Another day, another plan to save the All-Ireland football championship.
Most of these revamp ideas feature two recurring components: a two-tier championship and the obligatory reference to a ‘Champions League-style format’, so that even the most ardent association football fan can relate to the new scheme.
It can get a bit tiresome sifting through all of these new formats but when Jim McGuinness proposes something new, it definitely has a bit more weight than when ‘Journalist X’ unveils their plan to save the game.
One of football’s most innovative thinkers proposed an interesting two-tier championship split into two groups of 16, where a county’s league performance dictates whether they play in the Sam Maguire tournament or the second tier edition.
He outlined his idea in his Irish Times column this morning and as Rafa Benitez might say, these are the facts:
- The first eight teams in the top-tier tournament are made up of the six surviving teams in Division 1 and the two teams promoted from Division 2, who are ranked 1-8 based on the final league position.
- Teams 9, 10 and 11 are the two relegated teams from Division 1 and the 3rd place team from Division 2.
- The last five spots are for the four provincial winners and whoever won the second-tier tournament the previous year.
- The team seeded 1 plays 16, 2 plays 15 etc, with home advantage being decided by a coin flip.
- If a provincial winner has already qualified for the top-tier tournament due to their league performance, then the next best league performer will be moved into the tournament.
- The qualifier system has been eliminated.
The benefit of McGuinness’ system (NOT the blanket defence) is that it rewards good league form while allowing a team a second chance to get into the main championship by winning a provincial title.
But why would a fan a of team in the second-tier championship be enthusiastic about the tournament? McGuinness wants those games to be played as curtain raisers to the top-tier championship games to generate a buzz around the competition.
As with all of these recent proposals, it is fairly unlikely that it will be implemented but the discussion is still interesting.
‘Because we’ve always done it that way’ isn’t a good enough reason to maintain a structure that is low on real suspense so the more people talk about change, the more likely it is to come about.
This evening, on Newstalk’s Off The Ball, Colm Parkinson unveiled his straight-forward take on how the league can be revamped:
A basic layout of The @Woolberto Plan: pic.twitter.com/GOEg3Ym9pZ
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) June 9, 2015
What do you make of McGuinness and Parkinsons’ master plan?
