Gaelic Games News round-up:Antrim County Board chairman Dr John McSparran has described the Hurling Development Committee (HDC) proposals for next year's championship as "a botched job".

The HDC will be recommending the abolition of the qualifier system and a new structure in which Antrim will be guaranteed two matches, one against Galway and, should they lose, one against the team beaten in the first round of the Munster championship.

"If anybody thinks that this will do anything for hurling in Antrim they're fooling themselves. This proposal has been drawn up to satisfy the demands of the CCCC (Central Competitions Control Committee) to reduce fixtures."

McSparran and Antrim have been following the debate on the future of the All-Ireland hurling championship and National Hurling League and made a detailed submission to the HDC earlier this year, setting out the argument, among others, that emerging counties could not be expected to compete in the MacCarthy Cup after spending spring in Division Two of the league.

In relation to the weekend's proposals, Antrim are unhappy that the qualifier group stages, which gave them a guaranteed three matches each year, have been scrapped in favour of a system which guarantees them one match fewer.

"It seems to be based on, 'let's get Antrim out as soon as possible'. At this stage of our development we can't be competitive in this system. The old one was preferable to this structure.

"We'd two home matches in the championship and were very competitive against Clare. Away to Galway we blew up after the first 15 to 20 minutes after getting a bad start and having a man sent off."

McSparran doesn't accept that the system used for the past two years needed to be abolished and says the dynamic has largely come from the fact that Cork hurlers could in theory have won an All-Ireland despite losing two matches, one in Munster and the other to Tipperary in the qualifiers.

"There were seen to be problems simply because Cork were beaten twice (before the All-Ireland stages). When people say that Cork has undue influence, in the circumstances that's not particularly evident. I'm convinced that these proposals came about because they were beaten twice.

"This has been very clearly stated in the justification based on 'two strikes and you're out'. In reality Cork's defeats were good entertainment and good hurling. What's the problem? Club fixtures have to get priority but under last year's system we didn't have any particular problems with our fixtures."

Plans for the 2009 season are soon to be considered by the HDC and no provision for relegation and promotion between the MacCarthy Cup and Ring Cup has been so far agreed in relation to next year's competition.

In relation to the league, it has already been accepted that next year's top division will remain, as the proposed nine-team Division One would have involved a fixture list that was deemed too extensive to fit in with plans to reduce the intercounty calendar.

Hurling Development Committee chair Ned Quinn said earlier this week that the intention is to create four eight-team divisions for the 2009 season. This idea hasn't been formally proposed and circulated yet but Quinn mentioned it in an address to the Leinster Council and said that there was broad acceptance of the measure.

From McSparran's point of view the decision not to change the National League is welcome but he's aware that the system is just in place for one more year after which Division One is likely to be reduced to eight teams.

He is also critical of the potential impact on league weekends of the policy to reduce intercounty fixtures.

"It's just for one year and is supposed to be a geographical division but we're in the same group as Cork. It's an east-west division maybe but if it was to be rational you'd have had to put ourselves, Dublin, Offaly and Laois in the one group and that was never going to happen.

"We still maintain the argument that restricting the weekends for the National League is simply because Leinster and Munster won't give up their secondary competitions, which isn't a good enough reason."

The 2008 National Hurling League will have, as last year, a 12-team Division One, divided into two sections of six. The proposed groups see last season's finalists Kilkenny and holders Waterford drawn in the same section. Of the three reprieved teams that were due to drop to Division Two, Antrim are in Group One whereas Laois and Offaly are in Group Two.

2008 NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE

Group One: Antrim, Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford.

Group Two: Clare, Galway, Laois, Limerick, Offaly, Tipperary.