Laois have been forced to rescind their 2014 senior and junior football championships following an emergency meeting in Portlaoise last night.

Both championships must start from scratch again after St. Joseph's and Arles-Kilcruise, who were due to play in a relegation playoff tomorrow night, queried the validity of the relegation process.

Under rule 6.20.3 in the GAA's Official Guide, club championships are permitted to have a bye in Round 1 only, with permission needed from Central Council to award a bye in any further rounds.

Crettyard were awarded a bye in the second round as part of the restructuring of the Laois SFC, thus sparing them from the threat of relegation, and last night

Laois chairman Gerry Kavanagh apologised for this oversight before the clubs eventually adopted a proposal to rescind the championship and to continue with a new 12-team competition on a 33 to 13 vote.

Relegation won't now take place, meaning Arles-Kilcruise, Stradbally and St Joseph's will be involved in a 16-team SFC in 2015. The new SFC gets underway this weekend with the previous Round 3 drawing forming the new Round 1.

The JFC was also rescinded after it emerged that it has been run incorrectly for the past three years and has been reformed with the semi-finals as Round 1.

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