Munster Council considered the European Championships when drawing up their summer programme.

The two provincial football semi-finals have been fixed for June 9th and 10th, with the Republic of Ireland facing Croatia in the Euros later that night and Munster chairman Sean Walsh admits they made sure to avoid a fixtures clash with the televised soccer:

"We're smart enough to know people want to watch Ireland and they want to watch them in major competitions. We have to respect that," he told The Examiner.

"We're not in the business of scheduling games and making people choose between our games and games on television. We're going to accommodate people as much as possible. You can see that from our schedule.

"We're giving the people of our province the chance to see both semi-finals. It's a very big summer for sport and particularly sport on television. But they're television sports whereas the biggest home games that are going to be on home soil are GAA games.

"I know people say administrators in the GAA are not tuned in - we're very tuned in on what's happening on the ground.

"We are all family people, we all know that families are struggling with mortgages and everyday expenses. We have taken the decision that we will try to help families as much as we possibly can to get to our matches, and also the people on the terraces, which is where the biggest drop-off has been, 25-35-year-olds who may be out of work." Tweet

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