Motion will propose new 13-team format

Hurling:GAA has announced that it will hold a special congress in October to deal with the chaos arising from last April's decision to allow the winners of the Christy Ring Cup guaranteed promotion into the elite MacCarthy Cup tier.

As expected since a recent ruling of the Disputes Resolution Authority, there will be no relegation from the 2009 championship should the enabling proposal be passed. This means that Ring Cup holders Carlow will contest next year’s Leinster championship although relegation will again be a feature next year.

Assuming that this solution – described as a “sticking plaster” by one official – is accepted, it will be in force for the 2010 championship. There will also be a widespread consultation process around the country in order to bring forward longer-term proposals for the four hurling championships to next year’s annual congress.

The matter arose during the recent relegation play-offs when Antrim chair Dr John McSparran argued that his county’s historical incorporation – along with Galway – into the Leinster championship was for a guaranteed three years and that consequently Antrim couldn’t be relegated within that time frame.

A proposal successfully piloted through last April’s congress by Westmeath had guaranteed the Ring Cup winners a place in the elite 12 championship but it subsequently emerged that the motion enabling this had been out of order.

The decision to call a special congress became inevitable when the DRA, the GAA’s independent arbitration panel, pointed out the procedural flaws in the situation.

Last Saturday the matter was before Central Council where the main issue for discussion was the long-term advisability of restricting the MacCarthy Cup to a field of 12. Counties like Antrim argued that the top tier should have a stable list of competitors and that relegation mechanisms created more difficulties than they were worth.

There was a view that it is hard to motivate teams to take part in relegation matches and that club fixtures have to be called off despite the low levels of interest.

Accepting the MacCarthy Cup as a 13-county championship creates structural problems for the fourth-tier Lory Meagher Cup, which has been reduced from eight to seven teams, as the knock-on effect of the decision not to relegate counties.

The new format for the MacCarthy Cup will see eight teams in Leinster (Kilkenny, Dublin, Galway, Wexford, Antrim, Laois and Offaly) and five in Munster (Tipperary, Waterford, Clare, Limerick and Cork).

There will be five losing teams in the first-round matches instead of four, as originally envisaged. To reduce the teams to four an open draw will pair together two counties, with the winners proceeding into the phase one qualifier round.

For the purposes of relegation there will be another preliminary draw among the three losing teams (the two that are beaten in Phase One and the team that didn’t make it that far) with the loser and the bye team proceeding to the relegation play-offs to be joined by the two Phase Two losers.

Motion for Special Congress - Main Points

That Special Congress determines the constitution of Tiers One, Two, Three and Four for the 2010 hurling championship as follows:

Tier One:The 12 counties that played in the top-flight tier in 2009 plus Carlow (the winners of Tier Two) - 13 teams in total.

Tier Two:The eight counties that played in Tier Two in 2009, excluding Carlow and including Meath (the winners of Tier Three) – eight teams in total.

Tier Three:The eight counties/teams that played in the section in 2009, excluding Meath and including Tyrone (the winners of Tier Four) – eight teams in total.

Tier Four:The eight counties/teams that played in the division in 2009, excluding Tyrone – seven teams in total.

If the motion is passed, Tier One would be adjusted as follows:

Phase 1:Comprising the five provincial championship first round losers (four in Leinster and one in Munster).

A preliminary game – with an open draw determining the pairing and the first team drawn having a home venue – to be played to reduce the number of teams in Phase One to four, as provided for in current rule. Phase One to then proceed as in current rule.

In order to bring the four Tiers back to their numerical strength specific in current rule and arising from the championship of 2010, one team from each of Tiers 1, 2 and 3 be relegated respectively to the next lower Tier.