2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

The 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is the 133rd edition of the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament since its establishment in 1887.

2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Championship details
Dates31 October – 19 December, 2020
Teams32
All-Ireland Champions
Provincial Champions
Championship statistics
No. matches played32
← 2019
2021 →

The public health measures introduced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the competition being delayed.[1] On 17 March, the GAA confirmed that the opening fixture – due to have taken place at Gaelic Park in The Bronx on 3 May – had been postponed.[2] In June the GAA announced that the 2020 championship would be straight knock-out, the first straight-knockout since 2000.[3]

Thirty-two teams have been scheduled to take part – thirty-one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland and London. New York were unable to participate due to travel restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Kilkenny, as in previous years, did not enter.

Initially the GAA intended to introduce the Tailteann Cup, a second-tier championship for Division 3 and 4 National Football League teams who failed to reach their provincial finals or get promoted to Division 2 of the league.[4][5] The Tailteann Cup was delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and will be introduced in 2021.

Dublin are the defending champions.

Competition format

Provincial Championships format

Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster each organise a provincial championship. Traditionally, some of the teams who lose a match in their provincial championship enter the All-Ireland qualifiers – New York does not enter the qualifiers.[6][7][8][9]

All matches are knock-out. If the score is level at the end of the normal seventy minutes, two periods of ten minutes each way are played. If the score is still level the tie goes to a replay.

All-Ireland format

The four provincial champions compete in the semi-finals. If the score is level at the end of the normal seventy minutes in a semi-final, two periods of ten minutes each way are played. If the score is still level the semi-final is replayed. If the score is level at the end of the normal seventy minutes in the final, the match is replayed.

Changes from 2019 competition
Advanced Mark

Initially trialled in the 2019 Leagues, the advanced mark rule was introduced in 2020. The referee awards a mark when a player catches the ball cleanly on or inside a 45m line from a kick in play delivered by an attacking player on or beyond the opposition's 45m line that travels at least 20m and without it touching the ground. The catching player can either signal his intent to stop and take the mark by raising an arm or continue to play on immediately.[5]

Sin-bin

A player who commits a black card offence is sent off the pitch to the sin-bin for ten minutes. Teams are not permitted to replace the player while he is in the sin-bin, leaving them at a numerical disadvantage. If a player commits another black card offence after returning to the field he is red-carded.[5]

Kick-out

Goalkeepers must take their kick-out from the 20 metre line (previously kick-outs were taken from the 13 metre line). The ball must be kicked forward and all players must be 13 metres from the ball until it has been kicked.[5]

Following a motion proposed by Kildare at the GAA Congress on 28 September 2020, the kick-out rule was further modified so that an outfield player receiving a ball direct from the kick-out cannot play the ball back to their goalkeeper. Unusually, the "no back-pass" modification was not trialled before its introduction in the 2020 senior championship.

Provincial Championships

Connacht Senior Football Championship
Quarter-Finals
31 October / 1 November 2020		 Semi-Finals
7/8 November 2020		 Connacht Final
14/15 November 2020
     
        Galway  
        Sligo  
         
London      
Roscommon     London/Roscommon
Mayo     Mayo/Leitrim    
Leitrim  

Connacht Senior Football Championship

Leinster Senior Football Championship
First Round
31 October / 1 November 2020		 Quarter-Finals
7/8 November 2020		 Semi-Finals
14/15 November 2020		 Leinster Final
21/22 November 2020
     
        Carlow/Offaly  
Carlow     Kildare  
Offaly       Quarter Final Winner  
          Quarter Final Winner  
        Wexford/Wickow  
Wexford     Meath  
Wicklow      
         
        Louth/Longford  
Louth     Laois  
Longford       Quarter Final Winner  
          Quarter Final Winner  
        Westmeath      
        Dublin      
     

Leinster Senior Football Championship

Munster Senior Football Championship

The two teams who won the semi-finals in the previous year are given byes to this year's semi-finals.

