The GAA today released its updated Master Fixtures Calendar for the 2021 season.
The inter-county season will run from the weekend of May 8th/9th with the start of the Allianz Hurling League, to the weekend of August 28/29 when the All-Ireland Football Final will be played. The Provincial Football and Hurling championships will commence on the weekend of June 26/27.
The County and Provincial Club Championships will be played in the months of September, October, November, and December with the All-Ireland Club Finals scheduled for February 2022. Club championships can begin once the county has been eliminated from the championship.
The entire inter-county fixtures programme will be run off in a 20-week period and guarantees a minimum of five games for each Senior County Football and Hurling team with all bar three counties guaranteed six games in hurling.
2021 Allianz Hurling League
Divisions 1 and 2 of the Allianz Hurling League will run from the weekend of May 8/9 to the weekend of June 12/13. Division 3 of the Allianz Hurling League will run from the weekend of May 15/16 to the weekend of June 19/20.
There will be no Division 1 Hurling League quarter-finals, semi-finals, or Final played. There will either be joint winners for 2021, or or if the teams that win Div 1A and Div 1B meet in the Championship, this will double as a League Final.
The Division 1 Hurling League Relegation Play-off will be played as curtain raiser to Senior Hurling Semi Final in August.
Divisions 2 and 3 will not have League Finals either. The top team in each Division will be crowned champions. The bottom team in Divisions 2A, 2B, and 3A will be relegated.
2021 Liam MacCarthy Cup
There will be a provincial knock-out championship with back-door qualifiers like there was in 2020, but now also with the introduction of relegation to the Joe McDonagh Cup.
There will be a preliminary round in the qualifiers between the two defeated quarter-final team in Leinster with the winners progressing to Round 1 of the Qualifiers and the losers relegated to the Joe McDonagh Cup in 2022.
Competing counties
Munster: Limerick, Waterford, Tipperary, Clare, Cork.
Leinster: Kilkenny, Galway, Wexford, Dublin, Laois, Antrim.
2020 Minor and U-20 Hurling Championships and Minor Football Championships.
Details will be finalised when there is clarity on a return to training/play date.
2021 Minor and U-20 Football and Hurling Championships
Details will be finalised when there is clarity on a return to training/play date.
2021 Club Window Provisions
It is important to note that the GAA still does not have permission to return to club training or games with only training in pods of 14 allowed in the North.
However, the calendar is set up in such a way that:
- Club competitions with county players can take place as County teams exit the Championships (in football, teams start exiting from the end of June; in Hurling July 10th) [RESTRICTIONS PERMITTING]
- From August 1st, all Counties bar All Ireland Semi-Finalists in Football and Hurling, and the teams in the Div 1 Hurling Relegation play off, will be free to stage club competitions with county players. [RESTRICTIONS PERMITTING]
- Additionally, the commencement of the Provincial Club Championships will be delayed until Mid-November.
- Provinces have been requested to ensure Clubs from teams in the senior inter-county All Ireland Semi-finals and Finals will not be involved in the earliest round of the relevant Provincial Championship (where possible).
- Senior Provincial Club Championship will most likely start in or around the weekend of Nov 20/21 (dates to be finalized by each Provincial Council).
- All Ireland Senior Club Finals are provisionally scheduled for the weekend of February 12th/13th 2022.
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The revised 2021 Master Fixtures Calendar can be viewed by clicking on this image.
