2020 club championships may be knock-out
Paul Fitzpatrick
Cavan county board chairman Kieran Callaghan has stated that a knock-out club championship is a possibility if GAA activity resumes later this year.
The GAA at national level have a number of contingency plans in place but it seems likely that club competitions will be the first to return. This feeling was strengthened yesterday (Tuesday) when the government issued a statement which said that local authorities have been advised that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licences in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August, which rules out any return to inter-county action before September at the earliest.
However, club competitions will be severely affected as time constraints may mean counties are forced to change their competition structures, with Croke Park beginning a series of online webinars this week with the stated aim of giving key decision makers in counties guidance on how to adjust club fixtures programmes “after the pandemic”.
“Time will be of the essence and I could see counties reverting to knock-out championships but that is a decision for down the line,” the chairman told The Anglo-Celt.
“At this moment in time, there are a lot more important things than sport. I wish to thank, on behalf of the county board, all of our frontline staff in Cavan General Hospital and staff in private nursing homes for their great efforts during this crisis and wish them good health for the remainder of the crisis.
“I also wish to compliment the clubs in Cavan for getting behind the community relief efforts the way they have, they are a credit to the association. The games will return in time but for now, we all must remain vigilant, health is the priority.”
Cavan county board were represented by Central Council delegate Tom O’Reilly on a novel remote Special Congress last Friday which authorised the Management Committee of the GAA to change the structures of national competitions if required.
It is understood that the GPA and other stakeholders were briefed that there will be no return to action before July at the earliest and playing activity may not resume till September. However, Minister Simon Harris’s comments at the weekend appeared to contradict this.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Off The Ball on Monday, the GAA’s Director of Communications Alan Milton said: “I think that most people who have watched this and followed this story would accept that club activity is far likelier to return earlier and that’s very obvious as to why that might be in terms of smaller crowds turning up to watch games.
“But I think the inter-county game is going to necessitate a very different conversation. It’s not just Gaelic games, it’s sport and it’s not just sport in Ireland, it’s global sport.
“Our scenario planning was based on two different things. The first one was the amount of time we might have to play competitions and the second one was what format they would have to take depending on the time we might have.
“We would take the finals and work backwards and see how many weekends you would have and it’s easy to draw the conclusion that you wouldn’t be able to facilitate round robin group stages at quarter-final in football or in Munster and Leinster Championships in hurling.
“In that scenario, you are looking at two possible models in my view. The first one is the traditional back door that we had and the other one, Plan B, is possibly a straight knock-out.
“I can honestly that the decision to play games behind closed doors has not been seriously considered at this stage. I think it’s a profound decision for the GAA to take if it has to take it but I think it will only come into sharp focus if it means no championship at all or a championship behind closed doors.
“It may be an unfair thing to ask of amateurs depending on what their personal circumstances are.”