Quarter-Finals
31 October / 1 November 2020		 Semi-Finals
7/8 November 2020		 Munster Final
21/22 November 2020
Waterford  
Limerick        
Clare        
Tipperary        
           
        Cork
        Kerry    
     

Munster Senior Football Championship

Ulster Senior Football Championship

An un-seeded draw determined the fixtures for all nine teams. In April 2018 the Ulster GAA Competitions Control Committee introduced a rule that the two teams who play in the preliminary round are exempt from playing in the preliminary round in the following two years.[10] Derry and Tyrone were therefore awarded byes to the quarter-finals in 2020 and 2021.

Preliminary Round
31 October/ 1 November 2020
 Quarter-Finals
31 October; 1/7/8 November 2020		 Semi-Finals
14/15 November 2020		 Final
21/22 November 2020
     
        Donegal  
        Tyrone  
          Quarter-final winner  
          Quarter-final winner  
        Derry  
        Armagh  
          Semi-final winner
          Semi-final winner
        Fermanagh  
        Down  
          Quarter-final winner  
          Quarter-final winner  
        Antrim      
Monaghan     Winner of the preliminary round      
Cavan  

Ulster Senior Football Championship

All-Ireland

All-Ireland Semi-Finals
5/6 December 2020
Semi-Final
Leinster champion v Ulster champion
5/6 December 2020
Semi-Final
Connacht champion v Munster champion

All-Ireland Final
19 December 2020
Final
v

Stadia and locations
Team Location Stadium Stadium
Capacity
Antrim Belfast Corrigan Park 5,000
Armagh Armagh Athletic Grounds 19,500
Carlow Carlow Dr. Cullen Park 21,000
Cavan Cavan Breffni Park 32,000
Clare Ennis Cusack Park 14,864
Cork Cork Páirc Uí Chaoimh 50,288
Derry Derry Celtic Park 22,000
Donegal Ballybofey MacCumhaill Park 18,000
Down Newry Páirc Esler 25,000
Dublin Donnycarney Parnell Park 13,500
Fermanagh Enniskillen Brewster Park 20,000
GAA Drumcondra Croke Park 82,300
Galway Galway Pearse Stadium 26,197
Kerry Killarney Fitzgerald Stadium 43,180
Kildare Newbridge St. Conleth's Park 6,200
Laois Portlaoise O'Moore Park 27,000
Leitrim Carrick-on-Shannon Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada 9,331
Limerick Limerick Gaelic Grounds 49,866
London Ruislip Emerald GAA Grounds 5,000
Longford Longford Pearse Park 10,000
Louth Drogheda Drogheda Park 7,000
Mayo Castlebar MacHale Park 42,000
Meath Navan Páirc Tailteann 10,000
Monaghan Clones St. Tiernach's Park 36,000
New York Kingsbridge Gaelic Park 2,000
Offaly Tullamore O'Connor Park 20,000
Roscommon Roscommon Dr. Hyde Park 25,000
Sligo Sligo Markievicz Park 18,558
Tipperary Thurles Semple Stadium 45,690
Tyrone Omagh Healy Park 26,500
Waterford Waterford Walsh Park 17,000
Westmeath Mullingar Cusack Park 11,000
Wexford Wexford Wexford Park 20,000
Wicklow Aughrim Aughrim County Ground 10,000
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References
  1. "Coronavirus: A comprehensive guide as Irish and global sport shuts down in effort to contain spread of Covid-19". independent.
  2. Cormican, Eoghan (18 March 2020). "Galway and New York clash first major casualty of pandemic". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  3. "Saturday football final as 2020 Championships finalised". 26 June 2020 – via www.rte.ie. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. "Two tier Football Championship format to be introduced". GAA.ie. 19 October 2019.
  5. "GAA Special Congress 2019: The motions explained". GAA.ie. 19 October 2019.
  6. "Connacht Championship @ GAA.ie".
  7. "Leinster Championship @ GAA.ie".
  8. "Munster Championship @ GAA.ie".
  9. "Ulster Championship @ GAA.ie".
  10. "Ulster SFC format to change from 2020". www.hoganstand.com. Hoganstand.com. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
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