As unlikely as the chances were of their challenge being upheld, the Donegal County Board have succeeded in stirring up the issue of Dublin playing the majority of their future championship games at Croke Park – that being considered their home or neutral venue.
As a result of Donegal’s meeting with senior GAA officials on Thursday morning, Central Council will later this year review the situation whereby all the first round games in the Super 8s All-Ireland football quarter-finals are played at Croke Park, as is the case next weekend. Donegal will face Dublin on the Saturday evening, July 14th, before playing away again and then at home for their next two games.
Dublin will play one game away the following weekend (against either Cork Páirc Uí Chaoimh or Tyrone in Omagh, depending on who emerges from this Saturday’s round four qualifier) but will be back in Croke Park for their third game or ‘home’ game, on August 4th/5th, against either Roscommon or Armagh, who meet this Saturday evening in the fourth round football qualifier.
Donegal had sought clarification on how any county “may use a ground as both neutral and a home venue”, and in a statement said the “intention of the meeting is to ensure a level playing field for every team who will qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-final group stage” and ensure that “no team has any advantage over any other team”.
After the meeting with senior GAA officials, which included director general Tom Ryan, a statement from Croke Park confirmed that the matter would be reviewed at the end of the season. But under the current championship structure, passed into rule at Congress 2017 after a 76 per cent to 24 per cent favourable vote, all first round games of the Super 8s were already scheduled for Croke Park
“It was accepted as part of these discussions, that the rules in relation to the new All-Ireland SFC quarter-final round robin system had been democratically adopted at Congress 2017 and that these provided for all Round 1 games to be played at Croke Park and each county to subsequently have one home and one away game.
“While Donegal challenged how any team could nominate Croke Park as their home venue, it was acknowledged that there was nothing in rule to prohibit this.”
Dublin’s “home” stance at Croke Park is strengthened by the fact they’ve played all but three of their championship games there over the past 12 years –travelling to Nowlan Park and then Portlaoise for the last three years for the opening games of the Leinster football championship.
However, Donegal have put the onus on Central Council to review the situation later in the year, once all counties have submitted their observations. The Super 8s stage was introduced on a three-year trial basis, but is open to some review at the end of year one.
Double-header
That was confirmed by the GAA: “Donegal also requested in light of the issues they highlighted, that a review of the first year of the new championship structures be held by Central Council later in the year and that all counties be invited to submit their observations in this context.
“It was agreed that the issues highlighted by Donegal would be considered as part of this process and that if Central Council collectively felt that non-structural changes to aspects of the Championship were required, that these could be put to Annual Congress in 2019 for consideration.”
So, as scheduled, all four opening fixtures in the Super 8s will be played at Croke Park, with Kerry’s Group A game against Galway going head-to-head with the World Cup final on Sunday week, July 15th, with a 4pm throw-in.
Dublin’s opening game against Donegal in Group B will be played as a double-header with one of the other opening phase one games (to be played at 5.0pm), to be confirmed on Monday; likewise the Kerry-Galway game, will also be played as a double-header with one of the other opening phase one games (to be played at 2pm). Joining Kerry and Galway in Group A will be the winners of Fermanagh/Kildare, and Laois/Monaghan.
Despite some speculation the GAA had been requested to reconsider that clash with the World Cup final, according to a spokesperson for Croke Park, “there will be no movement on that”.
While each of the Super-8s teams are entitled to one home game, the issue last week to originally fix Kildare’s round three qualifier against Mayo for Croke Park, despite Kildare being entitled to home advantage at St Conleth’s Park, may yet have some implications.
Originally it was decided St Conleth’s Park didn’t meet health and safety concerns, only for the GAA to reverse that decision on the basis of extra stewarding and traffic management: according to the GAA rule on the Super-8s, these “home venues shall be subject to approval by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) and shall meet the criteria set down by the National Facilities/Health and Safety Committee.”
Kildare will find themselves in those quarter-final stages is they get over Fermanagh in Navan on Saturday evening.
