds three and four will be played at neutral venues. Provincial champions will have home advantage in the quarter-finals and semi-finals and the final will be played at Croke Park as usual.

The first two rounds are to be played on Saturdays and each round may be spread over more than one weekend. There is also to be flexibility in accommodating these qualifier rounds in the fixtures schedule in the case of replays in the provincial championships. All matches up to round four in the qualifiers will play extra time in case of a draw after 70 minutes.

Because of the need to organise fixtures in advance, next season's National Football League will begin in October as usual but should the proposals be accepted by the special congress, the following season's NFL won't start until February 2002.