GAA dismiss Donegal’s Croke Park objection
DUBLIN will play two of their three Super 8 fixtures in Croke Park while every other team will play there just once after the GAA confirmed that their opening match with Donegal tomorrow week will go ahead at headquarters, as originally planned. The GAA met with officials from the Ulster Council yesterday after Donegal had sought clarification on how Croke Park can be considered a neutral venue and also be designated as Dublin’s home ground for the purposes of the new All-Ireland quarter-final round- robin system. However, in a statement, the GAA said that Donegal had acknowledged that there was nothing in the rules that prohibited any team nominating the national stadium as their home venue. They did agree to the Ulster county’s request that each of the eight competing counties could submit their own observations and review of how the new round-robin format for the All-Ireland quarter-finals had worked to Central Council later this year. Donegal’s objection to Dublin playing two of their three Super 8 games in Croke Park will be considered as part of this process. If Central Council then
accepts that Donegal have highlighted a flaw in the scheduling and structure of the competition, a change in the structure will subsequently be put forward at Congress next year. However, it now means that Jim Gavin’s All-Ireland champions, chasing a fourin-a-row, will play their opening round-robin fixture against the Ulster champions at Croke Park and will also play their final group game, against either Armagh or Roscommon, at the same venue. Each of the other seven counties participating in the Super 8s will only get to play at headquarters once. In a statement, the GAA reiterated that the rules governing the new roundrobin system had been democratically adopted at last year’s Congress. ‘It was accepted 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,’ the statement read. ‘While Donegal challenged how any team could nominate Croke Park as their home venue, it was acknowledged that there was nothing in the rules to prohibit this. ‘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.’ Dublin had five points to spare when the two counties met at Croke Park in Round 3 of the National League earlier this year, with Gavin’s side beating Declan Bonner’s men 0-20 to 0-15.