GAA championship structure confirmed: August All-Ireland finals and no football qualifiers
For the second straight year there will be no qualifiers in the football championship. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
The GAA have confirmed that the football championships will be a straight provincial championship knock-out with the champions of Ulster and Munster meeting in one semi-final and Leinster and Connacht in the other.
It will be the second straight year with no backdoor in the football championship, with Dublin claiming an All-Ireland six in-a-row in 2020 after a return to the traditional format.
While it means that counties do not get a second chance, last year did see huge upsets in the provincial championships as Tipperary prevailed in Munster and Cavan won in Ulster.
In the National Football League, the four divisions will each be split into two groups of four on a north/south geographical basis, with teams playing three group games each. The top two teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals, and then a league final will take place unless the counties involved are not taking part in the championship the following weekend.
In that case, joint winners will be declared.
The hurling championship, as per 2020, will have qualifiers while the hurling league will also have five games for each county, commencing on May 8/9 after counties were canvassed on whether they would accept a three-week run-in instead of a four-week pre-season. The overwhelming majority was for the extra games.
There will be no league hurling final in 2021 - joint winners will be declared instead - but if the two teams that top the groups meet in the championship, that game will constitute a league final like Limerick and Clare in 2020.
The All-Ireland hurling final will take place on the weekend of August 21/22 while the football final will be played a week later, August 28/29.
The All-Ireland club finals have been pushed back to February 12/13 in 2022 with provincial club championships not starting until November 20/21 for counties who were knocked out of championship early.
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