2 days ago
GAA president Jarlath Burns says All-Ireland finals could shift again in 2027
The All-Ireland finals may shift into August by 2027, GAA president Jarlath Burns has said.
Burns has been an advocate of spreading the Championship season over a broader timeframe and has even floated the possibility of finals returning to their traditional September setting last year.
Earlier this year, GAA director general Tom Ryan said that he would welcome the finals moving into August and while Burns later said that this would not happen on his watch, with his presidency ending in February 2027, he stated that it could happen later that year when speaking at the launch of the All-Ireland hurling series at Offaly GAA's Faithful Fields today.
The All-Ireland finals have been played in July since 2022 as the split season model was introduced and Burns explained how moving them into August 2026 was off the table as Croke Park is a 'commercial organisation' which 'does its business a year in advance', effectively meaning that concerts are already slated for the back end of next summer.
'That puts August 2027 into the mix,' he said. 'I'm around the country all the time, in clubs and counties every single day of the week, and the thing that I get most debate on are the timings of the All-Ireland finals.
'And there is a school of thought that is saying that first and third weeks in August.
'Leave everything as it is and just have a bigger space between the semi-finals and the finals, three weeks instead of two weeks. That means then that there's only the two teams that are being affected.
'The disadvantage of that is that you're into the bank holiday weekend, and that can create difficulty as well.
'You might have heard me saying that this isn't going to happen during my presidency. The decision might be made during my presidency, but it might not actually occur during my presidency.
'But I am certainly open to the first and third weeks in August from 2027 on.'
On the prospect of provincial final replays in the wake of last weekend's Munster hurling final being decided on penalties, Burns said that it is something among a range of issues that will be revisited after this year's Championship.
'I definitely think that any review should consider the possibility of replays, particularly in provincial finals. I just think that was such a game of drama, it was just a pity the way it ended.
'The Armagh-Donegal game could have gone the same way for the third year in a row, so I'm totally in favour of replays."
The preliminary quarter-finals in hurling are a stumbling block as there are no free weekends before the quarter-final stage but Burns acknowledged: 'The counties themselves who would be in that position have always come back and said, 'No, this preliminary quarter-final means an awful lot to our team and our county, and we want to keep it'.'
Meanwhile, Burns said that a potential return for the International Rules later this year will be discussed on Friday night, though the president is wary of encroaching on the closed season.
He added: 'It's something that we have to do a little bit deeper thinking on, to be honest, before we make an actual decision on it.
'Personally, I would love to see the International Rules back, the players would love to see it back, but we have to be very careful about the consequences of bringing it back.'
