There will be no GAA activity, including training, until Easter at the earliest.
The Association’s fixture calendar is now up the air after it was revealed gaelic games is no longer covered under Level 5 exemptions for elite level sports during the pandemic.
GAA Director of Communications Alan Milton says breaches by counties in terms of training or supporters weren’t mentioned by the Government as a reason for the GAA to be no longer exempt.
“They’ve been very very few and far between, I think they need context, and even last year we were quoted regularly as saying we had over 20,000 games and we had a handful of county finals that were challenging, I think we would have heard about it before now if they were an issue” said Milton.
National League
Meanwhile the GAA is hoping the allianz leagues can be staged despite the delay to the inter-county calendar.
The Association had originally planned to finish inter county activity by July before freeing up the schedule for clubs.
“For obvious reasons, we’re a games organisation, we dont want to kill off competitions unless we have to, it’s an important competition, and it would also have a bearing on the Tailteann cup if it was to go ahead, which is the second tier football competition so we certainly hope we don’t have to go there” said Alan Milton.
So where does that leave us? To squeeze a league, championship and club championship into the year is a tall order.
Counties have already said that they would lose a lot of money if the allianz leagues went ahead as they have no income coming in from supporters.
If we go on last year’s template, the club championship could be run off first and then try and squeeze the county games into a smaller schedule, if that’s possible.
Carlow still has to finished its 2020 senior football championship which is stuck at the semi final stage.
It is the view of the GAA’s Covid Advisory Group that on-onfield activity will not be permitted until Easter at the earliest after the Government clarified that inter-county Gaelic Games activity is not covered under the current Level 5 exemptions for elite sports. #GAA
— The GAA (@officialgaa) February 10, 2021
